The original mile eater
Once the largest-volume manufacturer of motorcycles in the world, Indian’s acquisition by Polaris in 2011 marked the latest chapter in 110 years of tribal turmoil representing the roller-coaster fortunes of America’s oldest and most historic motorcycle marque, ever since ‘The Wigwam’, as the Indian Motocycle (sic) Manufacturing Company liked to call its factory, was founded back in 1901 in Springfield, Massachusetts, by Indian chiefs George Hendee and Oscar Hedstrom. By the way, that makes Indian today America’s oldest extant motorcycle company, established two years before Harley-Davidson…
Polaris Industries’ then boss of motorcycles Steve Menneto was the man tasked with making the takeover work, and when specifically asked about the chances of a future Indian Four alongside the inevitable range of new V-twin models wearing the Headress emblem, he didn’t rule it out. “Indian’s history shows how innovative the brand was in the past, and I can tell you we’re going to take full advantage of that in our future model strategy, beyond what you might expect from the start,” he said. Still, no modern-day Indian Four as yet 10 years on, as a modern day revival of the firm’s range-topping model in its pre-Second World War glory days, when Indian acquired what amounted to the USA’s foremost four in 1927, by purchasing the defunct Ace Motor Corporation.
When Scottish-born brothers William G and Thomas W Henderson founded the Henderson Motorcycle Company in Detroit, Michigan in 1911, their aim was to manufacture a luxurious, reliable four-cylinder machine that was far superior to anything else then available in a US marketplace dominated by often primitive singles, and more potent but still evolving V-twins. Bill Henderson was one of the finest engineers in America’s early days of motorcycle development, and the quality of his designs arguably outranked anything yet made by a European manufacturer, even Belgium’s FN company which had invented the four-cylinder motorcycle in 1904, resulting in the Henderson brothers’ products being known as ‘two-wheeled Duesenbergs.’
Henderson Motorcycle Co built 25 examples of its first 9bhp Four for public sale in 1912, powered by
