A Special Supplement

A Special Supplement

Indian

Indian. An old American motorcycle. Some people regard it as dead. Unusable. And therefore junk. Junk, even antique junk, is too remote from “now.” So the “now” people regard old Indians with passive disinterest. Indians, they think, are reserved for the prying, fanatic fingers of an archeologist/repairman.

Motorcyclists, though, may see the Indian differently. It is, after all, a motorcycle. And a motorcycle is a neat thing. Intriguing for its mechanical self. Promising in its function. Suggestive of a more exposed, nervy, physical life that was, in simpler times, a man’s everyday connection to the world.

And so we turn to the relic side of motorcycling. We offer you a slice of Indian—today and past. A brief respite from the dizzying store-to-junkpile pace of the Appliance Age. Must everything we make and use be consigned to rust and rot in a few, quick years? No! Fight back! Restore! Maintain! Immobilize a piece of history, if only for a few brief moments. Reflect upon Indian. Remnant of a naive age, when people were unabashed to be alive.—Dan Hunt