Survivor's Luck
Survivor’s Luck
THE STRANGE CASE OF THE UNDERGROUND INDIAN
WHEN HARRY SUCHER WROTE THE IRON REDSKIN, the definitive history of Indian, he concluded his account of the ill-fated Hendee Special with "no examples are known to exist."
As these photos show, that statement, while correct at the time, has been rendered inoperative. Nor is this Hendee the lone example. There are several in collections, and the folks back at the former Indian plant (now a museum) say a score or so of the electric-starters managed to elude the replacement squads.
But this one is the best. It’s not merely complete and authentic, it’s original and unrestored. And its history proves, assuming we weren’t convinced, that real life is better than fiction.
Back in 1914, a young man fell in love with the Hendee Special. We don’t know if he ever saw one in action or was simply exposed to the sales material quoted here, but he had to have one.
As fits this factual fairytale, the guy had no money. He did have a job in a hardware store in his hometown, and he had an understanding boss who made a deal. He, the boss that is, would buy the Hendee and put it in the basement of the store until the young man had paid it off.
Our next known fact is that in 1951, when the hardware store owner had died and the executors dug into the mounds of stuff in the store’s basement—you guess, eh? Right. There was the 1914 Indian you see here.
How’d this happen? Nobody alive knows. Romantics would say the young chap enlisted in the Great War and never came home. Cynics would prefer that in 1915 the guy saw the overhead-cam Cyclone board-track racer and welshed on the Indian deal. Or we can fill in the blanks, but it’s all guesswork.
What we do know is that the unearthed Hendee was bought by a man who wanted it. Didn’t want to ride it, didn’t want to show it, just wanted to have it.
Which he did until 1985, when he decided to buy a house. He didn’t have enough money for the house he wanted.
The Special’s present owner, whose name and location we’ve promised not to reveal in exchange for getting to take the pictures here, had known about the bike and repeatedly failed to persuade the other chap to sell.
Our shrewd hero, at the perfect time, offered just the right amount of money, the difference between what the other guy had and what he needed to get the house.
Sold.
Thus, between 1914 and 1995, this Hendee Special was ridden 100 miles. Yes, 100, one-zero-zero. Almost all of it has been at around the various tracks and fairgrounds where the bike is shown.
And yes, the engine runs, the starter starts it and the generator puts charge back into the batteries. A little more
work, a little more faith, a little more of the guts and gumption Hedstrom and Hendee seem to have taken with them when they retired, and motorcycle history would be very different. -Allan Girdler
