#ChiefClassic

The big news is the new FTR1200 Indian revealed last week; the bigger news is how close to production-ready it looks, complete with lights and carbon-fiber bodywork, which may have to give way to plastic on a real production version. Indian’s Gary Gray says they built it to see what the public reaction would be, but I think the public had already reacted as soon as they built the FTR750 race bike, which was wildly successful. The Wrecking Crew was on hand to pull the cover off the “concept” bike.

The seventh-annual Quail Motorcycle Gathering is in the books, with another record turnout. Although the Carmel Valley temps were cool and skies overcast, a couple thousand of the faithful eyeballed more than 350 machines on the golf course. The featured marques this year were Military Vehicles, Formula 750 roadracers and a variety of Choppers, believe it or don’t.

By Evans Brasfield

The relaunch of Indian Motorcycle has been the biggest news to hit the cruiser market in many years. Under the stewardship of Polaris Industries, Indian is now well-capitalized for the first time in more than 60 years. Sales of the three-model Chief lineup have been meeting projections, and the Chief platform has received widespread critical acclaim.

It’s so nice when a plan comes together, especially one bound together with the tiniest thread of logic. The Brenham, Texas, tourism people were promoting their lovely Washington County and the upcoming Bluebonnet Festival (a member of the Lupine family), and they invited us to cover it. Then we remembered that our Indian press relations guy is based in Austin, not too far from Brenham. And that Indians are available in Springfield Blue. Bluebonnets! Blue Indians! Red State! Bingo!

The rebirth of Indian Motorcycles under the stewardship of Polaris Industries is the most significant industry development in years. Indian has been an iconic American brand for more than a century, and it still resonates among older motorcyclists.

My favorite thing to do on motorcycles used to be see how fast I could fly through places like Texas. Lately the theme seems to have shifted to understanding that the motorcycle is the perfect vehicle for getting from one interesting place to the next within a given geographic area. Maybe the cruiser crowd has always known that? As it turns out, there are a lot of interesting places in Texas within an hour or two of Houston’s George Bush International Airport.

In what had to be one of the most anticipated reveals in motorcycle cruiser history, Polaris boldly used the backdrop of the world’s largest motorcycle rally to unleash the latest generation of Indians on the motorcycling community. On the steps of the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and in the shadow of the Black Hills, notice was served with a loud and clear report: Indian Motorcycle is back.