1948 Indian Chief Motorcycle

1948 Indian Chief Motorcycle, click picture to enlarge.

Now this is cutting the cake right man. These big Indian motorcyles were the REAL kings of the road when I was a young man, before the Harleys and Hondas and Kawasakis ever came into being. I could not afford to own one myself but one of my good friends did. He had a big white Indian Chief and we used to ride it all over South Florida in the years just after WWII. In fact, we lived in Belle Glade Florida and we rode his bike to West Palm Beach almost every weekend to a dance, round dance or barn dance or whatever you would call it. That was about 46 miles one way going and then another 46 miles coming back home. Yeah, when you are still young and healthy and full of life and energy that kind of thing is no challenge at all. I would call those the "golden glory days" of motorcycle riding. Then along came the "new breed" of Harleys and all the rest of them. In fact, I don't imagine that there are ten people out of a thousand around now that remembers these big grand Indian Chiefs at all. To be truthful though I will concede that some of the big bikes made now could have put the old Indians down in the shade when it comes to big engines, big bikes, power, speed, luxury and comfort. I have heard that somebody in California has started making the small to medium size Indians again but I don't know if they are making the big bikes again. I don't even know if it is someone in the same family, or company, as the original Indians were or not. Maybe someone out there reading this old car blog can tell us more about it. If you can then send me your remarks or comments by using the commnt button on the bottom of this post.