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Posted by draconarmy
- August 10, 2013, 16:22:16 PMok so having seen them in person I am left less than impressed by these new Indians. the apparent soft bags are in fact aluminum bags with a leather coating. the dual exhaust is actually two pipes into one and back to two and the cross over is smaller around than the handlebars. don't get me started on the price tag. nope I think I will stick with my drifter any day. that being said they will be rolling out some accessories that should fit our bikes with minimal tweaking, perfect for those of use trying to clone our drifters into Indians. from some beautiful leather mudflaps with and without fringe luggage racks and winsheilds all with that indian head blazend across them.
Posted by Troll
- August 10, 2013, 15:25:37 PMOk... I decided. Monday, bright and early (I'll wait for sunrise) I'm riding down to Madison to Englehart Motorsports and look at and photograph the new Indians. I will post non media pictures here for you to see. I will not go out of my way to be flattering.
Posted by dakuhosu
- August 10, 2013, 09:40:42 AMForgive me for being a little jaded about our lost media 
. When I look at an older Indian model they look so long and sleek, the engine, while not the flathead, looks like a Jewell sitting in there, I even got used to the little gap in the rear of the engine. I have to say I'm in love with them. New ones, not so much. Like you I can't wait to see one all chopped up. If can get behind an SX650 custom, I can sure get behind a new Indian custom. If I was Jay Leno I'd buy one even, two just to chop one up. Plus I'd put one of those new engines in an older model.
Posted by Troll
- August 10, 2013, 09:14:06 AMMCN will pick it apart. They always do and I trust their opinions about the performance, not just the looks. After I hear about the mechanicals, I will wait for the customizers to do their thing. I will never be able to afford one of these, but there is one thing you MUST admit about them. they are NOT a kit softail like the predecessors. There is an dealer about 150 miles away, so I'm thinking it might be worth a road trip just to see one up close. I posted on their facebook page about the hard bagger being available without the fugly fairing, but in 2 days, nobody has resopnded
Posted by dakuhosu
- August 10, 2013, 09:01:06 AMTorch how? On the Aluminum frame? Plastic Fenders? Buy it and park it like an Edsel, it may be worth something someday. Not to be a complete downer but most media today is paid advertising. I personally don't believe anything that I might catch a glimpse of on TV, I worked in film production in Hollywood and left because what I was seeing was going to give me cancer it was so bad, and I'm talking about the programming, not the microwaves. Everything is a lie!
Posted by Troll
- August 10, 2013, 08:52:50 AMI'm going to wait for a road test from Motorcycle Consumer News before I make any kind of value judgement that isn't based purely on the look...or lack of it. If the power/handling/overall performance is there, then the rest could be fixed by whacking off the ugly parts. I hate bar fairings, they all look like afterthought crap. If they wanted to make a "touring" model, a frame mount fairing would have been the way to go since it doesn't require messing with the steering geometry to make it work. Sorry, they are mostly pretty ugly...but if they go and stop and turn decent, then out comes the torch!
Posted by dakuhosu
- August 10, 2013, 08:29:06 AMNo amount of marketing or feel good social media campaigns can fix this. Longtime Indian owners are aghast. Other forums have little if anything good to say. I bet the people who are talking it up are all Polaris employees getting paid for it. I just don't get it, with so many talented builders building outstanding bikes in their garages how a company like Polaris can manage to screw this up so bad. Some of those changes were purely cosmetic and added nothing. That headlight belongs on something else all together. Why so much Chrome on everything? An aluminum frame? WTF? Mag wheels??? I never liked the style of Victory and these look just like them. Look around, nobody has anything good to say. Getting the word out is not saying anything good about it. Nobody is praising this or that or anything specific. I can't stand those friggin handlebars and all that junk on them. When the trend is to hide everything Polaris piles even more useless chrome crap on the bars...look at meeeeeee. That is one ugly fairing too. That whole bike reminds me of a Kawasaki Police Special, tell me it doesn't. I think the police special even has more genuine style. Ok, so the engines cool.
Posted by FloridaDrifter
- August 10, 2013, 06:57:25 AMI've got to say that Polaris has done a great job getting the word out and creating a buzz. People are talking about their bikes. That had to be goal #1. Now they need more dealers to put butts on bikes. Then its up to the product to make its statement.
Posted by DC
- August 09, 2013, 07:09:00 AMTwo years from now, Polaris will be offering HUGE discounts on their remaining production. Their new Indians are not Harley killers. It's just the wrong way to market this. Harley is about everyone thinking they are different, but actually they are all cookie cutter clones. Wear a black leather jacket (like mine) and grunt occasionally (like me). The Indians will be too different, and so much so that existing Harley riders will be afraid of being ostracized by other Harley riders for having a weird, non-Harley bike.
Beyond that segment, the remaining market is even more limited. Figure in maybe 1,000 boomers longing for the nostalgia, and possibly 50 Drifter owners (if that), and you can see there is very limited demand for this brand now. So once the peak demand is filled in the first two years of production, there's probably not a lot left to keep a full-time factory going. But who am I to say. We'll see what actually happens.
Well, there you have it. That's my crystal ball. 
Posted by 49Reo
- August 08, 2013, 14:53:15 PMHopefully they realize their mistake and correct it...would hate to see them (Indian) fail again.
Posted by dakuhosu
- August 08, 2013, 13:50:39 PMYep, old Indian way sweeter. I have to say the old engine looks good too. That is a handsome engine even if it doesn't look like an old flathead. No dealer support, styling farts all over, I predict a big fail.
Posted by 49Reo
- August 08, 2013, 10:36:03 AMThey should have left well enough alone. Maybe the engine would have been okay, apparently there have been issues with the bottle cap engines in the past. But they should have left the overall styling alone. IMHO.
Posted by Petemoss
- August 08, 2013, 10:16:58 AMI can't believe Polaris thinks the machine they reintroduced as Indian looks better than its predecessor. No question IMHO the previos model is way sweeter.
Posted by Petemoss
- August 08, 2013, 10:14:34 AMQuote from: 49Reo on August 08, 2013, 09:52:16 AMI agree. But this is my favorite style/color/seat leather that I have seen to date. I may in the future style my Drifter after this bike. Just need some time and some cash.Now THOSE are nice looking bikes....
Posted by 49Reo
- August 08, 2013, 09:52:16 AMNow THOSE are nice looking bikes....