Indian Motorcycle Blog SHARING OUR PASSION

By InMoBlog on 1/9/2008 10:55 AM

When people discover I practice my craft at Indian Motorcycle, the conversation usually takes a predictable path: Warmhearted memories of bygone days come rushing forward with stories of Fathers or their Father’s Father and musings of all things Indian. The storyteller harkens back to their first experience with the celebrated piece of American history that is Indian Motorcycle. A change comes over them as only the tingling warmth of a beautiful spring day or a favorite memory can bring. The narrative seems to bring to life the intense smell of warm asphalt as they explain the images of the open road, shared by them, as one would flaunt a family heirloom. Listening closely, you swear you hear the sounds of far away drums that transform into the melodious rumble of a big Power Plus.  Reality returns as your heart races with the shared excitement as the stranger’s tale takes you riding through the history of motorcycling. You have just met a new friend.

My ... Read More »

By InMoBlog on 12/20/2007 10:02 AM

'Tis definitely the season to be thinking about stars.

Except, perhaps, for three certain gentlemen from the East tracking one across the desert on camelback two millennia ago, few people have ever experienced the grandeur of a starry winter night as gloriously as those stargazing down a deserted highway on a smooth-purring cruiser.
For one thing, it's cold. Particularly at speed. Particularly if you're wearing anything less than a full snowmobile suit , electric vest, electric socks and electric gloves. All that stuff will keep you somewhat warmer than you’d otherwise be, but it will also dull your senses. And one thing you don't want on a late-night December star search is dull senses.

Try it, instead, in heavy denims and leathers with maybe a thick-with-pre-Christmas-advertising newspaper stuffed under your jacket. Accept the cold, make it part of you, allow it to merge with the rhythm of the road, the feel of rubber on concrete or asphalt, the thrum ... Read More »

By InMoBlog on 11/14/2007 4:04 PM

Despite what people who've never ridden one may think, they're not at all like a car with two wheels.

Riding an Indian, any motorcycle really, involves your body and mind in ways that no car ever has, can, or will. A car takes you places with minimal impact on the senses. A bike involves all your senses, all the time.

You drive a car the way people in the 19th century drove a buggy. Skilled buggy drivers could use a set of reins, vocal commands, and occasionally a whip to make the horse turn, speed up, slow down, and stop just about as effectively as a good driver can use a steering wheel, gas pedal, and brake for the same purposes. But the operative word with both buggy and car is "drive."

On a motorcycle -- as on a saddle horse -- the operative word is "ride." Whereas driving can frequently be done in a passive, detached manner, a motorcycle dema ... Read More »