Behind The Scenes At The New Indian Facility

Just when you thought the Indian saga was finally over, it surfaced again. Indian is like that old girlfriend you wished had worked out, but you knew never would. She had the best rack on the planet, but her engine was missing a cylinder and her world overflowed with drama. That’s the Indian legacy in a nutshell. But I come from the Half Full, No Negative Waves MC. I believe that even in the most burdensome economy, under the first wave of seriously restrictive legislative restraints in the history of motorcycling, a company can flourish.

I didn’t mention the Indian name in that last sentence specifically. Although Indian has a tremendous legacy in today’s market, a new name can explode onto the scene and become a raving success in the span of one year. There are so many factors to that delicate success, including financing, marketing, management team, PR, personnel, tools, facilities, legal restrictions and timing before product design, testing, customer acceptance, reliability, ergonomics, handling, performance and accessories come into play. One major glitch in any of these departments and the effort could be toast. Then again, any glitch can be overcome to find success once more with enough funding and the correct team in place. Timing is everything.

So a couple of months ago, Melissa Jones from Indian invited me to fly out to Kings Mountain, North Carolina to meet the new Indian staff, tour the facility, watch the dealer presentation and see the new Indian Motorcycle. As it turned out, it wasn’t a media-wide tour. I was by myself and impressed with the offer. Shortly thereafter, Cyril Huze was invited out, followed by Chris Maida from American Iron.

Here’s an example of Indian’s attempt at a verticle twin to compete with Triumph, BSA and Royal Enfield.

Before I stumble any further into this maze of speculation and intrigue, if you want to know something about the most recent Indian saga in Gilroy, California, click on this link to an article published several years ago on Bikernet: Click Here for the Indian Demise Article

Indian’s trail was a sad legacy from 1955, when the Indian doors finally closed. It even took the Vincent company down with it as Phillip Vincent attempted to deliver a much needed and improved drive train to Indian, but the attempt came too late. Phillip returned to England to build his highly successful Vincent V-twins with contract in hand, but couldn’t procure the raw material financing to launch construction, and the company closed. So did Indian, not because of their heritage, legacy, or racing history, but the world was changing fast and Indian didn’t keep up.

The New Indian Chief.

The saddest stages happened in the years to follow. Thirty years past and several highly esteemed Indian motorcycle restoration fanatics kept the spirit alive, including Bob Stark, Floyd Clymer, Chuck Myles and Jerry Hatfield, but a succession of entrepreneurs entered the picture in a big way, including an unpopular foreigner, Phillip Zanghi, stepped up first and tried to buy the original plant in Springfield, Massachusetts, then a Mr. Bauchman in New Mexico actually built a prototype motorcycle, and finally another group ended up with the shattered name and little respect.

A rare shot of Phillip Vincent on an equally rare Vindian. Look close, that’s a Vincent engine tucked in the classic Chief frame.

Men went to jail, bankruptcies were filed and homes lost. Dreams and perhaps egos and greed, mismanegement, even bad luck came to play with the Indian name falling dormant once again in 2004 when the Gilroy concern went under. In one messy mix-master series of failed efforts dealers paid and lost. Folks devoted their lives to the Indian name and never received a motorcycle to sell. Marketing hit the streets but the product never emerged to back the efforts.

Then the two Steve’s (Stephen F. Heese and Stephen M. Julius) from England surfaced and prepared to buy the name with the notion that this motorcycle icon could be saved using the same Stellican formula they used to turn Chris Craft around.

When the offer arrived to visit the new Indian plant, two items crossed my mind: First, I was concerned about the economy. Second, I know how tough it is to succeed in this extremely niche market on any level. I asked if the principles had experience in extremely narrow business markets. It’s not as if Indian is just a motorcycle company. Only 40 percentage of all motorcycle sales are V-Twin cruisers, then cut that by five to reach the actual custom V-twin market, or even the limited edition custom V-Twin market. This ain’t buying a toaster company. Everybody uses a toaster, rain or shine, good economy or bad.

Ah, but there lies the massive positive implications behind the purchase of Indian, style. No one in the world, or the history of motorcycles for that matter, has created an art deco icon the likes of some Indian models. What an opportunity to use the Indian name to market a swoopy art deco world to the universe. That’s the opportunity from motorcycles to desk lamps, and even toasters. But for some reason, even Indian aficionados and dreamers don’t get it. The only companies that captured the once-historic lore of Indian were Spin and his fiberglass Indian fenders for the Harley aftermarket and the builders of the Drifter for Kawasaki.

The Drifter captured some of the classic elements, but blew the tank design.

They captured the essence of the Indian rear fender lines that display the shape of the frame, but over-did the rear skirt.

We’ll get back to this opportunity as we tour the factory, and hopefully we’ll show you some fantastic examples of historic Indian styling bringing that might rekindle the Indian icon. I asked Melissa about the Steves’ Stellican Private Equity Group (based in London) portfolio and ultimately found them on the Internet. They own the two largest cash register companies (toasters?) in Italy. The acquisition, via a voluntary liquidation procedure, of Sarema S.p.A., the second largest cash register company in Italy, with sales of $24 million.

The acquired, from a bankruptcy procedure, the Sweda Group, the largest producer of cash registers in Italy with sales in excess of $35 million. Plus there’s a soft drink bottler, La Casera, Spain’s largest domestic soft drinks producer, with sales of $160 million. They also picked up the English Administrative Receivership of Maccorp Italiana S.p.A., Italy’s largest chain of Bureaux de Change, trading under the name “Exact Change,” with sales of $110 million.

They do own a couple of niche market companies, including Vickers Plc of Cantieri Riva s.p.a., an Italian producer of luxury motor yachts with the world’s most renowned and prestigious boat brand.

Finally check this, they also own the Vicenza Calcio S.p.A., a leading football team in the Serie A (Italian Premier League) and winner of the 1997 Italian Cup. In every case, they saved these companies from receivership or bankruptcy, had faith and a vision, and pushed them back into the black. These are obviously very well-financed and gutsy individuals who look forward to a challenge.

So I took them up on the offer to visit their new facility, watch their dealer presentation, see the plans for their full line dealer stores, tour their testing/assembly facility and witness a the birth of a new model. My first contact was Melissa Jones as she scooped her kid’s toys out of the way in the back of her minivan for my luggage. Melissa is the young marketing mastermind at this point and she’s scrambling to understand the vast Indian history, the motorcycle market, the industry players, passionate enthusiasts, historians, restorers and dealers who’ve been stung in the past.

Both Melissa and her husband have degrees in journalism and he’s writing a book about his stint as a Waffle House busboy.

“I’ve never been in one (Waffle House),” Melissa told me, but I suggested she start an Indian Journal immediately. Win, lose or draw, a journal from an original Indian employee could be a fantastic read in the future.

We met with Chris Bernauer for dinner outside Charlotte. Chris is the current General Manager and came from 12 years at Harley-Davidson as the Night Train platform manager.

“We have 35 employee currently,” Chris said over sushi, “Mostly engineers from H-D, Excelsior-Henderson and a couple from the previous group in Gilroy. We tried our damndest to listen to former employees and dealers.”

Initially, the Gilroy folks wanted them to fix their existing platform. You can imagine the myriad of ardent suggestions flying at this team everyday.

“Plus we get calls from Steve about spending too much money on the coffee service,” Chris said, “but they don’t hesitate to give us a bundle for a state-of-the-art dyno.”

The next morning, we peeled into the hills to the Emperor’s castle to inspect the new state-of-the-art Indian factory and their offices.

“There’s nothing around here to eat,” Chris explained as we rolled up the quiet, empty, secret road leading to the icon’s new home. “We just work and lose weight. No time for lunch breaks.”

As I looked around at the historic photos and Indian memorabilia from the ’30s hanging on the walls and the Indian colors, I could just imagine the struggles to reach even this point, including licensing disputes with the guys, like Kiwi Mike who makes Indian replica bikes for Jay Leno and replacement parts for old Indians. I could imagine the pounding these guys take from ripped-off dealers, the dreams inundating them from old racers, and suggestions from future dealers. Where to start?

They repeatedly made It clear that they don’t intend to create and manufacture a warmed-over Gilroy model. Much of their presentation sounded like so many other start-up company pitches, including their goals, which include a solid business plan, appreciation for all, a progressive team, product testing, validation, craftsmanship mentality, and, well, you know the drill. They hired a devoted Indian dealer to oversee their aggressive dealership program and a customer service expert.

“We’ve got it right this time,” Chris said with and hint of terror in his eyes.

The new Chief Dash.

I wondered what they had right? I wasn’t being critical, but there are so many elements to a monster undertaking like this. Their offices were impressive, the presentation relied substantially on Indian’s historic aspect and so did the dealer presentation. The plant was well laid out and the employees passionate and ardent in their collective desire to see Indian flourish once more.

They’ve rebuilt the Gilroy Power Plus 105-inch engine and made substantial improvements, including light unsleeved cylinders with a state-of-the art coating to the all-aluminum material. Here’s a list of engine improvements.

2009 CHIEF POWERTRAIN LIST OF IMPROVEMENTSCylinder head alloy and heat treatment have been changed for increased durability at high temperatures.

The cast iron liner cylinders were replaced by all aluminum (Nikasil plated) for better thermal conductivity and lower friction.

The piston is of a new design, much lighter than before, reducing the vibrations significantly.

The crankshaft is improved, eliminating the scissoring encountered in previous Gilroy power trains.

All the gaskets were redesigned for better sealing.

All the covers are better looking after being redesigned, and are chromed and polished, instead of just polished in the past.

The fuel delivery system is a closed loop EFI with sequential port injection. The two oxygen sensors are heated and there is a catalytic converter placed in the common volume of the exhaust system.

There is a new two-into-one exhaust system that meets the EPA noise regulations.

The final drive ratio was optimized for reduced RPM in 6th gear.

The displacement was increased to 105 cubic inches.

The torque and power numbers were significantly improved.

Look at the lines of that tank.

But when I was introduced to the Chief, I was taken aback. It was a Gilroy offspring with a too-large and bulky front end, and tanks that didn’t fit the line of the frame. The rear fender, the absolute centerpiece of the Indian heritage, was too wide, lost the original swoop and covered the line of the frame, which made the fender too wide for the tire. They missed the boat.

On the other hand, they corrected the heavy frame, detailed the seat, upgraded the dash and refined the electrics. They designed a very big man’s motorcycle that outweighs Harley-Davidson and is longer than a Road King by 8 inches. They were very open to my suggestions and I pointed out the differences between their Gilroy upgrade and my classic 1946 Chief.

Also, there were some serious concerns about the price point. Especially in today’s market, it’s a major stumbling block. As we rolled to their lavish, stylish, art deco, major dealership model and I looked at sketches, I started to sense that this company needs to take their motorcycle design time and build bikes that rock the world.

Roadmaster rendition.

“You have such an opportunity,” I said. “Don’t hurry the motorcycle. Make it absolutely right and you’ll have a winner.”

A drawing of the Deluxe model.

The more I thought about it, the more I believed that licensing deals and apparel lines could spread the word and that the Indian name could initially represent so much more to the world than just a motorcycle. It could represent every thing swoopy, art deco and sexy in the world even before they fight their way onto market with 12,000 bikes in four years, with 2-year warranties and four models (Standard, Deluxe, Roadmaster and Vintage). Hell, they could sell thousands of Indian accessory kits for Harley-Davidsons before they expand their small elegant dealer network to the next level.

In the meantime, just when I thought Stephen Julius could be the unencumbered Indian visionary and Steve Heese, the get-it-done guy, could set deadlines, there was competitive, controversial element springing forth from Crazy Horse Motorcycles LLC In Kent, Washington. John White owned an Indian just a week before Gilroy closed and came close to being the Indian owner.

Drawing of a Crazy Horse 100-inch engine.

“I was an active bidder,” John said. When the bankruptcy dust settled he ended up with the rights to build the Power Plus engine. He purchased the assembly line and moved it to Seattle. “If they had survived into 2004 the engine would have been vastly improved.” John also ended up with a tremendous archive of Indian memorabilia that the Stellican guys chose to pass on.

“I had to let them know that the Power Plus name license had lapsed,” John White told Bikernet during a radio interview. “I called Stellican directly and told them if they were not going to renew the name, I was.” Click Here for the Bikernet Radio Interview.

John bought 300 engines with brand-new cast cases. “Rouse racing corrected all the engine drawbacks,” John said. “Then I had Allen Sputhe tune it. It’s a 100-incher, but we can bump it to 107 or 110. It’s available fuel-injected or carbureted.”

Another rendition of a Crazy Horse Engine.

John built some Gilroy Indians and likes the current size. He’s 6-4.

“It’s a big guy’s bike and my goal was to purchase Indian,” John said. “If they don’t move, I’m going into full production.” Building a brand name with Crazy Horse is much more difficult project, but he plans to move forward if Indian doesn’t. His web site is CrazyHorseMotorcycles.com and he’s not messing around. “From a business standpoint,” John continued, ”I don’t have much confidence (in Indian), but in the meantime, we are building engines and are planning to build a motorcycle. I’ll buy Indian if I get a chance.”

New improved, but not a handsome, Indian frame.

There you have it. The sizzling saga continues and Indian fans all over the world have their fingers and toes crossed. According to the factory, in North Carolina, new models will be on display in the Badlands during the Sturgis Rally just a month away. Hang on.

Photos from Indian