How I ended up on an Indian Motorcycle....
As I kid , never owned a bike. Wanted one, but apparently not bad enough
to get one ( though in all fairness we moved around a lot). I used to
have dreams .. for years... that I was on a motorcycle.. and could
never keep up with most others.. Every once in awhile i had to peddle
the thing... then it'd fire up and off I'd go... that dream happened
all the time..for years..... drove me nutz. Interestingly, I'd never
seen a movie or read anything on the earlier motorcycles operating this
way .... weirds me out a notch now thinking back about it.... (
twilight zone music in the background )
My first bike was an '82 Kawasaki 440 that my neighbor was selling . I'm 23 yrs old, In the military, getting divorced.. and that sucker was begging me to buy it for $1200.00. I still don't know how I even fit on it. A year later when I moved to NE, on a crisp morning after the snow had melted, I was out and took a corner at a high rate of speed and the front tire hit sand and found myself doing a triple flip in three lanes of traffic... still don't know how the oncoming cars didn't hit me. Later that week a buddy let me try is V65 and I couldn't get back on the 440 after realizing it was a pig with no balls. That week, I found a new in the crate '82 Kawasaki 1000 for $2300 .This was '85 and HDs were going north of $8500; I thought only a moron would spend his $ that way. When I got back from an overseas tour from Panama, wife got me a used Suzuki 1100 for fathers day. She wouldn't ride with me anymore; didn't want our kid to lose two parents in one pop, and ... she'd seen my crazy riding habits from the Kawi' 1000 days . But this bike re-ignited the fire. It had crazy power, but someway somehow, I kept it all in check and began to mellow out on the bike ( ie, less stupidity while moving ). Couple of years later we moved to TX, bike was having an electrical issue ( hint... always check the battery!) and they had a helmet law so I sold it. Who rides with a full face when it's 100 deg?? After retiring from the USAF and a few years making more than minimum wage , I got a '00 Kawi' Vulcan Classic 1500 for $7500.00 new. Was leaning towards a Valkyrie , but $13k was more than I could really afford and ... it wasn't a V Twin ( HD Look alike) ... I couldn't do it... Drove that Vulcan home and wife said " nice bike for a test ride.. now take it back" .. problem was , I'd just bought it!! ..... she didn't speak to me for 3 days. I was starting to think this was a bad decision, but she came around. Loved that bike. Bigger than any HD I'd sat on , it was 1/2 of the cost of the fools that spent the big bucks on their HDs .. and it was ultra dependable. I was laughing all the way to the bank on that one. But still had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind which usually arose when I pulled up in a group of HD boys and got the 'look' . In my mind , the joke was on them... but.....
Around the same time I bought the Vulcan , I'd started working for a company based out of Sunnyvale Calif ( NetApp ). In their corporate main building were TWO Gilroy Chiefs. Brand New. Shiny ... Beautiful.. There they were, every friggn' time I was out there.... I stared at them. Walked around them numerous times.. God they were beautiful. A gray one and a Brown one . ( I think they were a Silver Cloud and Centennial ) . For Several years, I did this EVERY time, multiple times a year.... Our company had provided Gilroy's Data Storage Systems and we'd ended up with these somehow .. not sure if they were a 'gift' , part of the purcahse deal,etc... but they were there for years .. never figured out what happened to them.... but they'd done a number on me that I never got over.
Fast forward to about '03 time frame and I've saved a couple of bucks and considering ... a what if. I've been looking at Big Dogs .... Bourgettes ( dealer was down the road ) .. and .... Indians. Kicker is .. I never seriously considered the Indian now. A fat tire chopper had me salivating. Wife still wasn't riding with me so didn't give a damned about 'comfort' and 2 up riding... so .. choppers had my attention. But that Indian was at the same place as the Bourgette... Chopper was north of $30k and the Indian was north of $25k. I kept thinking.. who would drop that much on a bike!?!?! The following year I read the bad news about Gilroy and brainwashed myself into believing I'd made a wise financial decision with them imploding and all.. and putted' around on the Vulcan .. barely putting 5k miles on it over 7 years ( i had no one to ride with and I was buried in my job)....
Fast Forward to 2009. Daughter is at college. Wife is starting to get an interest in riding again. We are two up . We're at a kick ass Bike Rally ( ROT in Austin )... and I've got her convinced to let me buy a 'real' bike ... a 'big' bike. There they are ... BOSS HOSSes! I'm sitting on them .... having trouble getting used to the wide tank... thinking it's weird how short they are .. mama' takes a picture of me on it .. and I'm thinking.. this isn't a big bike.. wtf?? And... they are north of $40k for a new one.... when..... at that moment my life changes. My wife and our friends have walked 100 feet over to a large Red Trailer that had a 1/2 dozen of the most beautiful bikes I'd ever seen on display . I'm thinking to myself .. someone has a shit load of Gilroys on sale and they all look restored!?!? ... Lo' and behold ... Indian is back in business and I'm drooling over each and every bike. I couldn't get over the leather.. the paint.. the chrome. But what sealed the deal for me, was it fit me like a glove ( over all those years I'd never sat on a Gilroy). My legs for the first time ever were stretched out on a stock bike. Crazy amount of room with us 2 up on it. Everything .. was .. perfect. Before this day, I'd never had a bike with a windshield in 25 years. Had just recently coming around to the concept of bags on a bike. And here I was 100% mesmerized by it all ; the whole package. I stared at the price and thought "are you f*ing kidding me?!?!?" .. about had a heart attack. I'm the same guy that's spent 25 years laughing at HD owners for spending 2x what I'd always paid for a metric. But, I was completely sucked in. I had a thousand thoughts going through my brain. And I remember distinctly remembering " this is a first year bike...... I'm willing to take a chance on them going out of business again...... I'm not missing it this time around'.. .. the following week I realized I'd have to buy from out of state.. so I did the deal with Wichita , flew up there, and straddled my bike to ride the 400 miles home.
I'd never been on anything but metrics until now. When I headed out I was thinking .. WTF?!?!? I wasn't prepared for the vibration. Lack of acceleration. But the whole way home I was in heaven. Everywhere I stopped the looks and questions began. Even had a guy do a U and chase me down to take a look . I knew right there I'd made the right decision. But it took awhile to get the sick feeling out of my stomach. I'd just dropped $38k on a bike that .. to me.. rode like it was 50 years old and my dealer was 400 miles away... and it sounded like the engine wanted to rattle apart.
Today ... I'm completely in Love with my Indian (s) , and wouldn't have it any other way. But, the first few years were a lil' bumpy. I didn't have many problems with it, but made some worse by adding V/H pipes with no Stage 1 kit on it. That bitch would backfire and and you'd hear me blocks away ( the longshots sounded like straight pipes). I still get a rush when I throw my leg over it . I've completely immersed myself in the history to make up for the years riding rice burners. Even enjoy a good debate with an HD owner over the subject of Indians ( the vast majority of them don't know all the facts of course), and haven't lost one yet.
I left out a dozen stories that tie back into many of what I shared, but this is how I found myself on a KM Indian after laughing at folks for 25 yrs that would spend their hard earned money on an over priced American V Twin.... gotta' love hypocrisy !
My first bike was an '82 Kawasaki 440 that my neighbor was selling . I'm 23 yrs old, In the military, getting divorced.. and that sucker was begging me to buy it for $1200.00. I still don't know how I even fit on it. A year later when I moved to NE, on a crisp morning after the snow had melted, I was out and took a corner at a high rate of speed and the front tire hit sand and found myself doing a triple flip in three lanes of traffic... still don't know how the oncoming cars didn't hit me. Later that week a buddy let me try is V65 and I couldn't get back on the 440 after realizing it was a pig with no balls. That week, I found a new in the crate '82 Kawasaki 1000 for $2300 .This was '85 and HDs were going north of $8500; I thought only a moron would spend his $ that way. When I got back from an overseas tour from Panama, wife got me a used Suzuki 1100 for fathers day. She wouldn't ride with me anymore; didn't want our kid to lose two parents in one pop, and ... she'd seen my crazy riding habits from the Kawi' 1000 days . But this bike re-ignited the fire. It had crazy power, but someway somehow, I kept it all in check and began to mellow out on the bike ( ie, less stupidity while moving ). Couple of years later we moved to TX, bike was having an electrical issue ( hint... always check the battery!) and they had a helmet law so I sold it. Who rides with a full face when it's 100 deg?? After retiring from the USAF and a few years making more than minimum wage , I got a '00 Kawi' Vulcan Classic 1500 for $7500.00 new. Was leaning towards a Valkyrie , but $13k was more than I could really afford and ... it wasn't a V Twin ( HD Look alike) ... I couldn't do it... Drove that Vulcan home and wife said " nice bike for a test ride.. now take it back" .. problem was , I'd just bought it!! ..... she didn't speak to me for 3 days. I was starting to think this was a bad decision, but she came around. Loved that bike. Bigger than any HD I'd sat on , it was 1/2 of the cost of the fools that spent the big bucks on their HDs .. and it was ultra dependable. I was laughing all the way to the bank on that one. But still had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind which usually arose when I pulled up in a group of HD boys and got the 'look' . In my mind , the joke was on them... but.....
Around the same time I bought the Vulcan , I'd started working for a company based out of Sunnyvale Calif ( NetApp ). In their corporate main building were TWO Gilroy Chiefs. Brand New. Shiny ... Beautiful.. There they were, every friggn' time I was out there.... I stared at them. Walked around them numerous times.. God they were beautiful. A gray one and a Brown one . ( I think they were a Silver Cloud and Centennial ) . For Several years, I did this EVERY time, multiple times a year.... Our company had provided Gilroy's Data Storage Systems and we'd ended up with these somehow .. not sure if they were a 'gift' , part of the purcahse deal,etc... but they were there for years .. never figured out what happened to them.... but they'd done a number on me that I never got over.
Fast forward to about '03 time frame and I've saved a couple of bucks and considering ... a what if. I've been looking at Big Dogs .... Bourgettes ( dealer was down the road ) .. and .... Indians. Kicker is .. I never seriously considered the Indian now. A fat tire chopper had me salivating. Wife still wasn't riding with me so didn't give a damned about 'comfort' and 2 up riding... so .. choppers had my attention. But that Indian was at the same place as the Bourgette... Chopper was north of $30k and the Indian was north of $25k. I kept thinking.. who would drop that much on a bike!?!?! The following year I read the bad news about Gilroy and brainwashed myself into believing I'd made a wise financial decision with them imploding and all.. and putted' around on the Vulcan .. barely putting 5k miles on it over 7 years ( i had no one to ride with and I was buried in my job)....
Fast Forward to 2009. Daughter is at college. Wife is starting to get an interest in riding again. We are two up . We're at a kick ass Bike Rally ( ROT in Austin )... and I've got her convinced to let me buy a 'real' bike ... a 'big' bike. There they are ... BOSS HOSSes! I'm sitting on them .... having trouble getting used to the wide tank... thinking it's weird how short they are .. mama' takes a picture of me on it .. and I'm thinking.. this isn't a big bike.. wtf?? And... they are north of $40k for a new one.... when..... at that moment my life changes. My wife and our friends have walked 100 feet over to a large Red Trailer that had a 1/2 dozen of the most beautiful bikes I'd ever seen on display . I'm thinking to myself .. someone has a shit load of Gilroys on sale and they all look restored!?!? ... Lo' and behold ... Indian is back in business and I'm drooling over each and every bike. I couldn't get over the leather.. the paint.. the chrome. But what sealed the deal for me, was it fit me like a glove ( over all those years I'd never sat on a Gilroy). My legs for the first time ever were stretched out on a stock bike. Crazy amount of room with us 2 up on it. Everything .. was .. perfect. Before this day, I'd never had a bike with a windshield in 25 years. Had just recently coming around to the concept of bags on a bike. And here I was 100% mesmerized by it all ; the whole package. I stared at the price and thought "are you f*ing kidding me?!?!?" .. about had a heart attack. I'm the same guy that's spent 25 years laughing at HD owners for spending 2x what I'd always paid for a metric. But, I was completely sucked in. I had a thousand thoughts going through my brain. And I remember distinctly remembering " this is a first year bike...... I'm willing to take a chance on them going out of business again...... I'm not missing it this time around'.. .. the following week I realized I'd have to buy from out of state.. so I did the deal with Wichita , flew up there, and straddled my bike to ride the 400 miles home.
I'd never been on anything but metrics until now. When I headed out I was thinking .. WTF?!?!? I wasn't prepared for the vibration. Lack of acceleration. But the whole way home I was in heaven. Everywhere I stopped the looks and questions began. Even had a guy do a U and chase me down to take a look . I knew right there I'd made the right decision. But it took awhile to get the sick feeling out of my stomach. I'd just dropped $38k on a bike that .. to me.. rode like it was 50 years old and my dealer was 400 miles away... and it sounded like the engine wanted to rattle apart.
Today ... I'm completely in Love with my Indian (s) , and wouldn't have it any other way. But, the first few years were a lil' bumpy. I didn't have many problems with it, but made some worse by adding V/H pipes with no Stage 1 kit on it. That bitch would backfire and and you'd hear me blocks away ( the longshots sounded like straight pipes). I still get a rush when I throw my leg over it . I've completely immersed myself in the history to make up for the years riding rice burners. Even enjoy a good debate with an HD owner over the subject of Indians ( the vast majority of them don't know all the facts of course), and haven't lost one yet.
I left out a dozen stories that tie back into many of what I shared, but this is how I found myself on a KM Indian after laughing at folks for 25 yrs that would spend their hard earned money on an over priced American V Twin.... gotta' love hypocrisy !
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