Indian Summer Ep10: Indian Springfield Dark Horse Touring

Indian Summer Ep10: Indian Springfield Dark Horse Touring

Indian Summer Ep10: Indian Springfield Dark Horse Touring

It’s still Indian Summer here at Total Motorcycle and we’re loving it! What you really wanna do on a big touring bike like the Indian Springfield Dark Horse is of course, tour. We wasted no time at all getting our review bike out for some extended road tripping.  Read on to find out how the Dark Horse handled that first incredible 2000 mile week with TMW reviewers Eric and Carrie!

 

Indian Springfield Dark Horse Touring – 2000 Miles of Fun!

 

Reviewers: Eric and Carrie Leaverton
Review Dates 06/24/2020 – Current
Price Point: US MSRP $22,499 – $22,999 USD 
Color: Sagebrush Smoke

 

“Our Indian Springfield is super powerful!”

 

Indian Summer Ep10: Indian Springfield Dark Horse Touring
Springfield Dark Horse Touring – Near the Payette River on Lolo Pass.

Our First Week

On our first weekend with our Indian Springfield, we took a 450 mile round trip to the beautiful town of Vernal Utah. The next week, we struck out on a 1600 mile loop through Utah, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Oregon to see how it did when we really stretched it’s legs.

 

Indian Summer Ep10: Indian Springfield Dark Horse Touring
Springfield Dark Horse Touring – At the visitors center at the top of Lolo Pass, 99 miles of gorgeous curves between Kooskia, ID and Missoula, MT.

“The cruise control made me feel absolutely spoiled”

 

Upgrades

Keep in mind, our demo Indian Springfield has the following Genuine Indian Upgrades installed: Thunder Stroke Stage 1 Slip-On Exhausts, Thunder Stroke Stage One Performance Intake, Front Fork Driving Lights, and 16 in. Ape Hanger Handlebar Kit, see  An Indian Summer Episode 9 First Ride Review for more info.

 

Indian Springfield Engine

Our Indian Springfield is super powerful! It’s part of the Thunder Stroke lineup with a 116 cubic inch air cooled V twin Engine. That’s equivalent to 1900 CC’s. The tank is big, holding 5.5 gallons. Depending on the roads ahead, I switched back and forth from ‘Tour’ Mode to ‘Sport’ Mode and averaged 48 miles per gallon. That’s 264 miles per tank give or take. We stopped for gas about every 200 miles, and sprung for the good stuff, 91 Octane when it was available. The console starts blinking when you have 50-60 miles before empty.

 

Indian Summer Ep10: Indian Springfield Dark Horse Touring
Indian Springfield Dark Horse Touring – Stopping for gas about every 200 miles before the reserve indicator illuminates.

“making me feel super capable when accelerating”

 

Handlebars

The 16 inch ape hanger bars are an upgrade from the Indian Springfield’s standard 12 inch bars. The height of the grips puts my hands level with my shoulders, providing me with excellent riding posture. I was excited to see how the bars performed for me after long days of riding. Our longest one day stretch totaled 8 hours in the saddle and I was really impressed with how I felt about the positioning.

After a learning curve I realized I didn’t need to hold on near as tight as I was. I relaxed my arms and hands and didn’t get tired. At the end of the day my back didn’t hurt, as the height of the bars and positioning of the saddle insisted on my body maintaining appropriate posture even when leaning in tight curves. I was up and ready early the next morning, looking forward to another day of riding.

 

Indian Summer Ep10: Indian Springfield Dark Horse Touring
Indian Springfield Dark Horse Touring – Curvy roads, beautiful views, cool temperatures. Heaven… Dark Horse Style.

Cruise Control

The cruise control made me feel absolutely spoiled. It was easy to operate. The controls are located in an easy to reach position near the right side grip and the console displays an indicator light that stays on once you’ve turned on the cruise. It has a resume function just like the settings in newer motor vehicles.

 

“At the end of the day my back didn’t hurt”

 

Seat

The Indian Springfield ‘Two Up Rogue Seat’ was just the right thickness as it didn’t feel flattened out after many miles. The ridge at the back does a great job of keeping my rear from sliding backwards, making me feel super capable when accelerating. The leather on the seat is perforated so it didn’t feel hot through my black Kevlar pants, even after the bike was parked in direct sunlight for lunch breaks, etc.

 

Floorboards

The Indian Springfield Headdress floorboards were large enough to move my feet both forwards and back to maintain leg comfort on our long trip. There was enough width so I could stretch out my knees a little or move my feet closer to tuck in during severe wind blasts on the freeway and in rainy riding conditions.

 

Indian Summer Ep10: Indian Springfield Dark Horse Touring
Springfield Dark Horse Touring – Road Island Diner in Oakley, Utah has the best onion rings. Not that we recommend eating onion rings before donning your helmet…

Side Cases

Although the Indian Springfield ‘Slammed’ Hard Cases were large enough to carry all or our necessaries for a 2 night road trip, they are not large enough to accommodate a full face helmet. Not a huge deal to me because I’m always wearing my helmet and don’t mind taking it into restaurants with me. If I was carrying a spare helmet for a sometimes passenger though, they wouldn’t meet my needs.

Check out our video to see my before and after thoughts about the side cases. I’m super impressed with the remote lock feature and are they waterproof? Yes, yes sir. Want proof? You’ll see in the video… I want to note, it rained most of the day on our ride home from Vernal, so that’s 225 miles of drizzles and a heavy downpour the last 100 miles before I did my moisture test video.

 

Indian Summer Ep10: Indian Springfield Dark Horse Touring
The Dark Horse in Sagebrush Smoke Green sure looks at home amongst the red cliffs at Red Fleet Reservoir, Utah.

“the height of the bars and positioning of the saddle insisted on my body maintaining appropriate posture”

 

Indian Springfield Upgrades We Suggest

There are 2 Indian upgrades not installed on our demo bike that would have certainly been useful during our trips.

A Windshield (Polycarbonate 11.3 in. Quick Release Wind Deflector, Tinted, Price Point $569.99 USD.)

Heated Grips (10-Setting Heated Handlebar Grips in Black, Pair, Price Point $309.99 USD.) The Indian Springfield comes stock with a stylish tank mounted button to accommodate the upgrade. I can’t tell you how much I would appreciate that center placement. Anybody with handlebar mounted heated grip settings would agree with me, because it’s easy to inadvertently turn them on during a hot day when the activation switch is near your other controls.

 

Indian Summer Ep10: Indian Springfield Dark Horse Touring
Indian Springfield Dark Horse Touring – A Natural Leader. Here’s the view of our hotel parking lot before day 3 of our 1600 mile trip.

“I’m super impressed with the remote lock feature”

 

Indian Summer Continues!

Our 2020 Indian Springfield Dark Horse is turning heads and we’re having a great time on it. Be sure to watch for upcoming Episodes of Indian Summer here at Total Motorcycle, thanks for reading.

If you watched our video on YouTube, please like, leave a comment, subscribe and ring that bell to be notified of upcoming episodes.

Catch up on our previous episodes of Indian Summer, where we reviewed a 2019 Indian Scout ABS as well as some authentic Indian Riding Gear / Apparel.

 

We would like to thank Indian Motorcycle for providing us another Indian motorcycle (Indian Springfield Dark Horse) to review for you. We have much more to come on our review of the Indian Springfield, their big bagger. Stay tuned each week for yet another long term unbiased review from Total Motorcycle!

Indian-Motorcycle-Logo-2017

Indian Motorcycle

 

 

Thanks to the free Relive App that we used to track our trip to Vernal, UT. Download it and track your own adventures!

 

Indian Summer Ep10: Indian Springfield Dark Horse Touring
Springfield Dark Horse Touring – Vernal, Utah is home to the largest quarry of prehistoric Jurassic dinosaur bones. It’s an epic experience to ride a motorcycle in an open, wild desert where many dinosaurs once roamed.

 

About Carrie Leaverton 19 Articles
Carrie Leaverton is a MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) Certified RiderCoach. She regularly teaches Basic Rider Courses and also works as senior financial analyst and account reconciliation specialist. She was a competitive off road motorcycle racer in her youth and now enjoys street motorcycling with her husband. Carrie is a proud mom of three and also enjoys fiber/needle arts, camping and gardening and is a parrot enthusiast. She is also a product reviewer and field correspondent for Total Motorcycle Web.