the value of july 2018 - issue #30 - kiwi indian · are some 300 antique/vintage indian motorcycles...

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Presenting Partner: July 2018 - Issue #30 The Value of Connecting Mid June is the Northern California meet in Dixon, CA. It’s a nice meet on a beautiful fairgrounds spread over two days, Friday and Saturday, which are usually stinkin’ hot. This year, as luck would have it, there was a cooling trend that lasted for just those two days, which made for a comfy meet. Saturday afternoon everyone bailed to get home for Sunday, Father’s Day. Unfortunately it’s not a good day for me as my only son Ross passed away four years ago (July 22) at age 20, which has left a huge void in my life. An older gentleman (Harold) came up to me at Dixon and I could tell he wanted to share a private moment, so we stepped aside to chat. Over the two days we formed a special bond as he, too, lost his son. As a youngster, all Harold ever wanted to do was fly for FedEx and retire with FedEx, which he eventually did. As we talked in Dixon, Harold gave me the first set of wings he ever earned after joining with FedEx in his youth. This first set of wings meant a lot to him but Sign up for the most informative Indian MotoCycle Newsletter on the planet for both vintage and new Indian owners! http://www.kiwiindian.com/sign-up-form

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Page 1: The Value of July 2018 - Issue #30 - Kiwi Indian · are some 300 antique/vintage Indian motorcycles here. We have a number of early Indian motocycles like Powerplus/Hedstroms here,

Presenting Partner:

July 2018 - Issue #30

The Value ofConnecting

Mid June is the Northern Californiameet in Dixon, CA. It’s a nice meet ona beautiful fairgrounds spread over twodays, Friday and Saturday, which areusually stinkin’ hot. This year, as luckwould have it, there was a cooling trendthat lasted for just those two days,which made for a comfy meet.Saturday afternoon everyone bailed toget home for Sunday, Father’s Day.Unfortunately it’s not a good day for meas my only son Ross passed away fouryears ago (July 22) at age 20, whichhas left a huge void in my life.An older gentleman (Harold) came upto me at Dixon and I could tell hewanted to share a private moment, sowe stepped aside to chat. Over the twodays we formed a special bond as he,too, lost his son.As a youngster, all Harold ever wantedto do was fly for FedEx and retire withFedEx, which he eventually did. As wetalked in Dixon, Harold gave me thefirst set of wings he ever earned afterjoining with FedEx in his youth. Thisfirst set of wings meant a lot to him but

Sign up for the most informative IndianMotoCycle Newsletter on the planet forboth vintage and new Indian owners!http://www.kiwiindian.com/sign-up-form

Page 2: The Value of July 2018 - Issue #30 - Kiwi Indian · are some 300 antique/vintage Indian motorcycles here. We have a number of early Indian motocycles like Powerplus/Hedstroms here,

he was happy to share his son’s storyand pass his wings along to me. It wasa very special moment.In your day-to-day life, reach out andmake a difference in someone else’slife. The rewards are more than youcan ever imagine.

Now read on as we’ve packed thisissue with news, Indian Motorcyclehistory, and riding stories from Norway,Thailand, and Death Valley.

Mike Tomas, PresidentKiwi Indian Motorcycles Inc.

Kiwi Recognized bySturgis Buffalo Chip

We’re honored and excited to saywe’ve been chosen by the SturgisBuffalo Chip to receive a 2018Motorcycle Moxie Award at the Chip’sIndustry Reception that kicks off theSturgis Rally on August 5th. As statedin the message from theBuffalo Chip’s owner, Rod “Woody”Woodruff, “Those who’vedemonstrated the backbone, skills,determination and cajones to start abusiness, grow it and prosper amidstdifficult economic challenges in anintensely competitive marketplacehave earned respect and recognition.You, through Kiwi Indian, have nowbeen doing that for thirty (30) years.”

Said Kiwi Mike, “Of course, Carolynand I agreed to be on hand for theawards presentation. We are gratefulfor this kind recognition.”

The Buffalo Chip Moxie Award

A Racer Called "Shrimp"

This flattrack custom, based on anIndian Scout Sixty, pays tribute to oneof Indian’s earliest heroes, Albert

Page 3: The Value of July 2018 - Issue #30 - Kiwi Indian · are some 300 antique/vintage Indian motorcycles here. We have a number of early Indian motocycles like Powerplus/Hedstroms here,

“Shrimp” Burns, whose story started atthe age of 14 and ended at 23 in aracing accident. The guys from Italiancustom shop Anvil Motociclette, SanMarco and Phonz, spent over 300hours on the bike, which was unveiledat the 2018 Wheels & Waves Festivalin Biarritz, France. The bike isn’t justfor show either; it was raced during thefestival by Italian flat track rider,Emanuele Marzotto.San Marco and Phonz are particularlyproud of the fuel tank, the race platesand the fenders, all handmade in steel.Many of Anvil’s previous projects haveoriginated out of historic motorcyclingcharacters and San Marco says: “Whatwe loved about Shrimp’s story was thathe was very young, but had greatdetermination. His personality andperseverance in his short but thrillinglife is inspiring.”

We’ll tell you the Shrimp’s story in theAugust Kiwi e-news

Photos by Merry Michau

It's Here!: The Indian FTR 1200 Goes IntoProduction

A year of speculation was put to rest when Indian Motorcycles announced that itwill bring an FTR 1200 to market. The bike takes inspiration from Indian’s

Page 4: The Value of July 2018 - Issue #30 - Kiwi Indian · are some 300 antique/vintage Indian motorcycles here. We have a number of early Indian motocycles like Powerplus/Hedstroms here,

dominating flat track race bike, the FTR750, and the FTR1200 Custom conceptbike, but the new bike has a street-focused look of its own. The FTR 1200 will bepart of Indian Motorcycle’s 2019 product line. Stay tuned for the actual releasedate.

At the same time, Indian also announced a sweepstakes surrounding the FTR1200 that will give riders the chance to win one of the first bikes off the assemblyline. Visit the link for a chance to win the highly anticipated new model.https://www.win-ftr1200.com/

A Good Sign for IndianFans

There’s a new collection of attractiveIndian themed signs now on offer fromCruisin’ Goods to spiff up your garage,office or man/woman cave. See, thefolks at Cruisin’ Goods are gearheads,too, and they’ve gathered up this selectgroup of signage for fans of the Indianmarque. Check them out at the link,along with other wide ranging andcollectible classic car and motorcycleart from a variety of carefully chosenartists, many pieces signed andnumbered:https://store.cruisingoods.net/indian-motorcycle-gallery

A Tribute to EvelKnievel

On July 8th, Nitro Circus performerTravis Pastrana paid tribute to EvelKnievel by recreating – successfully –three of Knievel’s most iconic feats –on a modern Indian Scout FTR750. In aHistory Channel event titled “Evel Live,”Pastrana broke two of Knievel’srecords for jumping over cars andbuses, then flew over the Caesar’sPalace fountain with apparent ease, 50years after Knievel’s legendary crashattempting the same.Fans on site numbered 25,000 andmany more watched the live TVbroadcast as Pastrana first toppedKnievel’s 1973 jump over 50 crushedcars by soaring more than 143 feet inthe air over 52 vehicles. Then hesurpassed Knievel’s 1975 jump over

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14 buses, flying nearly four stories highand covering a jaw-dropping 192 feetto clear 16 modern-day Greyhoundbuses.Given the expansion of CaesarsPalace since Knievel’s ill-fatedattempt, Pastrana had only a 200-footrun-in to accelerate to the 70-mphspeed necessary to clear the fountain.Pastrana also had to contend withstifling heat reaching 102 degrees andpotential thunderstorms. But, afterarcing over the fountains, Pastranatouched safely down on the landingramp to the roaring crowd and a flashof pyrotechnics.“I’m thrilled to have had this opportunityto honor Evel Knievel, whose guts andshowmanship created the foundationfor action sports,” Travis Pastrana saidafterwards. “Evel pushed himself andflew further on a motorcycle thananyone thought possible. So with thismodern day tribute we wanted tobridge generations – from my parentsgeneration who was inspired by Evel tothe generation after me who may notknow much about the original stunt menwho paved the way – HISTORY® andNitro Circus wanted to show just howincredible his accomplishments were.To be able do that in Las Vegas and atCaesars Palace, where Evel’s legendwas born, is so awesome.”See more here:https://jalopnik.com/travis-pastrana-lands-three-incredible-record-breaking-1827433656

Riding Antique Indiansin Norway

After Halvor Midtvek wrote to ask KiwiMike’s advice, Mike asked Halvor totell us about what it’s like riding inNorway. Halvor rides his ’47 quite a lotand about his bike, he says, “It's soeasy/comfortable to ride in traffic. Butthe leafspring Chief is the best forgravel roads and fast curvy roads.”

The weather in Norway is somewhatunpredictable, especially up in thenorth and along the west coast. I ridewith Goretex riding gear and a full-facehelmet to keep the worst of the weatherout. I may have to add a windscreenwhen I get older! When riding alone I can ride for hours

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Then he added, “The InternationalIndian rally will be in this area ofNorway in 2021, so I will focus onsome of the more easily accessibleroads here in the south of Norway.”If you don’t want to ride in Norway atthe end of reading Halvor’s report, gohave a check-up, mate! Norway, the land of fjords andmountains! Located in the northern partof Europe, where Vikings and PolarBears roam the land!Well, in fact, the Vikings are long gone,and no polar bears live on the mainlandof Norway. But we have some of thebest and most scenic roads, and thereare some 300 antique/vintage Indianmotorcycles here. We have a numberof early Indian motocycles likePowerplus/Hedstroms here, and 1920sto late 1930s Chief and Scout models,which were sold new in Norway. And agrowing number of bikes from the1940’s, imported in later years. Latelythe number of Polaris made Indiansare growing as well.Norway is a long and narrow country,with the North Atlantic Ocean to thewest and Sweden/Finland/Russia onthe East. The long fjords on the westernpart of Norway make for a thrillingmotorcycle ride. Back in the old days,the roads where built following thecoastline/fjords. Now we havetunnels/bridges which pass over orunder the fjords, but I still prefer to ridethe old but slow roads which follow thefjords. Also there are some nicemountain passes where snow can beseen, even in the summer.I don’t like riding on straight, flat roads,I tend to search for the most curvy orsteep road I can find. With only about 5million people living here in Norway it isquite possible to find a traffic-freeroad. From June to August there will besome RVs/camper trailers etc. on theroads heading for the touristattractions. A lot of tourists andmotorcyclist spend some weeks inNorway travelling up to the North Cape,the northernmost point of Europe. Thenorthern part is in the arctic circle, so itis daylight even at night in the summermonths. I have been up to the northern

and hours, it is just so much to seealong the road. I have done some tripswhere I have been riding 12 to 15hours a day, no problem when thedaylight lasts almost to midnight! Onmost of the roads the maximum speedlimit is 70 or 80km/h and the roadsusually pass through small villageswhere the speed limit is less. So, theaverage speed isn’t very high - perfectfor riding old Indians. Brakes are moreof a problem though, so I have done afront brake upgrade on my ’44 chief.Still running brake drums though. Riding on some of the scenic ruralroads in Norway is like riding a rollercoaster, the road goes left-right-left-right and up or down steepmountainsides. The strain on thedrivetrain is high, with lots of climbingor descents using first or secondgear. With some modern internalupgrades and modern oil the Chiefengines are running a lot longerbetween top end rebuilds. I find the oldIndians to be quite sturdy, most of thetime the problems can be fixed out onthe road. And usually if someonenotices you working on an oldmotorcycle on the road, they will stop tooffer you some help.I did ride the Chief a lot more 10 yearsago when I had less responsibilities, upto 17K kilometers each year. Now I tryto do 2 or 3 full weekends of riding, inaddition to riding to work daily. In sucha weekend I can cover 500 to 600kilometers in a day, riding from earlymorning until late at night! I love ridingthe old Indians, they are such a joy toride! I don’t consider my old Indians asa monetary investment, I keep them toRIDE and to challenge myself to learnand fix things myself!We have some very nice club ralliesand meetings here in Norway duringthe summer. The Norwegian IndianClub summer meet is in the start ofAugust each year, and we often travelto the neighbor countries of Denmarkand Sweden for Indian related rallies. InEurope we also have the annualInternational Indian Rally. This summerit will be in France. In July 2021 theinternational Indian rally will be in thesouthern part of Norway where Ilive. There are some pretty fun and

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parts (and the North Cape) a few timeswith my 1944 military Chief and lastyear I rode my 1947 Chief up there.When riding alone, I usually just bring asmall tent in case there are novacancies in the small cabins andhotels along the main roads. It is quitesafe to camp in Norway. I bring a spareone-litre gasoline bottle just in case Imiss the gas station, but usually findinggasoline is no problem.

scenic roads in this area. Some of thepictures in this article are from theSuleskard Road which is a summer-only open road over a mountain passfrom the southeast to the west coast ofNorway. For the very brave it ispossible to ride down to the Lysebotnvillage where 1000-meter-highmountains rise up directly from the fjord(ocean sea level.) The last part of theroad is a near 900-meter drop withsteep hairpin curves! This and severalother scenic roads are easilyaccessible if you add some days to avisit in southern Norway.

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They Don’t Call It “Death Valley”For NothingBy Kiwi Mike

My mate Jeff Opal lives in NorthCarolina and he has a large collectionof classic 70’s era bikes. Now andagain he gets out to the west coast ashe works for Toyota RacingDevelopment, Nascar engines division.He loves to escape for the day and visitmy shop to work on archaic Indian V-twin engines here at Kiwi. Last time Itaught him about honing conrods, fittingshafts and races, and truing andbalancing flywheels.Recently he wanted to do it again but Ihad other plans for him, as I wanted todo some seat-of-the-pants engine testriding in Death Valley. So we drove theKiwi van to Stovepipe Wells in DeathValley after a romantic (joke, okay?)dinner in Panamint Springs, which isone big valley before Death Valley. Wearrived at 10 p.m. and it was still 100degrees out. Oh boy, that’s still stinkin’hot. But I love Death Valley for itsnatural beauty. Wednesday morning we unloaded thebikes and set out to go down evendeeper into Death Valley, which at itsdeepest is 282 feet below sea level,the lowest place in North America. Our

We headed onwards to Badwater,which has the lowest elevation in NorthAmerica at 282’ below sea level. Thereused to be a mark on the cliff but it gotrinsed off in last winter’s nasty storm.To give you some idea, it’s about two-thirds the way up the cliff. If the earthhad flooded right at the time we werethere, there’d have been no way toescape - it’s sink or swim. By this point, the heat was gettingunbearable, but we’d come to test inextreme conditions and that’s what wewere doing. Next ride was to a higher elevation ofmaybe 2000 feet to get a picture by theDeath Valley Park entry sign. My mateJeff informed me that the tempchanges about 3-5 deg per 1000’ ofelevation, which worked for me. Anycooling felt good even if it wastemporary. I wasn’t feeling right at theDeath Valley Park sign; I had becomeunknowingly dehydrated. I sucked onsome more water and it helped but afew miles down the road I becamedizzy and figured I’d ride my bike ontothe shoulder and ditch while I was stillable to. I rested in the ditch sucking on

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purpose was to test some newproducts under the most extremeconditions. Most of the car, truck andbig rig manufacturers do producttesting here in these extremeconditions. It’s one thing to be testing in122-degree heat but it’s another toclimb the long and steep grades thatDeath Valley offers. This year FordTrucks were out there pulling some bigloads. Our saddlebags were filled up withbottles of water, which soon becamehot water. No matter how many youpack, it never seems to be enough,which I came to find out. We started out riding past the sanddunes, which you gotta wonder: howthe heck are there huge mountains ofsand in just that one spot? Well, it’scaused by all the sand particles pickedup by the winds and held in suspensionway up in the air. The eddy currentspeter out right in that spot and all thefine particles fall from the sky. Wow,what a sight!The day was already warming up andafter some miles we drove throughArtist’s Pallete, which is a magnificent,narrow one-way road with twists andturns and hills with big whoopty-doosthat you don’t think have a bottom asyou come over the top. I’ve done itmany times before but it’s stillexhilarating, to say the least. Along theway there’s a viewpoint to look at thedifferent beautiful-colored mineralsbleeding out of the rocky cliffs.Down the road a bit we headed offdown a shitty non-maintained, wash-boarded gravel road till the end, whichis Devil’s Golf Course. I’m not sure howto explain it, but it’s like a whole bunchof mounds about a foot high projectingout of the valley floor, so many of themthat you’ve gotta walk on top of them.The mounds are made of salt left fromthe flooding waters of the winter rainsand the later evaporation during spring.The mounds are irregular shapes andyou dare not slip off of one otherwiseyou’re going to get severely scratchedup, as the salt crystals are gnarly. It’sstinkin’ hot and you can hear the saltcracking in the heat. It’s most unusual.

more water to try and recover. If youare looking for shade, well forget it. Idid recall seeing a 10x10 sheltersomewhere back where you pay yourpark fee but I didn’t recall where it wasnor could I have gotten to it anyway inthe condition I was in. As I lay on the hot ground I kept thinkingthat the sun was still beating on me andit seemed counterproductive but whatchoice did I have? After about half anhour I came right and we set off downthe road, eventually coming to the10x10 covered area. We pulled in for abreak in the shade, taking in morewater. That bit of shade was highlywelcomed. I never thought the heatwould get to me and I thought I wasdrinking plenty of water but apparentlynot. People die out here and I see why.It’s so easy to let one’s guard down. It’llsneak up on you and then it’s too late. Will Kiwi Mike recover enough to ridehis Indian out of Death Valley? WillJeff succumb to dehydration? Will themotorcycles manage the challenge ofthe searing heat? Check back nextissue for the rest of the story.

Artist’s Palette

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Jeff Opal on a Kiwi 1939 Chieftain.Warning?

Devil’s Golf Course

Sea level is two-thirds of the way upthe cliff!

Shortly after this pic, I got dizzy andhad to pull over into the ditch.

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Indian Come Home Day at IMOS

A Colorado Adventure

When Aaron Miller told Kiwi Mikeabout his parents riding their Indianback in 1948, Mike asked him toshare the story with all of us – alongwith classic images, too. Here’sAaron’s story:

In 1947 my Dad and a friend thatalready had an Indian rode to KansasCity, Missouri, to an Indian motorcycledealer on Truman Road. Dad decidedto just up and buy a Chief and rode iton back home about 70 miles. He rodeit right up in the front yard to the frontdoor of their house to proudly displayhis new motorcycle.Mom was way less than impressed atfirst, but apparently she warmed up tothe Indian Chief as the next year theytook out on a road trip from central

Here’s Dad and the Indian

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Missouri to Colorado to see theContinental Divide up by Boulder.Somewhere near the ContinentalDivide on some mountain road, Dadwas kicking up a lot of gravel and such.Mom told him she'd had enough andthat she would get off and run alongbeside him the rest of the way up theincline. So she did … Ha!Later, near dusk, coming back downthe mountain, a deer jumped out infront of them and scared Mom as shethought it was a bear! A bit down theroad, Dad had to ask her to slack off alittle on holding on so tight so he couldbreathe. A day or two later they wereback home with a lot of road and a fewadventures behind them. It's hard tovisualize riding tandem that far on asaddle seat!

And here’s Mom and the Indian

Aaron’s dad with his riding friends.Dad is on the right.

Sturgis Rally Roots

The Sturgis Rally is coming up quicklyand one of our favorite events there is theSturgis Motorcycle Museum Hall of Fameinduction breakfast. This year, Jack Hoelis a being inducted into the Hall of Fame(Kiwi Mike was inducted in 2010.) Someknow Jack as a flat track racer, others asthe main man behind the development ofthe Yamaha XS650 dirt tracker. Most know

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Jack Hoel because of his parents, Pappyand Pearl Hoel, owners of the Indiandealership in Sturgis. But he hasmotorcycle credentials in his own right.Here’s an excerpt from an interview withJack from the Sturgis MotorcycleMuseum: “As most people around here know, I wasborn into the business. My dad was a localdealer here (Sturgis) back in 1930’s andwas given credit for being the founder of therally. I can remember back in the early dayswhen everybody that had a motorcycle hungout at the motorcycle shop because youhad to be a mechanic to own a motorcycle,so I got to know all of them. They decided toget together and start a rally in 1938, so likeI said, I guess I was born into it. Motorcycling has been a big part of my life.I raced and played around at my dad’sshop and later when I was in the Armystationed in Germany I raced over there.Eventually, in 1968, I became the Germanchampion in the 500 cc class in grass trackracing.While I was in Germany I took theopportunity to fly over to the Isle of Man TTrace. That was a once in a lifetimeexperience. It was much different thanSturgis, it is not as big as Sturgis but it is abeautiful track and experience.Then I went to work for Yamaha. I startedout as a traveling district manager and theymoved me to several different states, andeventually they offered me a job at thecompany headquarters in Los Angeles. Ashort time later they created a newdepartment called the Technical ResearchDepartment and I was responsible forrecommending new products and newmodels for North America. So that wasauthorization to go to all the trade shows,and then they made me race manager and Iwent to all the race meets with ourcontracted riders and team mechanics. Imade 7 different trips to Japan to thefactory and at one point got Yamaha intothe snowmobile business. So I went to thenorthern island of Hokkaido and testedsnowmobiles. The DT1 250 was my firstmodel that I recommended the factorymanufacture and it was very successful.They were selling 50,000 of them in a year.From that time on I could do no wrong, theygave me all the support I needed.”

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Learn more about Jack Hoel and theSturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall ofFame here:https://www.sturgismuseum.com/Hall-of-Fame-Class-of-2018

Damn Yankees inThailand: Part 4

From Rice Paddies to MountainsLast issue we ended at a hotel inNakhonsawan. Next day we weregoing to start into the mountains ofThailand. Temperatures were in thelower 70’s but would quickly climb intothe 90’s. We jumped on our bikes androde to a local coffee shop called the“Made For Mouth Café.” Place wasreal cool with a nice koi pond. Then wegassed up and were ready to hit theroad.We had a 200 Km ride planned for theday (about 125 miles.) Riding a bigAmerican V-twin in the early morningcountryside in Thailand is beautiful. Themorning mist coming off the ricepaddies and the surrounding lushvegetation was beautiful. The earlymorning sun rising above the paddieswas like a movie set. Riding our bikesthrough this awakening countrysidewas breathtaking. Coming into villagesthe people would be busy at theirmorning markets. Rumbling through onour big Indian motorcycles certainly gota few looks.Lee suggested we detour to theSukhothai Historical Park. This is anancient city in Sukhothai Thailand.Sukhothai literally means “Dawn ofHappiness.” Historians believe thefounding of Sukhothai to be thebeginning of the Thai nation.The place was massive. The city’sstone walls form a rectangle of 2 Kmeast-west by 1.6 Km north-south. Thereis a gate in the center of each wall.Inside the walls are the ruins of theroyal palace and twenty-six temples.With the temperature climbing we

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rented a little electric car made to looklike a model T and toured the grounds.We were amazed at the work donehere with no modern equipment.Massive stone work and incredibleskill. Now that we did the typical touristthing it was time to ride.The road started to climb and hadsome nice corners to it. We ran intoroad construction, which slowed us alittle. This allowed us to look aroundand really admire the scenery. Scraggymountains began to appear as weclimbed out of the flat plains.We arrived in Mae Sot in earlyafternoon as the heat was starting tobuild. The “Hop InnHotel” was our destination for the nightand we checked in. Now to eat. Weheaded out to the RiverfrontRestaurant. A fish dinner and someThai beer makes a good night out.Next morning we headed to the bordercrossing with Myanmar/Burma. MaeSot is a border town with a lot of trafficat the border crossing. The Burmeseculture was strong here. There werewomen and girls in traditional Burmesedress and painted faces. Wow, it wascool. The border crossing wasinteresting with all the armed militarypresence.The guards thought I resembled ArnoldSchwarzenegger. They all had a lot offun having their picture taken with me.That was a trip. I was hoping theywouldn’t find out I was not him andshoot me!That behind us we headed intoMyanmar on foot and found ourselveson an Indiana Jones set! Dusty streets,all kinds of people walking around.strange vehicles and carts being drawnby water buffalo and donkeys. Abustling place with lots of streetvendors and black market stuff goingon. You could buy everything you couldthink of here. So much to see I couldnot take it all in.Lee knew of an antique shop whichwas supposed to have some oldmotorcycles so we headed over there,walking through crowded side streetsand back alleys. Arriving at a smallantique shop storefront, an old ladygreeted Lee and after someconversation we learned that the bikes

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were gone. But an old guy came outand invited us in the building. Guess hesaw us Americans and smelled money.Once inside we were amazed. Thesmall storefront opened up into a verylarge building with many rooms packedwith all kinds of cool antiques. Burmawas once an English colony from 1824to 1948 and this guy had a collectionfrom that era. There were brass shipbells and navigation gear. old movieprojectors, furniture, wood carvings,signs, clocks, you name it. It was mazeof antiques. If this guy could transportthis place to the USA he would beworth millions. Good thing we were onmotorcycles or I would have beentempted.Amazed with what we saw, we said ourgood byes and headed back acrossthe border where our motorcyclesawaited us.

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Transmission Oil

Over the years I’ve learned a lot and alsoforgotten a lot. Thankfully most of the stuffI’ve forgotten was worthless anyway. Thegood stuff I write down in my master bookso when my memory is foggy I can refer toit. I’ve seen some transmission bushingsprematurely fail over the years, which hasalways bothered me as to why. Thesebushings include the cluster gear bushings(if you haven’t upgraded to Kiwi rollerbearings), clutch sprocket (basket) andsprocket driver gear (output gear). Thetrans oil you MUST use is a GL-4classification. Do NOT use a GL-5 oranything other than a GL-4 as these otherclassifications attack the bronze bushingsand will wear them out in no time. Pleasedo read your oil classification that is printedon the bottle first. Kiwi Indian Part No KI-10124S is theperfect transmission and primary oil to usein your Indian. Good quality oil at any priceis far cheaper than a transmission rebuildso I never question the price of a goodquality oil. Oh and by the way, I’ve been using andtesting this oil since 2012 and severaltimes now in Death Valley at 122-130degrees F. It held up far better than me.

Here‘s the secret sauce: Kiwi PartNo. KI-10124s

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Feedback & Testimonials

We compile this newsletter to provide Indian owners and riders with entertaininginformation about a topic we enjoy in common: Indian Motorcycles. What are wemissing that you’d like to see included? Do you have a story to share?Come on, you’ve read this far: tell us what you think! We want to hear from you!If we print your message you win!The prize? The pride and pleasure of knowing you’re an engaged member of athriving interest group with something to say and a story to tell – not simply amundane observer on the sidelines!Email: [email protected] or [email protected].

WHERE TO FIND US:• Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, S.D. - August 3 - 10• 47th Davenport Fall Int'l Meet - August 30 - Sept 1

Kiwi Indian MotoCycle NewsKiwi Indian Motorcycles Inc.

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