2016 Indian Springfield
2016 INDIAN SPRINGFIELD
IGNITION
CW FIRST RIDE
Attention, Road King: Someone wants your throne
Mark Hoyer
A few years ago I swung a Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic into Peter Egan's hometown south of Madison, Wisconsin, and we proceeded to motor around the great roads in the southwestern part of the state. Peter owned a Road King at the time and asked on the ride if I'd like to swap bikes for a while.
I was instantly charmed by the copbike-screen-equipped touring bagger, its lightness and agility much more up my personal alley than what was delivered by the heavier Ultra. I love all the extra features for the long haul on the big FL, but the unobstructed view and sportier feel of the Road King would send that direction at a Harley dealer unless a lot of dedicated long-distance touring were on menu.
Indian has followed a similar path with the new Springfield, stripping the Chieftain/Roadmaster of its purported 24-pound frame-mounted fairing with electric-adjust windscreen in favor of a quick-detach clear windshield. The riding results are charming and offer the same kind of light-feeling rewards delivered by the Road King.
It was 39 degrees the morning I saddled up on a Springfield in Austin, Texas, and I surely missed having the optional heated grips and seat, particularly when a few pieces of “solid rain” stuck to the screen. Still, wind protection was good and cruise control allowed me to alternate pulling my hands off the grips to warm them a bit.
Steering was impressively light and precise, with a neutral cornering attitude and excellent stability. Damping is well dialed in, with good straight-line compliance from fork and shock but no wallowing in corners, even in high-speed sweepers. And, as if Indian read my mind, the airadjustable shock was set up for a 220-pound rider.
Although it is tempting to think the Springfield is a Chief Vintage with hard bags, this is not the case. Instead of the “cruiser” geometry, the Springfield uses the “touring” steering head and upper member on its aluminum frame and a rear subframe designed to carry more weight. Plus, the dual exhaust pipes have the weight-bearing pads to help support the Chieftain/Roadmaster electric-locking 19-gallon hard saddlebags.
Although the frame is like that of the other tourers, its 25-degree rake works with just 5.2 inches of trail, versus the 5.9 inches of the other hard-baggers or the 6.1 inches (and 29-degree rake) of the soft-bag Vintage.
2016 INDIAN SPRINGFIELD
ENGINE TYPE Air-/oil-cooled GHVV-twin
DISPLACEMENT 1811CC
SEAT HEIGHT 26.0 in.
FUEL CAPACITY 5.5 gal.
CLAIMED DRY WT. 818 lb.
PRICE $20,999 to $21,549
The Springfield is the best handling of the Indian big twins and the lightest-steering Chief variant yet, to the point that there was a slight shimmy in bumpy corner exits when hard on the gas. It was no real worry but a bit of a surprise given the bike’s role and general largeness. Tires are the same as those of the touring bikes (130mmand i50mm-wide 16-inchers) and run on cast-aluminum wheels to accommodate tire-pressure monitoring.
The rest of the dynamic package is similarly impressive, from the ABS brakes to shift quality to the hearty pull of the 49-degree Thunder Stroke mei V-twin. The Roadmaster we recently dyno tested made 76.4 hp at 4,510 rpm and 106.6 pound-feet of torque at just 2,640 revs.
Screen and bags are both supremely easy to remove, no tools required. I popped off the windshield for the post-lunch portion of our Texas tour and the bike felt sportier still. Turns out removing that big sail attached to the bars lightens steering effort a bit. It also eliminated the high-speed helmet buffeting I (at 6-foot-2) experienced at anything faster than 70 mph.
Detail improvement noted:
The chrome strips on the windscreen have black backing on the rider-facing side, rather than the bare, not-that-chromed metal finish seen on previous Vintages. Nice to see Indian keeping after the little things. Note also that the screen is a significantly different rake and height compared to that used on the Vintage since the fork rake is much different.
The leather saddle is identical to those of the tourers, just with a different stitching pattern, and passenger floorboards are adjustable for height and angle, the latter to help accommodate boots with taller heels.
The cross-compatibility of parts and accessories (top trunks, wind deflectors, and much more) is quite good since the touring platform is fundamentally the same across the line. Want to add the 17-gallon top trunk from the Roadmaster? Can do.
Clearly, Indian has observed the highly successful modelproliferation playbook developed in Milwaukee. As well it should. The core product from Indian is well designed and engineered, making the work to produce more good models from the basic platforms relatively straightforward. The Springfield is one of those good models.
SMOKE TRAIL TOUR WITH PETER EGAN
As my conversations with Peter Egan always go, we discuss motorcycles, music, travel-and searching for the perfect guitar, which seems to encompass all these things. So when we talked about doing an American touring story, cruising a pair of Indians through the South seemed like a perfect trip.
© We’ll start in Memphis, take in the music scene, visit Sun Studios and Graceland, sample the cuisine, and then head south on Highway 61 for Blues Country on the Mississippi Delta, hitting famous places, landmarks, and gravesites of the legends who built America’s music.
© Our final destination is New Orleans and the French Quarter, one of the most diverse and interesting cities in America. Join us on cycleworld.com fora three-partvideoseriesand search ftsmoketrailtour on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Here’s to hoping I can get a Gibson 335 into the saddlebag of an Indian Springfield or Chief Vintage! —Mark Hoyer
