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Indian cruiser motorcycles are an American classic that has been revived and features classic styled cruisers like the Chief Vintage and Roadmaster. While the other Motor Company has become the defining American V-Twin manufacturer, Indian is the older marque claiming a founding date of 1901. While Indian experimented with other engine configurations, the company is known for its V-Twin models, like the Chief and Roadmaster. The largest rival to Harley-Davidson, Indian fell apart in a post-WWII decline. Since its demise, two significant rebirths have been attempted. The first was the Gilroy, California-based Indian Motorcycle Company of America, which folded in 2003. The marque lay dormant for a number of years until a London-based equity firm, Stellican Limited, began producing Indian Chief motorcycles in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. While updates such as fuel injection and a redesigned engine were employed in the “King’s Mountain” models, reception was underwhelming. In 2011 Polaris Industries Inc. purchased the historic marque and in 2013 the Minnesota-based brand released a Vintage Final Edition, which paid respect to the Gilroy and King’s Mountain manufacturers to come before. For the 2014 model year Polaris developed a new engine, the Thunder Stroke 111, and revealed three updated models to the world at the 73rd Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

 

 

Indian is an American brand of motorcycles[1][2] originally produced from 1901 to 1953 in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. Hendee Manufacturing Company initially produced the motorcycles, but the name was changed to The Indian Motocycle Manufacturing Company [sic][1][2] in 1928.

The Indian factory team took the first three places in the 1911 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy. During the 1910s, Indian became the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world. Indian's most popular models were the Scout, made from 1920 to 1946, and the Chief, made from 1922 until 1953, when the Indian Motocycle Manufacturing Company went bankrupt. Various organizations tried to perpetuate the Indian Brand name in subsequent years, with limited success.

In 2011, Polaris Industries purchased Indian Motorcycles and moved operations from North Carolina and merged them into their existing facilities in Minnesota and Iowa. Since August 2013, Polaris has marketed multiple modern Indian motorcycles that reflect Indian's traditional styling.

World War 1

As the US entered World War I, Indian sold most of its Powerplus line in 1917 and 1918 to the United States government, starving its network of dealers. This blow to domestic availability of the motorcycles led to a loss of dealers from which Indian never quite recovered.[13] While the motorcycles were popular in the military, post-war demand was then taken up by other manufacturers to whom many of the previously loyal Indian dealers turned. While Indian shared in the business boom of the 1920s, it had lost its Number One position in the US market to Harley-Davidson