Saturday, March 17, 2012

Custom Indians















I have been thinking about building a custom Chief again.  The problem I have is that (in my opinion ) very few are an improvement on an original 30's rigid.  There was a guy in in Vallejo years ago that built a really cool little 48 Chief, but I think it gained from the use of a lot of stock parts.

Harley Davidson was always an easy platform to improve upon.  They were a bit clunky and gained quite it bit in the looks department when all the excess equipment was removed.  There is probably not a cooler looking bike than a well done Knucklehead or even a nicely executed XLCH Sportster.

I think the issue with bobbing or chopping a Chief is that the stock frame was kind of ungainly when viewed without it's sheet metal.  I know a lot of builders jumped all over the use of an Indian leaf spring front end lately, but they are a little weird looking without the front fender to balance them out.  Kiwi built some custom Indian frames that clean up the lines on his bikes.  I wonder what an original Indian glide front end would look like when coupled with one of his custom frames ???

I posted a picture of a 35 Chief as a base line, pretty hard to improve upon.





This picture courtesy of Occhio Lungo


Indian Larry on his Indian Chief, this is a very clean little bike.  I wish i could find a good clear picture of this bike, but so far no luck.