1948 Posters

I found all these great 1948 Indian posters for Flathead Rob's living room. Too bad he's now in the same situation as me, too broke from buying parts to even entertain memorabilia.

Painted Wheels

They do look pretty cool given the right color scheme. I kinda like the painted headlight shell too. Maye not so big on the whitewalls.

Clubman Chief

1948 Indian Clubman Chief model press photo. No extra crap, just the way I like 'em. Flathead Rob will be riding in a double breasted suit in no time.

Chout

It Lives!

Somewhere in the progress of working the music transitioned from the "Blues Hour" to "Ode de Elevator." We were too in the moment to notice.

Chief Arrives

This won't be news to almost anyone but Flathead Rob but we launched a half-baked plan to ship the Chief to the Great North West without out Rob's knowledge about 3 weeks ago. The idea was to surprise him for his birthday. His next birthday is one of those critical decade benchmarks.

I had to research and select a shipping company without Rob's input. I couldn't be happier with the one I selected. Because I was doing this on Rob's behalf with an insane deadline they endured a lot of obsessive micro-management from me. Mary Lou was incredibly patient and professional.

Here's the old girl getting ready for her trip.



In total it took about two weeks to have the bike shipped door-to-door. That meant there was a good chunk of time that I had to continue pretending she was sitting securely in my garage and be very careful what I said to Rob. I tried to stockpile a few pictures and post ideas for this here blog to help the rouse along. I knew he'd eventually ask me some question where I'd need to walk out to the garage to check something for him. I decided early I'd just have to be quick to lie when that happened. The most memorable? A question about the distributor. "Oh, yeah... I just looked at that the other day. It looks just fine."

I invited Rob's friend Nate to receive the Chief at the other end of it's journey, at Nate's parent's house near Rob's no less. Nate ended up also picking my up at the airport the same day it arrived. I'm becoming quite the tactless, pushy MF in my old age...

Once both the Chief & I arrived in Nate's parent's garage Nate & Rob's wife Lynn fabricated a story that Nate's Dad's Road King fell on Nate's Pan and he needed a urgent hand lifting bikes and assessing carnage. By the time we sprung the surprise on Rob there where enough loose ends over the two weeks that he had some unframed suspicions. By-in-large though, we got him.




I confessed my lie about the distributor in the garage. Rob follows up.



HUGE thanks to Lynn, Nate, Nate's family, our Dad, our Mom, Mary Lou, English Stephen, Tyler, Lizzard, Nikki and everyone else that helped out. We couldn't have done it without you.

Bobber

Shame it's become a somewhat of a dirty word...

Camp Sacajawea

Vaughn & Co. were playing in the shop with the Nerf guns they got from HarleyWidow and had a slight mishap. I think we'll recover from it just fine but it was a little unsettling at first.

Tenino Indians

Frustrated by having to wait for finances to recover to ship the Chief... One can only surf the 'net so much for old Indians. Decided to post some Indian pix I have taken at the Tenino Swap meet in years past.

This old one is really sweet. I don't know older Indians at all yet. Bitmonkey will notice the exposed "cush drive"... or maybe it's just the kicker release.




This post-war Chief bobber is pretty cool. What do you think?



And finally, a pretty pre-war Scout, if I am not mistaken...

Indian Racer

I keep posting stuff that's too early to be "48 Chief" relevant. Somebody stop me. From The Selvage Yard and Classicmoto-Cycles.



Herbert mcBride who broke an world's record for amateurs with 105.24 mph (1920)

"Indian" Script

So Sacagawea (that's what my wife has begun calling Flathead Rob's Chief) has the "Indian" script logo on the non-shifter side of the gas tank but it's blank on the shifter side. It can't find holes (or obvious signs of filler) on the blank side. I've heard you could order a '48 Chief in either left or right side shift so I wouldn't think they'd have shifter specific tanks. I've seen pictures of bikes that have the logo on both sides. I'm wondering if it's just missing, a year thing or perhaps a model/trim thing. Anyone know?

Chick's Gaggle of Indians

Chief, Chief and Four. He's got at least one more.

Indian Racer

'Fly Boy' Jack Coley

1948

Indian & Boeing

1904

A little bit too late?

Cobweb Free

Paperwork

So after three trips to the MVD and the threat of having to do a bonded title all is done. I am the proud owner of a '48 Chief (sort of). My tip? Don't go to MVD Express with anything but the most vanilla, generic, run-of-the-mill transaction. Hell, both visits to the state MVD including the VIN inspection were as fast or faster than MVD Express would have been. All the State staff were super friendly and accommodating too. Thanks again to English Stephen for all his help and sound advice.

Super cool bike, Rob. You won't be disappointed.

Manual Info

This is the oldest manual in the bunch bundled with the Chief. Who knows how long it's been with the bike but it's clearly an early Rudolph Indian Sales sold manual. So how long ago was a shop manual $2? I imagine an H-D Factory shop manual would cost you $200 now if you could convince them to actually sell you one.

Rudolph Bros Indian in Tulsa

Saw Rudolph Bros. Indian mentioned on a couple of the old manuals. A search brought me here.

I wonder if this is where it was sold new?

Road Trip

Huge thanks to Lizzard, Nikki, Tyler and English Stephen for all the help excavating and loading the Chief. Nikki is one of the coolest young ladies I've met in a while... not a tomboy but certainly not afraid to get her hands dirty either. She'd put the American Picker guys to shame. Thanks Lizzard, the Chief will be loved and well cared for. Tyler might have kinda had fun and it sure was cool to have some quality brawn along. Stephen, the first photo I've seen so far is absolutely stunning!

History

Just some of the legacy of Flathead Rob's "new" Chief. Someone in Tulsa loved it enough to drop a few serious 1971 dollars on it. I would kill have anything like this that gives some insight into where my '51 Triumph Tiger has been.

Family Photos - April 1970

Love this movie...

Some two-wheeled literature...

Okay, so I blame English Stephen... Well, I blame him in absentia... It was he who loaned BitMonkey the copy of "Big Sid's Vincati", by Matthew Biberman, which I purloined and thoroughly enjoyed reading in one somewhat sleepless sitting over the holidays.

This clearly establishes Stephen's guilt in my opinion.

Reading the aforementioned tome in turn opened my eyes to the whole "wrenching motorcycles as a path to Nirvana" genre, so the next logical choice, given my impending committment to a certain Wigwam product, is "Rebuilding the Indian", by Fred Haeffele.

A guilty conscious about stealing Stephen's book, coupled with an acute shortage of funds, causes me to go the library route this time. I'll let you know how it is, although I might take the time to sleep this time around.

'48 Chief

Personally I'd loose the fringe but this one's a looker. This guy's blog is kinda cool too.

Winning '47

Suede

No frills, no fringe and damn near no chrome. I LOVE this bike.

One clean Injun

This vintage picture of a Chief shows me that there is an alternative to the blinged out fringe-infested Chiefs one so often sees. I like the sleekness of this one.