INTERVIEW
PRESIDENT OF MOTORCYCLES AT POLARIS INDUSTRIES INC., STEVE MENNETO
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Indian's potential for innovation
to the marketplace, in order to
make great bikes to be ridden and
enjoyed. I think everything is an
opportunity for us with Indian as
we look forward, and one of the
things that follows from our deci-
sion to terminate Victory is that it
has opened up the opportunities
for Indian very nicely in terms of
developing bikes that are quite dif-
ferent and more modern in design
and styling. Some of them may
now be more race focused, more
aggressive and more performance
based, without us saying—hey,
we mustn't let Indian stray onto
Victory's turf! That's all behind us
now.
So with the demise of Victo-
ry, which was considered to be
the modern brand in the Polaris
two-wheeled offering, you can
now spread Indian right across
the marketplace. Could that in-
clude a dual-purpose model for
the Adventure Sports market
to rival the globally best-selling
BMW R 1200 GS?
There are absolutely no restric-
tions on what kind of motorcycle
we can make in future with an
Indian badge on it, and we plan
to take full advantage of that
freedom to produce a range of in-
novative products that will be fun
to ride, as well as great to look at.
Remember that Indian developed
its first motorcycles as a way of
getting around when there were
hardly any roads as we know
them today. So I certainly believe
Indian can look at markets like
that one.
The Triumph Bonneville has
enjoyed massive sales success
around the world as a midca-
pacity retro product, to the
point where Ducati has tried
to emulate it with their Scram-
bler models. Do you think
their 800cc category is a field
where Indian can potentially be
involved?
Yes, I think Indian can bring
interesting products to such a seg-
ment.
Menneto sees a bright future
for Indian and Polaris.
