A new bike

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ballisticexchris

Guest
The other day my buddy took delivery of something as rare as I have ever seen in my life. Better than when it came out of the factory 79 years ago. I followed him home and boy did he struggle. There are 12 steps just to starting it cold.

It started on the first kick.

Throttle on the left, ignition advance on the right, right shifter handle 1 back 3 forward, left foot clutch. The trick is to use both hand grips simultaneously to modulate the throttle and timing. No spring return on either side. This bike is a real handful.

The motor is completely rebuilt and modified with brass bushings, babbitt/roller bearings. The owner wanted 95,000.00 for it. He is going through a divorce so sold it to my friend for 79,000.00. I was almost scared to even sit on it.

The thing that amazes me is how smooth the motor is. The engine builder did a fantastic job of balancing it. It has less than 20 miles on a full concours restoration. I was kind of pissed that I was the only one wearing a mask and gloves. This guy is a good friend though and I wanted to make sure he made it home safe.

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ballisticexchris

Guest
The mind blower was he did zero research on how to start and ride this machine other than speaking with the owner. I ended up taking notes from an old manual I found online and youtube video of an older one. I took video of him riding it but will not post it as to not embarrass him. There were 3 or three times I thought he was going to drop the bike. He stalled a few times and struggled to restart. He is not used to kicking over bikes.

Cold Starting Procedure For Indian 4


1 Turn left side fuel petcock counterclockwise and pull down to on position
Use only one petcock at a time to run engine

2 Push choke all the way down to on position

3 Ignition timing on right grip 1/4 turn back

4 Full throttle on left grip

5 Kick it through slow a few times then a good kick to hear it “bark”

6 Turn throttle all the way off

7 Turn ignition on

8 Pull choke all the way up then down one click

9 Turn throttle 1/4 turn to idle it up when started

10 Go just past TDC of compression stroke with kicker

11 Bring kick pedal all the way up and kick it hard to start

12 Let it warm a bit while checking oil pressure (40-45 PSI on your bike),
and amps flickering in the zero range.

13 When you here a slight sputter, bring throttle down lightly,
bring choke up to off position

14 READY TO RIDE!!
 

JJTJ2

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Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri
That is super cool. There is no way that I could have ridden it. #1) The price if I drop it. #2) I don't think I could have kept all the controls straight and that would have lead to me dropping it.
 
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ballisticexchris

Guest
That is super cool. There is no way that I could have ridden it. #1) The price if I drop it. #2) I don't think I could have kept all the controls straight and that would have lead to me dropping it.
I'm with you!! there are a lot of things to think about in order to ride it.
 

EricV

Riding, farkling, riding...
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It's a beautiful bike. I've always liked the inline fours. They never sold as well, back in the day, because everyone wanted a Chief. All the stuff you quickly get used to if you're riding it every day. Probably never happen on this bike, which is understandable for an $80k purchase.

I rode a '40 HD Knucklehead with manual advance timing and kick start for several years. You didn't really think about the various steps, it was muscle memory. Teaching the next owner how to start it w/o flooding it took a few tries before he got it.
 

tntmo

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Nov 10, 2017
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San Diego, CA
Really cool. To have an opportunity just to sit on one or try to start one would be amazing. Getting to ride it would be great, but I'd also not want the burden of being the guy who dropped it.

Have any of you seen the Cannonball event where they ride the old motorcycles across the country? I can't believe how many people have old bikes like this that are willing to put big miles on.
 

Madhatter

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buda texas
seriously im thinking he is lucky he didn't scratch it or himself . would be like setting 79k on fire in the front yard. I guess there is a positive , be few people who could start it and ride off with it.
 
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ballisticexchris

Guest
And, since the price to play is usually so high, it's not something I need to worry about too much.
I'm with you there. Here is the kicker. This same guy has 3 Gilroy Indians and a War Indian. he also has a 1945, 1946, and 1947 in pieces. All said he has 250,000.00 - 400,000.00 in Indians.


seriously im thinking he is lucky he didn't scratch it or himself . would be like setting 79k on fire in the front yard. I guess there is a positive , be few people who could start it and ride off with it.
If you could have seen him struggle riding that thing!!
 

Checkswrecks

Ungenear to broked stuff
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I rode a suicide shifter Harley with the old control placements years ago and it was HARD. Rode a Chinese 150 around Taiwan with a rotary heel-toe shifter and it was one of the few bikes I grew to really dislike.
 
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