2014 Indian "Thunder Stroke" 111 V-Twin

I doubt it. Besides, the cruiser market is certainly big enough for both - if they sell well.

Indian can't just show up and say "We're Indian." No, you're not. You just bought the name. Now, get in there, and fight.

Indian, in my eyes, will be relegated to expensive 'poser' status until further notice.

+1. Been riding for over 50 years and dozen of bikes, cruisers, sport, touring, dirt, ect.... Not ready to own a heavy glitzy over priced cruiser again, buy you describe a bike that might work for me. BRING IT.

Regards, Paul

Are you one of those guys who thinks that his choice of vehicle defines how cool he is???

No. How did you conjure up that impression from my post? :huh

The poser comment. My experience is that people who throw the poser label around usually are overly sensitive to that word for some reason. It's a recreational vehicle for crying out loud.

That's my opinion of Indian. Doesn't make me one.

..and, besides, if there ever was a motorcycle company that needs a wake-up call and a slap, it's Indian.

Indian's not asleep. it's dead. like a half century dead. this is a leisure product meglomerate buying a long dead motorcycle company's name to create and sell a motorcycle product line using the former company's identity.

Yes.. I ike the specs on this new engine. If it turns out ro be reliable and simple to maintain and not priced like a Motus () it might be a success.

First example of the new Indian motorcyles. Looks uncomfortable.

I hope not, I'd like to think there's room for american non-cruisers, even if Polaris has to own an entire separate brand to pull it off.

Zombie Marque.

(If that term doesn't exist within the marketing lingo, it should)


It sounds great enough in the video, but any motor can sound good after the recording is remastered.
Who knows, maybe they'll try something sporty with that motor, something vaguely XR1200R like. I'd love to see something like that, but I think yet another cruiser (YAC) is more likely.

The engine is surely intersting, but not a technological marvel by any means. To really make a statement, they should have had "the world's first" type of new feature on that thing, but maybe it will impress non the less.

For indian to really succeed this bike is going to have be just as functional as it is cool. There are just too many very cool bikes out there already, that just aren't finctional. I don't think the market needs another piece of overprices eye candy that isnt a complete dream to ride. It needs to have a very serious amount of soul.

see now, that's just hokey.

the Indian booth at Chicago IMS was pure cheezeball pap too. A dorky DJ stylin' MC prodding the audience to "make some noise yo or we won't fire up"(and proceed to rev the piss out of the hapless) classic Scout...that, btw, did we mention we are like sort of totally the company that built it back then?

Hokey? Maybe they are just having fun. Don't be so serious, they are just motorcycles.

If the the genius and inspired creativity of the video is representative of the company, motor and bike, I'm in!!!

Yup. You could smell the desperation at the Indian booth at the NYC International Motorcycle Show. They could have used the 111 Motor to drum up some excitement. Sadly, there was none to be had. All they had was the same old overpriced Chiefs, looking like parade floats with all their tassles.

I think this sums it up pretty well. Look at Polaris......alot of folks thought they would be gone by now when they announced they were going to build motorcycles 10 or so years ago. They haven't messed around. Arlen Ness and his kid designed some pretty cool looking bikes, bikes with some pretty good engineering behind them. They bought Klim. They make some of the best off road vehichles out there. Their snowmobile and watercraft sell well and have done so for years. All this in a relatively shit market where every other manufacturer, except maybe the Europeons, have fallen on their faces. While not in the market for any of the above, I wouldn't hesitate to buy one of their products, and I suspect they will do just fine with Indian .

looks good, and 115 ft/lbs is nothing to sneeze at.

I'd be ok if I were to do nothing but watch that engine promo video all day long.

That was pretty well done.

I can't say I see anything hokey going on here.

Yes, IMS had nothing new... but nothing was ready. Slow down now - they just acquired the brand name - I'm actually impressed that they already released specs (and a very cool video!) on their brand new engine. New doesn't happen overnight.

What was hokey was slapping in a POS S&S and running the bikes out the door and calling it an Indian. Polaris is not doing this and I give them a lot of respect for doing something new. If anyone has the means and motivation to make something new and nice, it's Polaris. They obviously didn't buy the brand to run back into the dirt - this is a serious and proven motorcycle manufacturer and I have high hopes for a long-term resurrection. I get the feeling that the company has a respect for the name and the history and that they didn't just buy the name for short-term profit's sake...





...but I've been wrong before.

What I personally want isn't what they're building most likely - but I'm wishing them well. Competition in the market is a good thing.

An LSR machine to showcase your new engine "hokey"?

You're kidding, right?

Beats the hell out of the crickets we're hearing from the MOTUS camp.