Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1127887
INDIAN'S MAN OF THE WEST CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE I t was 1949, and Indian Motor- cycle was struggling. It was so bad that the company could not fulfill the orders it had from all-important police and other municipality orders. West Coast distributor Hap Alzina got the news and selflessly shipped large stocks of parts he had in his West Coast warehouse just so Indian could build bikes to fulfill its orders. Then, not long after that, Alzina learned that Indian was to the point of being so cash strapped that it wasn't going to be able to meet payroll. Again, Alzina went into action to try to save the manufacturer by placing a large advance order, well over his usual numbers, just so Indian would have an instant cash infusion and be able to pay its employees. Alzina's ardent devotion to Indian motorcycles went back to the early years of America's first major motorcycle company. When he was just 15 years old, he bought his first Indian, and he loved it. So much so that when he was 17, he took a job as a mechanic for an Indian dealer- ship in San Francisco and quickly worked his way up to service manager. Born on September 14, 1894, Loris Alzina's interest in motorcy- cling began early in life. As a boy, P112 becoming increasingly popular, and Alzina tried his hand in com- petition. He did some flat-track racing, but his primary interest was endurance runs. Alzina raced in many of the early desert city-to-city runs that were popular at the time. In 1919, Alzina edged well-known racers Wells Ben- nett and Cannonball Baker to win the prestigious San Francisco Motorcycle Club Two-Day Endur- ance Run. That was a huge upset victory over two very popular racers. Of the 30 starters in the 680-mile endurance event, only seven riders managed to finish. Competitors had to battle against rain, hail, snow and even a land- slide during the February con- test. One rider slid off a muddy wooden bridge and was injured when he fell into the creek below. Hap Alzina (left) poses with race winner Earl Armstrong (center) and Cannonball Baker after a 300-mile race in Tacoma, Washington, in 1915. he bought his first motorcycle, a Reading-Standard, for $50. In 1909, Alzina's family moved from Santa Cruz, California, to San Francisco. There, he bought his first Indian from CC Hopkins, who was the Indian distributor for Northern California at the time. It was for Hopkins' agency that Alzina began working for Indian. Alzina spent 56 years devoting himself to motorcycling. Involved in motorcycling from its infancy, he is best known for being the west- ern states distributor for Indian and later, BSA. He oversaw the sales of those brands during the height of their popularity. Alzina, who earned the nickname "Hap" from his good-natured attitude, also sponsored many of the top AMA professional racers. In the early 1910s, racing was