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/126505
hIndian and... he eighth Indian at motocycle) ever ver registered, but en cleaned up a bit from the pedals. Probably that not so much for assistance. like y's mopeds, but for pedaling e in case the engine quit. Note the er primitive spark control and ttle on the bicycle frame tubes, the total lack of adequate brakes. you imagine riding a Honda CBX nothing but a Bendix coaster e? e twin stands facilitate changing -something one had to do more ently back then. The gas tank fit the rear wheel, and had minimal city ·-but nobody thought of g this machine on the Canonball r Sea to Shining Sea Memorial hy Dash. either. The oil tank fit in front of the petrol rank. A ck controls the drip feed from the nk to the total loss lubrication e vacuum-operated intake valve st above the poppet side valve for MUSt. Note the strange shape of ition point cam. the primitive ty of the castings, the location of ir intake which takes heated air the cylinder fins--which helped -rease the velocity through the retor and the vacuum operated valve. engine acts as the central frame ube, while the large tube just the main front downtube holds batteries for the ignition system. Along with the eighth Indian, the museum has in its collection a twincylinder engine made a few years later. A magneto replaces the battery ignition system, and an oil pump is used to pump oil to the cylinders. This is a 30.50 cubic inch displacement-500cc for those of you not familiar with such dimensions, and was the fourteenth such engine produced by Indian. The carburetor shows a few improvements. though vacuumoperated intake valves are still featured. Note the strange series of holes below the fins on the cylinders, which may have been a primitive crankcase breather, or thought to improve cooling or lubrication. If you think that these machines look primitive, remember that it was only a few years earlier that Gottleib Daimler built his first motorcycle, with a wooden frame, wooden wheels, a wick-type carburetor, and an outside bunsen burner for the untimed hot· tube ignition system. That bunsen burner required a separate alcohol. fuel supplyl So when you think of today's shaft drives and rubber belt drives, automatic fuel taps, air forks and monoshock suspensions, think for a minute that they wouldn't mean a thing without the pioneering work of men like Daimler and Hendee, and machines like those in these pictures. Somehow I'd still like to be the guy who bought the seventh or nintti Indian, with his cloth cap, and tiny goggles, blasting down a dirt road with chickens and prim ladies scurrying out of the way hurling epithets after the speeding motorcycle demon. That beats an automatic fuel tap anydayl • -.