{"id":8884,"date":"2016-02-04T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/museonicolis.com\/?p=8884"},"modified":"2025-11-20T15:14:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T14:14:04","slug":"indian-chief-con-sidecar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.museonicolis.com\/en\/indian-chief-con-sidecar\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian, 1922, Chief with sidecar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indian \u201cChief with sidecar\u201d, 1922, USA<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1200 cc V-twin engine with 3 speeds<\/strong>
\nThe two most famous Indian models, the Scout<\/strong> and the Chief,<\/strong> were both born in the 20s.<\/strong>\u00a0The models shared the same engine architecture: 42\u00b0 V twin<\/strong>, 596cc<\/strong> for the first and a liter for the second.\u00a0<\/strong>They both gained a good reputation for their toughness and\u00a0 reliability, causing them to be sold, with modernizations, for thirty years.
\n<\/strong>In the mid 20s Indian big twins\u00a0were the Chief 61 and the Chief 74, 997 cc and 1206 cc, respectively.
\nIn 1927\u00a0Ace Motor Corporation <\/strong>bought\u00a0Indian, refreshing the engine range, that already\u00a0included medium displacement single-cylinders, with new straight-4s. <\/strong>In\u00a01930 <\/strong>the company merged with the car manufacturer\u00a0Du Pont Motors<\/strong>\u00a0but soon the car production stopped to focus more on motorbikes.
\nThe 1929<\/strong> crysis hit Indian as well and the production fell to 4.500 bikes<\/strong> annually, a number that remained unchanged until WWII. Indian was indeed the greatest rival of Harley-Davidson, the other US big motorcycle company.<\/p>\n\r\n\r\n \r\n