2014 Indian Chieftain - Coolness Factor = 65.4%

Your Coolness Factor of the 2014 Indian Chieftain is..

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jstark47
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Re: This week: 2014 Indian Chieftain: Vote Today

#11 Unread post by jstark47 »

totalmotorcycle wrote:As riders have said above the styling of the Chieftain is unique but to me as well it leaves something missing. After looking at it for the past few days (and the other photos of it on it's page here at TMW) I think it's the bubblous look of it, it's not that sleek or slender, and it just looks "weighty and thick".
I think you've hit the nail on the head here, Mike. Weighty and thick, and ..... mismatched somehow. The various lines and curves and shapes don't gel together. It looks a little like a Harley that someone too self-conciously wanted to dress up to be something else. It's too bad... I agree with many other above, Polaris seems to have done a great job with the motor. Uncool.
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Re: This week: 2014 Indian Chieftain: Vote Today

#12 Unread post by montanalifter »

Well as I usually say on a lot of the bikes 23k seems like a bit much. For that money you get the standard round peg foot rests for the passenger and a generic looking engine guard. Not liquid cooled. Too heavy. I actually like the fairing and looks like it would give good protection, the up and down windshield is cool. Unique look to the fairing which is really nice. Is a nice bike but I'm going to have to start factoring in the price so it gets a uncool vote from me.

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Re: This week: 2014 Indian Chieftain: Vote Today

#13 Unread post by Grey Thumper »

Great-looking engine - I'm looking forward to it being used on something a bit more stripped-down. Otherwise this is just too much of everything; too massive, too heavy, too clunky-looking, too much dough. I guess it makes sense for Indian to launch (relaunch?) with a flagship (and therefore expensive) bike, but a full-dress tourer that looks like a freight train isn't my personal cup of tea.
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Re: This week: 2014 Indian Chieftain: Vote Today

#14 Unread post by totalmotorcycle »

I went with: Uncool, but COOL for Polaris getting Indian back in the market again.

The new 2014 Indian Chieftain sure has a sweet engine, but I'm not sold (at all) on it's looks (as I said above: I think it's the bubblous look of it, it's not that sleek or slender, and it just looks "weighty and thick). I was really hoping for a smaller bike in the lineup or ideally a 2nd smaller CC engine, ok, maybe just the Indian Scout that wasn't weighty and thick looking would have been nice.

With regards to the price, I think it's actually very well priced. It's only a couple thousand more than H-D's offerings, but you get a unique product (Indian) and they are the oldest American motorcycle company (1901), which is pretty awesome. Not sure what the Indian;s sound like but that will be important. And why such a massive 111 cubic inch engine? Seems a little overkill to me. Anyone know what the original 1948 Indian Chief's engine size was??

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Re: This week: 2014 Indian Chieftain: Vote Today

#15 Unread post by Grey Thumper »

totalmotorcycle wrote:Anyone know what the original 1948 Indian Chief's engine size was??

Mike
74 cubic inches, about 1200cc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_mot ... dian_Chief

I'm not familiar with average bike engine sizes of that period, but 1200cc sounds pretty massive for the late 40s.
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Re: This week: 2014 Indian Chieftain: Vote Today

#16 Unread post by Gummiente »

totalmotorcycle wrote:and they are the oldest American motorcycle company (1901), which is pretty awesome.
No. They went out of business in '54, therefore they lost the "oldest" tag. Only the name has survived, not the company, just like Triumph was reborn after several years of nothing.
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Re: This week: 2014 Indian Chieftain: Vote Today

#17 Unread post by sunshine229 »

I can't help myself... I have to vote Awesome.

You guys know I'd never own one, it's not my riding style. But... it is wonderful that Polaris has revived the iconic Indian brand, kept the heritage styling but brought it up to 21st century (personally I don't mind the curviness or "bubblousness" to it), and kept the price quite reasonable!

I'm sure they won't ever compete with H-D in terms of scale of operations so I don't really understand their ad campaigns, but I do think it's great that there is another American legend out there for choice.
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Re: This week: 2014 Indian Chieftain: Vote Today

#18 Unread post by totalmotorcycle »

Grey Thumper wrote:
totalmotorcycle wrote:Anyone know what the original 1948 Indian Chief's engine size was??

Mike
74 cubic inches, about 1200cc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_mot ... dian_Chief

I'm not familiar with average bike engine sizes of that period, but 1200cc sounds pretty massive for the late 40s.
Sounds about right with what Harley-Davidson was putting out at the time along with Excelsior-Henderson. So they were big back then too. From what I know of that period, it was in order to produce more acceptable power it was just "make it bigger" as the refinement wasn't there yet.

Gummiente wrote:
totalmotorcycle wrote:and they are the oldest American motorcycle company (1901), which is pretty awesome.
No. They went out of business in '54, therefore they lost the "oldest" tag. Only the name has survived, not the company, just like Triumph was reborn after several years of nothing.
That is true that it did go out of business more than a few times. But so did Harley-Davidson (twice and needed a 2.3B bail out in 2009 to survive) and Triumph as well. For me, I still view them as the oldest American motorcycle company as the name did start in 1901, but you are right, that could leave the door open for interpretation. Say for example, someone buys the "Excelsior Motor Company" name, they started in 1896 or the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company which made motorcycles in 1901. I think there is more than enough room for a few good historic names to come back. I'm glad to see Indian back and happy to have Harley-Davidson still around today. :kicking:

That's the issue with the motorcycle manufacturing business, it's a boom and bust industry. Which isn't much different than the car business, look at GM (among others) which almost went under as well.


Yes, I know the following story might ruffle some feathers, but don't forget, even McDonalds got $203,000,000 of free taxpayer money as well out of the 3,000,000,000 the Fed gave away.
Harley-Davidson's secret $2.3 Billion government bailout

According to a new disclosure by the Federal Reserve, Harley-Davidson was given a previously secret $2.3 billion bailout during the fall of 2008 and winter of 2009. We’ve previously reported that Harley borrowed nearly $1 billion in emergency operating capital from Warren Buffett at 15 percent interest during the same period and has since upped that amount to nearly $2 billion from other lenders. The disclosure of this emergency aid by the Fed gives a new indication as to just how close Harley was to the brink during the darkest days of the financial crisis and a new indication of how much American taxpayers spent to keep it open.

The bailout provided to Harley is just a drop in the bucket of $9 trillion total emergency aid just disclosed by the fed, other recipients include everyone from the usual Wall Street suspects to McDonald’s, foreign banks and even the South Korean government.

“The American people are finally learning the incredible and jaw-dropping details of the Fed’s multitrillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street and corporate America,” stated Senator Bernard Sanders (I, Vt). “As a result of this disclosure, other members of Congress and I will be taking a very extensive look at all aspects of how the Federal Reserve functions.”

The aid took the form of the Fed purchasing large amounts of commercial paper at non-market rates in order to fund the daily activities of these corporations and organizations. Between October, 2008 and February, 2009, the Fed bought paper from Harley-Davidson 33 times for a total of $2.3 billion.

“It is hard to say what would have happened without the facility, and how its absence might have affected GE, but overall the program was extremely effective in helping stabilize the market,” a GE spokesperson told The Washington Post. GE took $16 billion in aid under this program.

“We took an enormous amount of risk with the people’s money,” the president of the Dallas Federal Reserve told The Post. “We didn’t lose a dime, and in fact we made money on every one of them.”

Senator Sanders suggests the corporations that received this aid got off easy for irresponsible financial practices and that loaning them the money hasn’t altered their practices or even created jobs. “We bailed these guys out, but the requirements placed upon them had very little positive impact on the needs of ordinary Americans,” said the Senator.

Harley-Davidson’s net income fell from a record $1,043,153 in 2006 to a $55,116 loss in 2009. During the same time period, total motorcycle shipments fell from 349,196 to 223,023. That drop in sales isn’t enough to explain why Harley needed $2.3 billion from the federal government, instead, it seems as if the company’s exposure to bad debt by Harley-Davidson Financial Services is really what led to the company’s apparent near-death.
Mike
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Re: This week: 2014 Indian Chieftain: Vote Today

#19 Unread post by totalmotorcycle »

Your Coolness Factor of the 2014 Indian Chieftain is..

Awesome (3 points) 38% [ 20 ]
Cool (2 points) 26% [ 14 ]
Uncool (1 point) 30% [ 16 ]
Fail (0 point) 6% [ 3 ]

Total votes : 53

= a Coolwall Factor of 65.4%


NOTES: Guess who's back, back again, Indian's back... Wow, quite a slew of votes for the Indian with a slim majority to the Awesome side. Quite a few uncool votes as well, which from the replies riders were expecting more of a home run rather than a base hit. But it's early in the game and Indian has come out a singin'! Here batter, batter!
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Re: This week: 2014 Indian Chieftain: Vote Today

#20 Unread post by High_Side »

totalmotorcycle wrote: Harley-Davidson’s net income fell from a record $1,043,153 in 2006 to a $55,116 loss in 2009. During the same time period, total motorcycle shipments fell from 349,196 to 223,023. That drop in sales isn’t enough to explain why Harley needed $2.3 billion from the federal government, instead, it seems as if the company’s exposure to bad debt by Harley-Davidson Financial Services is really what led to the company’s apparent near-death.
The motorcycle buiz must really suck if record earning are just over a million bucks.... I suspect that there are a few zeros missing perhaps...
:mrgreen:

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