There are confirmed news that Polaris, the parent company of the Indian Motorcycles, is planning to launch the iconic American motorcycle brand in the Indian automobile market as early as first quarter of 2014. This development has already been confirmed by Pankaj Dubey who is the Managing Director of Polaris India. With this, the company plans to explore the domestic market for its high-on-performance bikes. It must be noted that earlier, the news spread like fire that Polaris is preparing to soon launch motorcycles in the Indian auto market.
Indian Motorcycle had unveiled the Thunderstroke 111 engine earlier and subsequently, after a pompous array of advertisements, revealed the all-new 2014 Indian Chief at the prestigious annual motorcycle extravaganza held at Sturgis, USA. Notably, Indian Motorcycle was acquired by Polaris Industries that manufactures All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) and also owns Victory. Scott Wine, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Indian Motorcycle parent company Polaris Industries Inc., said, “When we acquired Indian Motorcycle two and a half years ago we set out to capture the heart, soul and legendary heritage of this iconic American brand and then infuse it with unparalleled design, engineering and state-of-the-art technology.”
The Indian Chief marks a three motorcycle range to start off with. All these three bikes are powered by the aforementioned newly developed Thunder Stroke 111 engine. Interestingly, the name of the engine has been derived from its 111 cabin inch displacement (1819 cc) that allows the generation of an impressive torque of up to 161 Nm. Notably, engine has always been one of the main highlights Indian bikes, but with the incoming of this all-new powerful engine, the experience will be altogether a different one. This 49 degree V-twin engine is mated with a 6-speed transmission for delivering a high performance. As confirmed by Polaris, the reliability of this engine has been proved by scaling over 3 million road and lab kilometres.
The price of the Chief Classic is $18,999 that amounts somewhere around Rs. 11.6 lakh. The bike has impressive exteriors that wear a deep nostalgic look. Various high-end features of this bike include fundamental balanced fenders, genuine leather saddle, alloy wheels, instruments on top of the tank and illuminated Indian head on the front fender. Notably, illuminated Indian head on the front fender is officially called as 'lighted war bonnet'. Even though this bike has an rustic appeal from outside, the used equipments are thoroughly modernised. Key-less ignition, Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), cruiser control, throttle-by-wire and the aluminium frame with integrated air intakes are some of the other high-value features that this vehicle mark.
It must be noted that the Chief Vintage model cost a litter higher than the Chief Classic. One just has to add an extra amount of $2,000 (Rs. 1,20,000 approx) in order to get the Chief Vintage against Chief Classic. This vehicle is also called as soft Bagger by the company. Features like a leather fringe, chrome fender tips and a quick-release wind screen make for a very practical Indian that can easily and quickly adapt to urban, leisure and full-on touring roles. The Indian Chief Chieftain is priced at $22,999. This top model comes with a number of top end specifications like integrated driving lights, powered windshield, audio system with Bluetooth and tyre pressure monitoring system.
