The Last Warrior
THE LAST WARRIOR
How Not To Beat The British At Their Own Game
Richard Renstrom
Big V-Twins have always fascinated American motorcyclists. Brutish, arge, and durable, they have been the trademark of American manufacturers since Indian’s first V-Twin in 1906. With its deep, rumbling exhaust note and a beastly look to its massive lines, the big V-Twin has reflected the traditional American philosophy that big and tough is always better than small and refined.
There are, of course, some valid reasons American motorcycles evolved this way. The higher taxation rates in England and some European countries on larger engined motorbikes effectively discouraged big-bore bikes. Narrow and winding roads encouraged the use of smaller machines with nimble handling. Yet another reason has been the European fascination with small objects of perfection—a mentality that encouraged smaller but well designed motorcycles.
America had none of these limitations in its formative years. In a young and empty country with long, open roads, the logical answer was lots of cubes for power, durability, and speed. The rugged V-Twin thus met with instant success, so that by 1915 it was the accepted design in America.
During the 1920s and 1930s a few single cylinder models were produced here, plus a few other odd-ball designs, but all failed in the marketplace. Engine size climbed to 61 cubic inches, then to 74, and even to 80 monstrous inches as the manufacturers sought the ultimate in durable yet fast designs. A few Fours were also produced, but all ultimately failed due to a bad design and high costs—leaving the huge V-Twin.
By the early 1930s the Harley-Davidson and Indian were the only survivors out of 100 manufacturers. And with the exception of the Indian Four that endured to 1941, the total Yankee output was the big V-Twin. Of a side-valve design, these huge beasts had gobs of torque low down in the rev range, durability equal to anything today, and a three-speed hand shift, foot clutch setup that was slow and awkward.
World War II changed a lot of things, one of which was the American attitude towards motorcycles. The war shrank the world quickly. It took a while for the American mentality to lose its provincialism, but it happened and we went on to> become the world’s largest consumer of foreign wheels.
The first wedge into the hard core of American V-Twin mania came in the war itself when tens of thousands of American soldiers were stationed in England. Surrounded by flocks of British 350 and 500cc Singles and Twins, the GIs looked, touched, and rode them. With lightweight, peppy engines, and a slick foot shift setup, the British bikes were easy to ride. They were also fun, and this is what our GIs remembered. They wanted one of these neat “bikes.” Stripped of their nonessentials, the British bikes were a natural for off-road play, field meets, trials, scrambles, and fun—a new concept in America.
England was hungry for export sales then to boost its foreign income. British bikes began to arrive by the boatload. They were eagerly snapped up by American riders who were in the process of casting off their “saddle tramp” image.
One of those watching the new trend in wheels was Ralph Rogers—president of the Indian Company in Springfield, Massachusetts. A brilliant millionaire industrialist, Rogers had taken over Indian in November of 1945 when Indian was trying to switch over from military production to civilian models. The old factory seemed obsolete to Rogers, who also wanted to bring modern merchandising techniques to the stagnant domestic motorcycle industry. But the really big thing
that Rogers had his eye on was the rising horde of European motorcycles now com ing to America. A total of 9064 motorcy cles came into America in 1946, of which 8596 were British. Indian sold only 2800 big 74 inch Chiefs that year, and therein lies the tale. To Rogers, the whole ball game was to either meet the foreign chal lenge or sink. Rogers chose to fight.
The fight began in 1945 when Rogers purchased the Torque Engineering Com pany. Torque had an innovative designer named Briggs Weaver, who had designed a pair of lightweights along British lines. One was the 11 cubic inch Single Model 149, and the other was the 22 inch vertical Twin Model 249. Both models featured an overhead valve engine, a four-speed, foot shifted gearbox, a hand clutch, and light weight—ingredients that the British were exploiting so successfully in the worldwide markets.
Indian got its production lines set up in the fall of 1946 and announced its new models, which had grown to 13 and 26 cubic inches, named the Arrow and Scout.
The new Indians proved to be stable machines, easy to ride, started easily, ran smoothly, and performed in an acceptable manner. Beautifully finished, the only initial complaint was the small size, which didn’t seem right to riders raised on massive 45 to 80 inch models.
The honeymoon didn’t last very long, however, since it took just a short while to reveal that the new Indians were a disaster. When ridden hard the main bearings broke up and the rocker arms came apart. Magneto failures were common, and then the transmission often broke into many pieces. By then the Indian dealers were angry and began flooding the factory with broken engines to be fixed under warranty. Raised on the durable old 45 inch Sport Scout and 74 inch Chief, the dealers and their customers were both baffled and angry that Indian could produce such an unreliable motorcycle.
Rogers was visibly shaken by the failure of the Torque design. He immediately called together his engineering staff to embark on a redesigning of the faulty parts— still believing that the days of the huge VTwin were numbered and that the nimble handling Torque models were the only way to go.
The poor reputation of the puny looking lightweights was embellished even more at the 1948 Laconia 100 Mile National Championship race, where over 50 vertical Twins were entered—12 with factory prepared motors. All of the new Scouts failed to finish the race.
Discouraged but not defeated, Rogers continued to work on his lightweights in 1949 and added a plunger rear suspension to the rigid frame 220cc Single—the Twin having had the spring frame since 1947. The Single was dropped in 1950, however, and the 440cc Scout was then punched out to 500cc and called the Warrior in an effort to compete more favorably against the 500cc British Singles and Twins. A TT model of the Warrior was also produced for desert racing, scrambles, and track racing, with both an enduro version with lights and a pure racing version being offered. Max Bubeck even went so far as to win the 1950 Cactus Derby in California, but this fine win in the desert was about the only thing that Indian had to crow about.
Part of Indian’s problem then had nothing to do with the poor design of the bikes, but rather had to do with the attitudes of the riders who had been raised on big VTwins. A great deal of prejudice existed then in the minds of Indian and Harley riders against the foreign designs. The riders of the massive Harleys and Indians viewed the lightweight British bikes as little more than tinny junk, while the Limey riders caustically referred to the American machines as little more than crude thrashing machines. These fires were fanned even more by the riders of the two types of bikes—saddle tramps on the road versus the sports use by the riders of the British bikes.
This contempt for the smaller bikes by the veteran Indian riders was a real thorn in the side of Rogers, who wanted to reach a whole new market with his gentleman’s motorcycle. He started off as a man condemned by die-hard Indian enthusiasts, which was only confirmed when his Arrow, Scout, and Warrior models proved to be so fragile.
This was a real tragedy for everyone, since the basic concept and design of this new breed of American motorcycle was really quite good. Weighing only 220 and 285 lb., the original models appealed to a good many people who were frightened off by the huge V-Twins and the unsavory looking people who rode them.
The original 13 inch Arrow was a pretty little bike with a telescopic front fork and solo seat. The engine had a bore and stroke of 2.375 x 3.0 inches for 216.5cc and ran on a 7.0:1 compression ratio. A plain bearing rod was used, as was a Linkert carburetor and Edison magneto. The head and cylinder were cast in alloy for improved cooling and light weight, with two camshafts being located high in the timing case to keep the pushrods short and light. The overhead valves were set in a hemispherical combustion chamber and allowed the engine to develop about 10 bhp at 5500 rpm.
The gearbox had ratios of 6.12, 7.4,
11.69, and 17.0 to 1, and was shifted by foot—a novelty then in America. The tire size was 3.25-18 inches, while 1.0 x 6.5 inch brakes provided adequate stopping power. The fuel tank held 4.0 gallons, with 2 qt. of oil held in a separate oil tank. The wheelbase was a short 52 inches, which combined with the light 220 lb. weight to provide a nimble handling bike. The performance was also impressive, with a top speed of 60 to 65 mph.
The 26 inch (433cc) Scout was just a double-up of the Single with the addition of the spring frame. The weight was still only 285 lb., about 65 lb. below a spring frame British 500cc model and about half the weight of a big Chief. Available in red, black, green, yellow, or blue paint schemes, the Arrow and Scout were really attractive bikes. The alloy castings and covers were beautifully finished, and even today look attractive.
When Indian introduced the 500cc Warrior in 1950 they merely pushed the bore out to 2.54 inches to get the extra size. Running on a 7.0:1 compression ratio and breathing through an Amal 24mm> carburetor, the Warrior produced 29 bh~ at 6000 rpm and ran about 90 mph on a 5.0:1 top gear ratio. Beefed up a bit for increased reliability, the Warrior weighed 315 lb.-still about 40 to 50 lb. less than the British spring frame 500s.
The TT version was even faster. With a 7.5:1 compression ratio and a hotter cam,4 the 1'T model would top 100 mph if suit ably geared. Set up with a larger 3.50-18 inch rear tire, the TT Warrior with lights was, perhaps, the first of what were to later become known as street scramblers. A wide variety of sprockets was available, as were many parts to convert the bike to dirt track racing trim.
Despite their apparent suitability br sporting use, the new Warriors failed to chieve very much. They were more reli ible than the first Indian verticals, but still fragile compared to the 7 50cc V-Twin Sport Scout that won the 1937, 1947, and 1948 Daytona Beach 200 Mile races.L Some Indian tuners and riders around the country did get their Warriors to perform well on the track but the lack of reliability continued to plague the model.
Looking back, it's easy to see why it failed. The concept and basic design were excellent, but the motorcycle was just too light. Edward Turner, the man who dc. signed the 1938 Triumph 500cc Speed Twin and set the wheels in motion for the vertical Twin, was once shown a set of drawings for the 26 inch Scout in its early design stage. Turner said the design looked good but it was much too light to hold together. The genius of the British industry especially disliked the tiny main~ bearings-a viewpoint that was subse ouentlv vindicated as a tragedy for Indian.
The designer of the original Torque models, Briggs Weaver, had little previous experience with high performance motor cycle engines. A marine engineer at heart, Weaver was more accustomed to slow rev ving marine engines where high stress fac tors are not involved. With such a background it is thus not surprising that the Torque design was not up to the task of high revs and high operating tempera tures-a fatal flaw in an otherwise bril liant design.
Indian produced the Warrior until lati~ in 1952, at which time production was halted on all but the big 80 inch Chief. The Chief staggered on until early 1953, at' which time Indian halted its production to end over 50 years of Indian greatness. The company then imported British motorcy cles for a few years until even this failedç~ after which the great name truly passed into the history books.
The problem with the Indian verticals was not in concept, since the basic idea was really good. The real culprit was the execution-a good idea but badly en gineered. If the Torque designs had just been strong enough and the magnetos reli able, it is conceivable that Indian would still be in business today.
