2015 Indians getting two tone paint

[LoneRanger]

Dealer sparsity really is the obstacle that the new Indian Motorcycle Company needs to work on. I actually want to take a demo ride on one, but the closest dealer is a 3 hour ride away. By comparison it's only a 90 minute ride to my Ducati dealer.

 

[Robenstein]

It was a very dumb move to not allow Victory dealers to sell Indians. They are the same company and a Victory dealer should be able to sell the other polaris owned and made cruiser.

 

[DuckRyder]

So I had a chance to visit a dealer.

Still feel the same way, details I don't care for.

Dealer had three bikes (one of each model) in sort of a corner of a showroom mostly filled with SbS's and CanAms, although there were a few Kawis too. Had a few Indian Tshirts hung on the wall behind the bikes. (actually a strange lack of bikes, considering the place proclaimed to be a Triumph and KTM dealer and I saw none of either that were new. There was one Indian with a dealer plate outside, a Classic which I assume was a demo.

Contrast that with the Harley dealer of the same name and in the same parking lot where there was at least one of every model and many models were represented in almost all of the available colors. Had more Vrods than I have seen in one place in quite some time...

I don't know, in my opinion Indian will not be successful if they allow dealers to treat it as a sideline...

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: Robenstein
I would like to see them offer a more stripped down look. I know that is venturing a bit close to Victory territory, but I have never been a fan of bags, windshields, and the other add ons. It would be cool to see a "hot rod" Indian. Still vintage in styling, but a bit more aggressive.


I wish they made some models that don't look like they just rolled out of the 1950s...something that looks more like a modern day muscle cruiser...250 rear tire, aggressive styling, like you said, a hot rod looking model...I just can't get into these retro styled bikes...to me they look just like Harley baggers...

 

[gman2304]

Everyone knows that Indian is going after the Harley loyalists. Yeah, an inline 4 cylinder would make the sales go through the roof.....about like a turd in a punch bowl!

 

[Robenstein]

Gman2304....not everyone wants a V twin. Some of us like a little different engine layout. Who says it would not suck in some goldwing buyers in a touring form?

 

[gman2304]

Robenstein....It's not about the v-twin engines, every major motorcycle manufacturer has a v-twin. You just for some reason don't like the American v-twins. You would like to chop the fenders off, better exhaust, and maybe a springer front end then whatcha got....a Harley Heritage springer softail. Do you think it looks like a Heritage softail by coincidence? I can see the Goldwing faithful looking at a new 4 cylinder inline Indian tourer and thinking...'the first Goldwing had an inline 4 way back in 1975'... cool...we'll sell our injected 6 cylinder Goldwings and buy a new Indian inline 4 cylinder air cooled tourer! Geez!

 

[Robenstein]

Actually the first Goldwing had an opposed 4 cylinder, not an inline 4.

If you are going to make an argument, you should probably have your facts straight.

I also never said to make the inline 4 air cooled, in fact it would have to be liquid cooled more than likely to pass emissions and to enure reliability.

 

[gman2304]

You're right Robenstein, the Goldwing were opposed 4's....I guess I had a senior moment...sorry. I owned a 1978 Goldwing and it was a great bike. I hope Indian makes a go of it, but they're targeted market is the Harley owners. I don't see any other engine configuration in Indians future except maybe liqid cooled cylinder heads like Harleys new twin cool engines.

 

[whip]

Given time and market growth, I see Indian diversifying. Indian has a racing history, and they've used many different engine configurations. Polaris will make sure they're profitable, and I think you'll be shocked with what they come out with.

 

[LoneRanger]

While I think it would be a mistake to let Polaris dealers sell Indian against the Victory line, I think what does need to be done is allow maintenance and warranty service be performed by any Polaris dealer that stocks and sells the Victory lineup. That alone would ease the minds of many potential buyers who otherwise might be thinking twice not so much about making a long trip for the purchase but for the scheduled maintenance which usually needs to be dealer performed in order to keep the warranty frosty. I would be willing to buy from a 4 hour away dealer but the concept of having to go there for scheduled maintenance or warranty repairs would be cause for pause; now if a Victory dealer can turn wrenches on it then that relieves the latter concerns probably for many potential buyers.

I see how it is complicated from the company end of it however. Dealerships be it auto or motorcycle rely on revenue from their service dept. Indian dealerships probably tend to be fledgling operations (i.e. new and not well established) and as such for the factory to effectively limit potential service customers by opening servicing to their competition (Victory dealers) would hurt their bottom line and also potentially reduce the attractiveness of opening an Indian dealership and thus limit expansion of sales that is vital in successfully establishing a new product in the market place.

All of the above is probably going to leave Indian a boutique brand for quite a while unless Polaris has a plan to rapidly expand dealership density. And a boutique brand is not going to be able to compete with Harley-Davidson going for the same customer base. Harley is too big, too successful, and too proficient in the marketing department.

 

[DuckRyder]

Had a chance to visit another dealer today...

Also a Victory, Kawasaki, Zero and a few other things dealer.... also located in close proximity to a Harley dealer. (walking distance)...

They had probably close to 1/4 of the store dedicated to Indian, they had a clearly defined area with a nice selection of bikes, there were at least 3 or 4 each chief and vintage models. He said they would probably have Roadmasters in a few weeks but thought Scouts would be the end of the year. (I forgot to ask about two tones.) They also had a significant amount of clothing, but nothing like a typical Harley dealer.

As soon as they realized I was looking at Indians I was greeted by a gentleman in Indian attire and he was very friendly and knowledgeable about the bikes. Overall much nicer experience and very harley dealer like save for having to walk through the typical crowded multi line environment to get to the Indians.

Said to come back when I had time and I could ride one, which I'll try to do.

 

[Robenstein]

Surprised a Victory dealer also had Indians. From what I had heard earlier they were trying to maintain separate dealers for the two Polaris lines of bikes. Nice to see that may not be the case. There is already a pretty decent Victory network of dealers and Polaris should use that to their advantage with getting the Indians out there.

 

[whip]

Originally Posted By: Robenstein
Surprised a Victory dealer also had Indians. From what I had heard earlier they were trying to maintain separate dealers for the two Polaris lines of bikes. Nice to see that may not be the case. There is already a pretty decent Victory network of dealers and Polaris should use that to their advantage with getting the Indians out there.

The Victory dealer closest to me is also an Indian dealer. He also sells Polaris, Toro, and Stihl........

 

[DuckRyder]

I'm pretty sure both dealers I have visited are Polaris dealers as well.

The latest one said he had been a dealer since May (officially, not sure what that meant) and was already a top dealer.

I have mixed feelings about them allowing multi-line dealers, I think if they want to compete with the MoCo (which appears to be the intent) they are going to have to have stand alone stores well stocked with bikes, clothing and sundry items... at the same time the line isn't really filled out enough for that yet IMO.

The first dealer I visited did not seem very invested (which is, IMO, a problem) the second was clearly invested and I could easily see them building a stand alone store.

I think they stand less a chance of cross selling with Victory than they do some Vulcan and Star models. I also think the multi line atmosphere isn't good for Indian.

Were I Indian I would try to get the bikes out there with the understanding that dealers were willing to build stand alone stores within a certain time frame...

One other thing worries me... I have heard (in fact a Polaris tech told a family member) that as soon as something goes out of production, you can forget getting parts for it... Not sure if that is true, but it is concerning.

Also correction to earlier post the Chieftain and Vintage were the most in stock models, the standard Chief I only recall one of, but it is the least interesting model to me anyway...