Bonneville America Forums Forums General Motorcycle Forums Other Bikes Indian picture and Review

[image][/image]Ok, finally got it on here. Picture of my stable now. My one week review of my new Indian Vintage. First, let me say that this is one fine cycle, as has been stated many times on here. I'm just critiquing the details. Formost, the sucker is HEAVY! I know that I just went from the America to this machine but I had a hard time early on getting used to the weight. Now, if I had a 40 pound counter weight in my a$$, instead of the smaller 5 pound counter weight up front, I wouldn't have such a hard time moving it around. I like to think that I am fairly strong for my size, working in the trades and such, but I'm learning to be very careful about where I park this monster. My second day, I pulled into a fast food joint for a quick bite, and pulled into a stall. Trouble is, the parking lot was layed out with a small downhill incline where the parking spaces were. Pulled up to the curb like I'd been doing for years, hopped off the bike and went in to eat. After coming back, I had to roll this thing slightly UPHILL to get out of the parking. WHOA! Bought busted a gut! 2.) The kickstand is poorly spring loaded. When you stand er up, it flops around like a dead carp. Put it down, and there no spring tension to keep it out. If you park this thing downhill on the stand, chances are it's gonna roll right off the sidestand. And there is no center stand, of course.3.) I'm not a big fan of the way the guage console is designed. The face is fairly small, and the led readouts are hard to make out. (I wear reading glasses, but my distance sight is good.) I looked at some other cruisers and the Kawasaki Vulcan has a much bigger and clearer needle and guage setup. I love the gas guage, but the low fuel light is incredibally small, and I nearly ran out of gas cause I didn't notice it at all. And is seems like the led numbers could have been much larger, there's plenty of room on the face. All in all, the guages are readable, but barely. 4.) It would have been a no brainer to offer the two tone color pallete, such as creme and red, creme and blue, etc. One dealer is already offering custom paint jobs on these bikes. No brainer. I can guarantee you that I'll be stripping the tins next year for some two tone paint.5.) I dig the brown leather and fringe combo, one reason I bought it. Old school look, and all. But after I bought it, the salesman told me to expect a "special" letter from Indian about the brown leather. It seems there have been MANY complaints about the color fading. So Indian is going to send every owner a special leather care kit, in ADDITION to the kit already supplied with the bike. The mechanic in back showed me a Vintage demo that was about 4 months old, and the leather was CLEARLY faded. He made a comment about how he liked the look, gave it "character". But I don't think everybody would agree with him. And there are complaints over at the Indian forum that they leak water into them in the rain. I overheard a salesman commenting on the same thing to a customer. Seriously? $1500 bags and they leak? I look for another "special" letter from Indian about this. Having said all this, the vast majority of the bike "exudes" quality. I don't expect any problems with the chrome. The fit and finish is spot on! But of course, the most fun is the MOTOR! I feel kind of stupid saying this, but power is a lot of fun! (I've always said that nothing bigger than an America is ever needed. We're just horsepower nuts. But, it sure if fun!)There has been some discussion about the "hard" shifting, but I haven't experienced any of that. Shifts like a big bike, and is getting better every day I ride it. Just like my America, but worse, I get comments and conversation from strangers every time I fill up, and at lots of stoplights, and any stop at all! Another reason I bought the bike is the fantastic 5 YEAR WARRANTY! Hopefully, no worries for a looooooong time! By the way, this warranty is being discontinued after July 20. After that, the factory is going to either a one year warranty, or possibly longer, according to the salesman. While the dealer gave me limited "deal breaker" incentives, the company gave me $250 in free clothes. Evidently, the plainer "Classics" are not moving well. Indian is offering $1000 in free accesories if you buy one of those models. Hope this isn't too long. Just stoked about this machine and I know some of you are interested.

I went to a demo day this past weekend and rode all 3 models. I sure like the Chieftain. It handled great and didn't shake me all to pieces at stop lights. The radio was good and the cruise control was awesome. There is so much to like about this bike.

Congrats on your new ride.

Very nice looking Indian there. As a matter of fact, all your bikes are lookers!!! Enjoy!

Good looking bike Rich!

Nice write-up Rich!

As far as the weight, after riding the Vision, the Indian feels like a Speedmaster to me. I think it has something to do with the low center of gravity on the Indian. But by all means, don't park it "downhill".

One of the first things I noticed about the saddlebags is that the lid seems to leave a gap that would let in rain. There are some guys with serious miles on these already that swear they don't leak rain. But if I wash the Indian with the bags on, some water does get in, albeit only a small amount.

Ride safe. Look forward to seeing you at an Indian event in the future.

That's a good looking bike you got there Rich! All of them

Looks really sweet Rich. Enjoy!

That's a beauty Rich, congrats and enjoy rolling up the miles and smiles.

Great looking bike(s), Rich!

Sweet ride Rich!!

Nice looking stable there, Rich. Good luck with the Indian.

Nice pic and write-up here, Rich.

And I know what you mean about the kickstand. I also noticed the rather vague "I wonder if that sucker was fully deployed or not" feeling of it too when I took those demo rides a while back on these fantastic new Indians.

In THIS case I can only think they must've copied the way Harley does their kickstands, 'cause I always got that same feeling about those not having a more positive and definite stop whenever I kicked 'em down on most H-Ds I've ever ridden or sat on.

Hope I didn't sound TOO critical of the bike. Just fine tuning in my head. The thing that would be the top of my list to change would be the tiny little lights and numbers that are supposed to tell you things. Looks like wee lil ants on the screen and I have to put my reading glasses on to vaguely tell what they are. On the other hand, I tell myself that I rode bikes for many years that never even had a functioning SPEEDOMETER, let alone any kind of other indicators!