The Indian Chieftain makes a statement even while just parked; It's big, it’s brash, it’s American and there is absolutely nothing discreet about it. It's a status symbol and proud of it.
What is Indian, you may ask, the name must ring a bell somewhere? Please believe me, you don't have to look far because the Indian marque has a very interesting history. Indian has been around since 1901, by 1910 it was the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world and, believe it or not, in 1911 it took the first three places at the Isle of Man races. Its two most popular models, the Chief and the Scout, were runaway success stories but, surprisingly, in 1953 the company went bankrupt and after a few attempts by various organisations to try and resurrect the brand, it was only in 2011 when Polaris took over, did it seriously start making a comeback. Polaris Industries relocated operations from North Carolina, merging them into the existing facilities of Victory in Minnesota and Iowa. There was a lot of media hype around the traditional looking engine and ever since 2013, three model line-ups have been built under the Indian name. Polaris gave the designers free reign, but they had to stay true to the heritage of Indian.
Here we have the Indian Chieftain on test, a big and imposing cruiser which is the company's first motorcycle offered with fairing and saddle bags. Interestingly, the fairings were inspired by streamliner trains and you can see the similarity. The Chieftain is beautiful, has a fantastic paint job, acres of chrome, a dash full of buttons and everything about this bike shouts opulence. The most striking feature, and all the current Indians have this in common, is that they are all built around the big 111 cubic inch (1811cc) V-twin which totally dominates the appearance. It's beautiful and holds true its heritage, it looks like the old Indians, just bigger and better with dollops of chrome everywhere. It's a huge chunk of metal and if you have not seen the promo video of when the Indians were first launched, it is very interesting. Have a look on the official Indian website. An interesting fact about the revival of the Indian brand is that every person on the design team had to spend time on a fleet of vintage Indians to make sure the heritage came through. You only have to look at some pictures of past and present to realise that they have achieved exactly that. The Chieftain's pride and joy is the Thunder Stroke 49-degree V-twin, the first all-new Indian engine in seven decades.
With more displacement than anything available from Harley or Victory, Indian claims 119 lb-ft of torque at the crank, and you can feel that grunt with every twist of the throttle. With a forged, single-pin crank, the engine chugs along easily at low rpm, pulling cleanly from 1,000rpm up to the 5,500rpm redline. Inspired by the Power Plus V-twin in the 1940s-era Chief, the Thunder Stroke 111 has a flathead look, generous finning, parallel pushrod tubes and downward-firing exhausts. But it’s a thoroughly modern engine, with electronic sequential port fuel injection, throttle-by-wire and maintenance-free hydraulic lifters. Every effort was made to reduce mechanical noise so that the deep, rich exhaust note would be the most prominent sound, but you need aftermarket exhausts. The engine runs smoothly and quietly without excessive vibration, but it throws off a lot of heat, especially on the right side where the exhaust headers are located. An oversize clutch was used to reduce effort at the lever, but a firm pull is required. The transmission shifts smoothly and final drive is via carbon fibre-reinforced belt.
The Chieftain is the company’s touring bike and, to enhance the touring experience, the Chieftain has an electrically adjustable fairing which I found quite handy, not only for adjustable wind deflection but also for wind noise reduction as well when playing music. It has automatic saddlebag locks (central locking), a dual-speaker audio system with integrated Bluetooth and a tyre-pressure monitoring system. The on-board computer can give you range, current and average fuel consumption and a host of other nice to know things, like is your charging system still working? Standard features across all three different Indians include classic elements such as valenced fenders, illuminated Indian fender ornaments, genuine leather seats and lots of chrome, as well as contemporary ones, such as cruise control, ABS and keyless ignition. Just a note on the keyless ignition which I've never been a big fan of but after spending some time with the bike being a marshal for a mass ride, the keyless operation of the bike is fantastic. You just hop on, push a button which switches everything on, push the starter button and you are off, no mess no fuss. A party trick worth mentioning is that should you lose your key or misplace it, you get to set up your own personal override code for the ignition when purchasing the bike and a sequence of lefts and rights on the indicator switch will spring your bike into life without the key. Very clever electronics, now just to remember the code hey!
So what’s it like to ride? The bike is typically heavy at standstill (384kg fully wet), but with the low centre of gravity and lightish clutch lever action for such a big engine, the bike it easily manoeuvred. The Chieftain has a proper V-twin pulse and it's very different from Harley yet similar if that makes any sense? Our test unit had standard pipes fitted which I thought was a shame because I was looking forward to the roar after watching the promo video and the standard silencers do choke it up a bit. I can imagine most customers changing these before even taking delivery. The bike has ample go, but will not set the world on fire. The tall 6th gear is very comfortable for highway cruising with the motor just above 2,300rpm at 120km/h. I actually found this speed of 120km/h locked in on the speedo my ideal cruising speed with the music playing. You see, you might think this is slow but, in truth, these bikes are not about the destination but rather the journey and, at these speeds, you can enjoy the scenery and the music and it truly alters your state of being. This kind of riding does take you to a very pleasant place in your head. But just before you think the Chieftain is a very highway biased cruiser, you must not forget that the sister company, Victory, makes the most sporty V-twins around, so that same handling vein has found its way into the Indian Chieftain. I was surprised not to scrape the floor boards with fairly spirited riding and, truthfully, you would never need to go any quicker than that on a bike like this. The handling was impressive, full stop.
In conclusion, has Indian got it right? Hell yeah! The bike offers everything a customer of a high end cruiser would be looking for and it’s got history and heritage. I think that in this all important status symbol game, this is something that is very important when you are going up against the big HD. In SA Indian is going through a huge dealer network expansion and you can see the boys are here to stay and take a slice of the action. They are backed by Cardinals, one of the most successful car groups in SA, who are responsible for the Victory brand as well. So watch this space because Indian is here to stay and take back some of their land.
Price: R385,000
Engine Type: Air-cooled, transverse 49-degree V-twin, OHV, 2 valves per cylinder
Displacement: 1,811cc (111ci)
Bore x stroke: 101 x 113mm
Transmission: 6-speed, cable-actuated wet clutch
Final drive: Belt
Rake/trail: 25 degrees/5.9 in.
Seat Height: 26.0 in.
Claimed wet weight: 384kg wet
Fuel capacity: 21 litres
