New Chief - Indian Releases New Bike

"Bringing the American cruiser into the 21st century" Not "making old looking bikes that are hi tech"

 

Everyone on the Victory team at Polaris when that Victory Core video was released, was at their absolute peak. In design, originality, creativity and execution. No one on the Polaris Indian team has even come close to those levels of, well, anything. It’s not even remotely close.

What happened to Polaris motorcycle design? They seem to have given up and aren’t even trying to be innovative. They'e seemingly sleepwalking through each Indian Motorcycles phase and just checking off their assignment boxes from senior management and consultant group think marketing exercises.

Those on that video likely tear up, if they can bring themselves to watch it at all, knowing what they once were and what they’ve now become.

This is sad, they were once leaders and innovators and now, not so much.

 

Just imagine every one of those guys at the time of that video, January 2009. Imagine what they were working on during “office hours”. The XC was coming out in August, the Octane was on the drawing board, the Highball... who knows what else we never saw. They had to be excited about what was coming.

 

I hear you.

FWIW, I'm glad Indian exists. I have owned many, many bikes and fell in love with American made products.

Once my eyes were opened to HDs shortcomings, it's all I see, even though I tried hard to go back to them when Vic shut down.

I admit I love the nostalgia (it's all in my head) of the "Indian brand" as much I liked being well read on Harley history.

Victory had a great birth story, finally a great designer in Michael Song and a killer bullet proof engine....

I figure Polaris must've seen some dollar signs or they wouldn't continue this path and continue pouring $$ into Indian.

And, yes, they make a heck of a machine. Their engines are rugged and have had none of the failures that plague HD.

I wish them well. I love my Scout and am happy with her for now.
I put 10,000 on her this past year, and plan to double that in 2021 then look for another ride.

 

I was excited to be a part of it.
Victory was grassroots. No real advertising. No aftermarket.
I have never been as proud of a brand as I was of Victory and what they stood for.

We all took a fair amount of abuse in various ways and we all helped build the brand.

Then we got stabbed.

 

Fast forward the video counter to 2:08 for the test ride review.

 

Not a fan of Indian; just can't get past what Polaris did to the Victory Brand!

 

@crosscountryla Not bad lookin. Seems A bit Like a Heritage. It’s alright I guess. A lot of Indian guys we’re looking for something between a chieftain and scout this mite be it.

 

Love that shade of blue. Bummer about the tank only holding 4 gallons and the wheels are tube rims with spokes instead of tubeless rims with spokes. Tubeless rims with spokes are easier and easier to get if only Polaris had chosen to

I suspect this Indian vs H-D Dyna line up will sell quite well for Polaris.

 

I know I have read in several places that they are tubeless spoke wheels. However maybe you are correct. I hope they are stainless steel spokes vs chrome.

 

Funny the base model has mag wheels ?

 

That is the same color bike I sat on shown in the previous page. The salesman did seem to go out of his way to brush off talk about the fuel capcity. I'm thinking 160 miles maximum with a light throttle.

 

Max. Our Vic cruisers come with a “4.7” gallon tank. Lucky to get 4 out of it. So it’s probably 3.25-3.5 useable. 120 miles is time to find a gas station.

 

Edit: And I don’t think that’s a problem. The dealer was probably correct to brush off range anxiety issues with this bike. If you need 175-200 miles out of a tank, you’re looking at a bigger bike anyway.

 

@iabob I know. They have it all decked out to be a long haul bike, but it isn't. No one that puts serious miles on a machine is gonna be looking at this anyway. This bike is a 'tweener. Like @NY mike said, all those guys that were lookin for a little bit more than a Scout but didn't want the full size cruiser/tourer will be jumping at this. I suspect they will do pretty well. Let's see if I see any in the wild come next fall. They get released in the Spring, so we need to give it a few months.

Thing is, even if I like it, which I am still kinda on the fence, truth be told, it isn't going to fit me. I can tell! So for me, there is nothing to talk about. And anyway, it's still Polaris, so there is still the standard amount of Ball licking that needs to be done. That doesn't change!