Blueprint 1901 Single

[ZeeRiddler]

Hey everyone,
I'm a new member to the forum. I found ADVRider while doing research on the 1901 Indian Single blueprint artifact. I recently spent some time with well known Indian history guru's Jerry and Ted Doering up in Newburgh, NY. We, well they, spent a couple hours analyzing the print and I have to say it was pretty exciting. Although, they are bouncing some ideas off of other known experts, they seemed pretty enthused by the print that has been in my family for 3 generations. With comments such as "priceless", "this needs to be in a museum" and "this could be the holy grail of Indian motorcycles" has me thinking this is more than just a cool conversation piece. I'm having problems attaching files so I have added a link to my FB album....I hope it works. Feel free to critique away. I'm really hoping to learn as much about this print as I can. The exploration of it's origins and historical significance is very exciting.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...6176880&ref=mf

Thanks for your input!

[ZeeRiddler]

The below link works better. My apologies for being such a rookie.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...&id=1376176880

[ZeeRiddler]

Trying to see if I can embed some images.

[ZeeRiddler]

[ZeeRiddler]

[ZeeRiddler]

[ZeeRiddler]

[ZeeRiddler]

[Spark Plug]

Sorry I am no help, but very cool. Was one of your relatives assosiated with Indian?

[ZeeRiddler]

Originally Posted by sparkplug678

Sorry I am no help, but very cool. Was one of your relatives assosiated with Indian?

Not that I'm aware of...but that doesn't mean someone wasn't in some way, shape or form. My grandmother acquired this back in the mid 60's from her father who had it for 20 or more years in his attic. She simply wanted it for the frame. Had she found the "right piece of artwork" she would have simply thrown away the print. Instead, it sat in her antique storage room in until her passing in 2004. On her deathbed she said to all of us grandchildren that we could all pick one item of hers to have. While my cousins were scampering to her camera's camcorders and other electronics. I asked her if I could have the picture of the old motorcycle that has always peaked my interest since being a young child. She of course said "yes".

Not being a big motorcycle history guy, although I do ride casually, I have had it hung in my recreation room where it's always been an interesting conversation piece. It wasn't until a friend said that this might be more than cool picture did I ever consider it being a piece of American motorcycle history. Now, I'm just trying to learn more about it and get the opinion of industry experts. Learning about it has been a lot of fun so far.

[r50us68]

My question is why is the engine marked "Thor" and the frame appears to be a Indian "Camelback" frame??

found a blurb to back up thoughts below

Aurora struck a bargain with the fledgling Indian Company. Aurora would build these engines for Indian but would be free to sell additional motors to other companies providing that a royalty was paid

from
http://209.204.252.20/thorhistory.htm

more great info giving production number of Thor engined Indians in 1902 at 137

[ZeeRiddler]

Originally Posted by r50us68

My question is why is the engine marked "Thor" and the frame appears to be a Indian "Camelback" frame??

I suppose there are two schools of thought (or more) on this.

1. Aurora Automatic Machinery Company was commissioned to tweak and produce the motors for the Singles in the early years. I was told by one person that the prototype may have had the Thor stamping on the casing, but was later changed to the Indian stamping when they went to production.

2. Although there were agreements between AAMC and Indian that AAMC would not produce motorcycles in competition with Indian, they did sell "kits" for consumers to build their own bikes. Although, I'm not sure if those build kits had all the exact same parts. From what I've read the Thor spark advance linkage is totally different than the Indian Single.

From what I've learned, this picture initiates more questions than answers.

[datchew]

Thanks for sharing the pictures and story.
Very cool glance into the past.

[ZeeRiddler]

Thanks for updating this post with the link. I ran across this site a couple years ago but I swear that there is more information there now than there was before. Great stuff and thanks again.

Originally Posted by r50us68

My question is why is the engine marked "Thor" and the frame appears to be a Indian "Camelback" frame??

found a blurb to back up thoughts below

Aurora struck a bargain with the fledgling Indian Company. Aurora would build these engines for Indian but would be free to sell additional motors to other companies providing that a royalty was paid

from
http://209.204.252.20/thorhistory.htm

more great info giving production number of Thor engined Indians in 1902 at 137

[rufusswan]

Are you sure that is a 'print'?? That could be olde architechural/engineering copy paper, used for making blueprints, which would be waayy too cool. I'd be calling your local firms and finding out !!