Radd Wigwam Racer?
RADD WIGWAM RACER?
Where would Indian be today if the company hadn't been mismanaged to death back in the Fifties? James Parker thinks he knows. The man who penned Eller's up-in-the-air neo-Chief (and before that the Yamaha GTS1000 front end) also has plans for an all-American repli-racer bearing the famed Indian script logo.
“The design work on the sportbike is essentially done. It will be a one-liter V-Twin with desmodromic heads, aimed at the current Superbike rules,” says Parker. “We’ve experimented with different valve configurations, but it looks like it will be four valves and one sparkplug per cylinder. I’m not one of these people who believe 15,000 rpm is something to shoot for, so I’m searching for usable power with a maximum ceiling of about 12,000 rpm.”
When pushed, the soft-spoken Parker will admit to target numbers of 120 rear-wheel horsepower and a 375-pound wet weight for the streetbike version, numbers that should morph into world-class specifications when modified for racetrack use. “It’s a matter of getting the details right, not reinventing the four-cycle engine,” he says. Parker’s enthusiasm comes across loud and clear, despite his obvious disappointment with the legal skirmish holding back the Eller Indian. He’s worked a long time to reach the point of designing an entire motorcycle. And if Parker’s first bike is the Chief cruiser, he hopes it sells big. Big enough to fund a worldclass American sportbike.
-Nick lenatsch
