ROYAL ENFIELD WESTENER

While at the show one of the cruisers that got my attention was a blue Indian bike that was entered in the Competition Class. Upon nearer examination, I discovered that it was a 1957 Indian

Westerner. The Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company (take note of this is right spelling – it is "Motorcycle" not "cruiser") has an exceptionally checker-ed past and I am not simply alluding to its opposition achievement. At one time, and for a long time, Indian was the principle American bike opponent to Harley Davidson. There was a significant contention between the two makers – both in the commercial centre and on the race track. At the end of the day Harley Davidson won, and the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company, which was situated in Springfield, Massachusetts, only a couple of miles from my home, left business.I trust that the first Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company left business in 1985, yet many will state that the Indian cruiser truly finished in 1953.

After 1953, Indian quit making the majority of their own bikes and went into different associations with different organisations as they hunt down approaches to keep in the bike business. Accordingly, Indian bikes more current than 1953, are held in less regard by Indian fans than the prior motorcycles.In the mid-1950s, Indian went into a concurrence with the Enfield organisation in England to purchase motors from Enfield and utilise them in Indian bikes. This is the beginning of the 1957 Indian Westerner appeared in this post. The Indian Westerner utilise a 500cc single barrel motor that was basically an Enfield. The base motor was the same 500cc motor utilised as a part of the Enfield Bullet.The Indian Westerner was an opposition adaptation of the Indian Woodsman. The Westerner had low open pipes, an Amal TT carburetor and dashing magneto. As it was an opposition bike, it had no lights or speedometer.As these were rivalry cruisers couple of Indian Westerner bikes were inherent 1957 and 1958, so it is was a treat to see one at the British Iron Association of Massachusetts Spring appear. While the Indian Westerner is not a genuine British bike, it absolutely has a solid British association by means of Enfield. Later the Enfield association with Indian finished and Indian went into different concurrences with organisations like Matchless. Enfield promoted their own particular bikes in the USA under the Royal Enfield mark.