(first of all, since that post is more than 2 line long, I must apologize for my poor English. Hope you will read it till the end...)
2 weeks ago, I’ve been to Vegas for a week, mostly for riding... Spent $3 in slot machines... I wanted to try something new so instead of renting a FL, I tried the new Indian Chief Vintage. I took it at EagleRider in Vegas and When I looked at the odometer, it only showed 100 miles on it. (I told the guy that I was going for a long run, but it seems that was not a problem. Fine with me...
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I had the chance to ride it in almost every possible condition: over 100, near 40, rain, hail, real heavy winds ( I mean scary winds), city streets, hours of highways, mountains, ... I missed the snow by 3 hours in Flagstaff, so I can’t tell you much about handling in the snow...
I must say that I was really impressed by the power of the beast, but also by the handling. For those familiar with Death Valley, I climbed Dante’s View road at a good speed and the tight curves near the top felt like nothing. I must say that the Chief is a heavy one when it comes to backing it parking lots that are not flat but when it comes to riding (especially in strong crosswinds), I love it.
The engine has lots of power and all you hear when it’s running is the engine and the pipes. You don’t hear all those Harley noises... The pipes have a good sound, louder than my Breakout stock pipes, but not by that much. I don’t know what the aftermarket options are to improve that though. Unfortunately, my bike had an issue with the valves. At some speeds, there was a real annoying noise. I just hope that this is not a common problem with these bikes cause it’s a real pain after a while. The only solution I found was to ride at higher speed!
Riding at 90 mph on highways can be very hazardous with the Indian. At that speed, if you had any vibrations, they’re gone. No sign of wobbling, comfortable seat, so only hearing the wind and the “less quiet” pipes at that speed, you could easily fall asleep!
I also experienced something for the first time in my life... I think it has something to do with the leather seat and bags but I never saw so many people taking pictures of a motorcycle and I was filmed by passengers in cars on at least two occasions while riding on the highway! What I experienced for the first time is that 3 people asked me to take pictures of them while they were sitting on it! At a gas station near area 51, there was a bus full of French tourists. Maybe 20 of them took their break time to take pictures of it while I was sitting nearby, drinking water (yes, water). “Non mais putain, tu m’as vu ce Harley! Si on avait ça chez nous… »… « Enfin, des vrais bikers américains avec leurs Harleys! ». Many people think it’s a Harley and those tourists also thought that I was a real “American biker”. When I told them in French that this was an Indian and that I was from Canada, they immediately erased their pictures, got back in the bus and left...
Conclusion: If you ask me what I would choose between a 21K$ Indian Chief Vintage with a 111’’, ABS, Cruise Control, odometer that can be configured in mph or kph and a 18k$ 103’’ Heritage Softail Classic ? Well, if it was not for that huge ugly “vintage space age cell phone style” power button on the gas tank and the fact that I own to many objects with a HD logo on it, I would probably go with the chief. Then again, since there is no Indian CVO.............
dah
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Topic: I gave the Indian a 1300 miles test ride… (Read 1936 times)