The Indian Model 841 No Indian history is complete without mention of the advanced military 841 model. Sadly only 1000 were made and barely a handful saw combat action before the US Army decided to order huge numbers of Jeeps instead. The 841 (and similar Harley XA which suffered the same fate) copied the successful German BMW army motorcycles including shaft drive and 4 speed hand clutch/foot shift. (The Harley looks a lot like a 1940s military BMW, while the Indian 841 looks more like a late 1960s and up Moto-Guzzi because it was a 90 degree V instead of a 180 degree flat or boxer engine layout.) Why Indian and Harley did not use these advanced (for 1941) bikes as postwar civilian models is a big mystery. The ad below from Dec. 1943 issue of Popular Mechanics suggest that at least some folks at the Indian factory were thinking along these lines. I first thought that the main reason Indian and Harley did not splurge a bit on making the army models into postwar civilian ones was that they did not need to spend any extra money as there was such a huge postwar demand for motorcycles and cars that it was easy for makers to sell prewar designs that had only minor improvements or styling changes, as carmakers did until the end of the 1940s. Yet my theory that Indian was too cheap to spend money on new models after the war is wrong, if one extends postwar from 1946 to 1949. Ironically, as the postwar demand surge tapered off in 1948, Indian spent millions designing and building a brand new series of modern singles and parallel twins which appeared in 1949. This was all Ralph Rogers idea but the money turned out to be totally wasted as these imitation English designs flopped. Also the currency difference between US and UK money changed around 1950, making British products very cheap, so buyers flocked to Triumph, BSA, Norton, Matchless and Royal Enfields. In retrospect it would have been smarter for Indian to have spent the money on an improved model 841. The 841s apparently (I have never ridden one) only had two flaws: the transmission was not reliable (time and money could have cured that) and not syncro-mesh; and since the bike weighs almost as much as a Chief (about 550 pounds), with only a 750 c.c. flathead engine producing (Im guessing) 25 horsepower, acceleration and top speed were sluggish. (However the design is ideal to convert to twin carbs for a few more horses and could not Chief top ends and a longer stroke been added? This would have solved the power problem. ) Nearly all bikes and cars in the 1945- 60 era were prettly slow anyway. Certainly the BMWs were slow even with their OHV but small displacement engines, and it is not as if Indian needed a fast bike to compete. Imagine if Indian had competed with BMW R50 and R-60 series and taken a share of that market. The original Indian company might have survived. The idea of salvaging something from the 841 must have occurred to somebody in managment because at least Indian used the 841 fork in its 1946-48 Chiefs (with slight modification). Note on the 841 the remote oil tank under the seat, giving more room for petrol / gasoline in the stylish fuel tanks. This would have been a great idea for the Chiefs. The 841s plunger rear suspension offers an extra couple inches of travel compared to the Chiefs measly 1.5 . After the war the Indian Motocycle Company had a surplus of unsold army machines and sold them to the public for $1,000. Källa: Internet.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 22:14:03 +0000
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