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[North Georgia Hawg]

Why would you buy it in the wrong color.... ? 

Well, I am a bright ORANGE guy... at least for Harleys.

However, I think the tan (which is kind of a muted ORANGE anyway... sort of...) leather seat and bags on the Vintage just look best paired with the Springfield Blue.

I love the Indian Red, but I don't think it goes as well with the more ORANGEY tan leather.

And I am DONE with black bikes... I've owned too many of them.

I don't expect that Indian will ever do an orange bike... that's just not their look. Plus, it's Harley's signature color anyway, and they sure don't want to be perceived as copycatting anything Harley.

Ken

[Rio]

If it was just the oil filter, you didn't need a dealer to "fix" it anyway...

Ken

Didn't have an oil filter wrench or an oil filter with me?  Still not positive that was the problem, I haven't had a chance to dig into it yet.  I cleaned the motor with S-100 and powerwashed all the oil off the block and the head to get a fresh look to see if I still have an issue.  I probably could have completed the whole trip without an issue, but it was still nice to know you had somewhere to go if need be?  We went on a trip a couple years ago to Bar Harbor Maine.  North of Lake Placid in the middle of no-where my friends ultra blew a seal, not sure how many miles he had on the bike, but he had an extended warranty.  We made it to Lake Placid after adding a few quarts of oil.  He called the dealer in Laconia which was about 125 miles away, he rented a Uhaul, brought the bike there, they gave him a bike to ride, he met us in Bar Harbor the following day, and Laconia was a scheduled stop on the way back to Michigan, they had his bike ready and clean free of charge!  Priceless!

[Black Diamond]

No doubt the dealer network is an issue.  Same as w/BMW, another bike in the mix.  Just another issue to weigh when determining what you may purchase.

JW

[North Georgia Hawg]

Didn't have an oil filter wrench or an oil filter with me?  Still not positive that was the problem, I haven't had a chance to dig into it yet.  I cleaned the motor with S-100 and powerwashed all the oil off the block and the head to get a fresh look to see if I still have an issue.  I probably could have completed the whole trip without an issue, but it was still nice to know you had somewhere to go if need be?  We went on a trip a couple years ago to Bar Harbor Maine.  North of Lake Placid in the middle of no-where my friends ultra blew a seal, not sure how many miles he had on the bike, but he had an extended warranty.  We made it to Lake Placid after adding a few quarts of oil.  He called the dealer in Laconia which was about 125 miles away, he rented a Uhaul, brought the bike there, they gave him a bike to ride, he met us in Bar Harbor the following day, and Laconia was a scheduled stop on the way back to Michigan, they had his bike ready and clean free of charge!  Priceless!

That's what's nice about the K&N filters with the nut on the end... You can remove them with a socket and not need an oil filter wrench. Maybe we should pack an extra oil filter, too!

Hope you get it sorted out.

And yes, rapidly developing their dealer network is going to be the critical link in Indian's chances for success. I wish them well.

There is a small, crappy little Polaris dealer just 2 miles from our house, but I frankly can't see them ever selling high-end Indians at that little rat hole. Right now, the nearest Indian dealer to us is over two hours away, in Greer, SC. I would think that the North Atlanta area would be a prime market for Indian... there is a LOT of disposable income here. Unfortunately, none of it is OURS!  

Ken

[Twolanerider]

I don't know Don....looks damn nice in the "Blue"  Looking forward to seeing both colors.

JW

Actually do like that blue too.  But the tan leathers (to my eyes) work with the red best.  I'd go black leathers with the blue bike.

[Dead_Reckoning]

At the end of the day, regardless of what exactly Polaris/Indian/Victory does, they build an OK nice bike to each is own?  Personally, I think the Chieftain is a pretty cool bike compared to a Road King, outside that, I don't think there in the game.  Aside from all those opinions, heres the real truth.  I took a long weekend ride this past weekend to the U.P. Munising and Pictured Rock.  When we left Gaylord and stopped for lunch in some small town in the UP I noticed I had oil splattered on the right side of the motor coming from somewhere around the oil filter, or oil pump.  Of course I checked my oil, continued on to Munising.  I went to the HD logo on my Roadtech, I saw there was a HD dealer in Marquette 35 miles west of where we were.  I called the dealer and asked if they could look at my bike in the morning, at 9:10 I was there, at 9:40 I was on the road again and it cost me zero.  Try and find an Indian dealer when touring!  There are two in Michigan, one in Canton, the other in Grand Rapids.  They have a long way to go before they can come close to matching the network body Harley Davidson has.

Exactly
Presently there are No dealers in NH and ME.

By comparision, Polaris has a Vistory dealer within 10 miles of me and another withing 30 miles of me.

It should be interesting to revisit this in a year and see how much Polaris has expanded the In dian Network.


DR

[LabRat]

Could be marketing spin and smoke and mirrors, but the word from Indian is that they have been overwhelmed with dealer requests since the official launch. Sounds like many dealers were on the fence about committing to Indian until after they saw a real product. Indian is putting some strict guidelines on their dealership in terms of a minimum of 1700 square feet of space devoted strictly to Indian products. Supposedly almost 40% of the requests have come from current HD dealer owners and also heard there is a deal in the works with Cadillac - similar to how BMW deals their bikes in some markets.

No clue how true it is, but it's clear Polaris is going after this market hard and investing a lot to do it.

[ultrarider123]

Dealer in Tennessee is Sloan's Superstore in Murfreesboro, TN....here's the link:
http://www.sloansmotorcycle.com/

Got an email from them about 10 days after I demo'ed the Chieftan hoping I enjoyed their product and stating they were having a demo truck come in September.  Do not know of another dealer in Tennessee as of yet.  They are, by the way, just a bit down and across the road from the Harley Dealer.....

[Spiderman]

If a shop is already carrying Polaris products like ATV's and such, wouldn't that at least allow you to buy parts through them ? Maybe a stupid question but you know Ford sold a ton of trucks beause you could get parts for your Ford truck at the same place as you bought your Ford farm tractors

B B

[bbrown]

If a shop is already carrying Polaris products like ATV's and such, wouldn't that at least allow you to buy parts through them ? Maybe a stupid question but you know Ford sold a ton of trucks beause you could get parts for your Ford truck at the same place as you bought your Ford farm tractors

B B

You would think so...but I asked the Factory people at Sturgis and they said no...its a seperate dealership.

[ultrarider123]

That is what they were shooting for but at first, they will have to do something to be part of/adjacent to/in the vicinity of a Polaris/Victory dealership sorta what MINI did when they first came in back in 2001 being separate from a BMW dealership but still on the same property.

[SDCVO]

Could be marketing spin and smoke and mirrors, but the word from Indian is that they have been overwhelmed with dealer requests since the official launch. Sounds like many dealers were on the fence about committing to Indian until after they saw a real product. Indian is putting some strict guidelines on their dealership in terms of a minimum of 1700 square feet of space devoted strictly to Indian products. Supposedly almost 40% of the requests have come from current HD dealer owners and also heard there is a deal in the works with Cadillac - similar to how BMW deals their bikes in some markets.

No clue how true it is, but it's clear Polaris is going after this market hard and investing a lot to do it.

I unfortunately is marketing "smoke and mirrors". What makes any MC dealer profitable (or not) is the service and parts business which we all on this forum know only too well. Without having any bikes on the road already, it will take a very long time for a stand alone dealer to turn a profit. From what I am hearing, they are struggling to find people to make the financial commitments it takes to build a store and are now starting to look harder at compromising to let existing MC dealers become new Indian dealers.   

[LabRat]

I unfortunately is marketing "smoke and mirrors". What makes any MC dealer profitable (or not) is the service and parts business which we all on this forum know only too well. Without having any bikes on the road already, it will take a very long time for a stand alone dealer to turn a profit. From what I am hearing, they are struggling to find people to make the financial commitments it takes to build a store and are now starting to look harder at compromising to let existing MC dealers become new Indian dealers.   

Well time will tell. If they add the 150-250 dealers by year end as they claim, then it is more than smoke and mirrors. They added 3 new dealers to their website this week alone.

[Grizzly]

If the new Indian's turn out to be as reliable as the Victory's are then having mega Indian dealerships across North America may not be as important as it would be when owning a HD. The closest Indian dealership to me now is two hours north in Calgary, which would be fine with me.  

Very good point.   

[bbrown]

Time will tell