You are right, prolly not fair to say they were bad. Just nobody wanted them.
I grew up in northern Delaware, was just a young man at the time. You couldn't give them away 10 years after they were out of business. There was NOS available to fix em. Everybody in the 50s was buying Harley or Triumph and the bike market had not caught on fully yet. Everybody in the 60s wanted Triumph, Norton, BSA etc. Indian was the last thing they were looking for, even as a used bike. Took my brother 6 months to sell his Chief for a bit of money. He almost had to give it away. They did try to team up with Enfield and Matchless but that didn't work.
Atlas Manufacturing did absolutely nothing to improve the bike after 1950. It was still late 30s technology.
Seems like a common theme. Fail to invest in technology and go out of business. Harley and the Brits did the same thing losing to Japan Inc.
