Old Picture of an Indian

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Man, Shorpy.com is full of old Indian Motorcycle pics! Too many to post
Do a search....there are some cool looking machines! But I sure do like the pipes on your photo!
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
that's not just an Indian in that first picture.
I bet it would hammer over a million dollars rolling across the auction block if that bike were found.

that's a 4.
it would have been the super bike of it's day, and probably close to the fastest thing on dry ground in it's time.
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
Someone in my family has a picture of my father on a 1930's Indian Four, wearing cavalry pants and high leather boots. wish I could find it. His favorite saying was " Happy motor riders have bugs in their teeth!"

NYPD used a lot of Colt potatoes diggers machine guns to put down union organizers after they sold their Gatling guns. They bought the old 30 US Army chambered ones surplus from Bannerman when the Army went to 30/06's.
 

Jag

Active Member
NYPD used a lot of Colt potatoes diggers machine guns to put down union organizers after they sold their Gatling guns. They bought the old 30 US Army chambered ones surplus from Bannerman when the Army went to 30/06's.

Having been a small arms instructor and RSO in both my police and military lines of work, I'm fascinated at what the qualification course of fire for that machine gun mounted on a motorcycle must have been like! Just imagine how much fun you could have designing THAT course of fire!!! Motorcycle charges up to the firing line, slams on the binders and skids to a stop.... Giggle potential is max at what you could do....

People today forget (or might be starting to remember) that not all, but many, of the union 'organizers' just after WWI weren't about workers agreements with employers - they were about fundamentally changing countries, putting communism in place, based on the stages to enact change Marx laid out in The Communist Manifesto. And they incited violence - not against employers, but the government of the day. Not just in America, but Canada, England, etc as well.

Some of them are getting back there again.

If ol' Ludendorff had realized what he was ultimately going to end up doing, when he got the bright idea to go find Lenin living in exile and sneak him back into Russia as his brilliant plan to destabilize and destroy the Russian war effort during WWI. Sure worked... and then Russian prisoners of war started talking to German soldiers they surrendered to, who started talking to Brit and other allied prisoners THEY surrendered to.

And here the world is today...
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Let's chalk this up to "history" and not delve into politics in violation of the forum rule #1. No politics.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ian

Jag

Active Member
Let's chalk this up to "history" and not delve into politics in violation of the forum rule #1. No politics.

Apologies. It was intended as history. I mostly avoid the 'news' today mostly because of politics.

There's a military podcast, Don Carlin's Hardcore History; that is long form audio history. He has a long series on WWI called "Blueprint To Armageddon". If I remember correctly, it's about a seven part series, each two or threehours long. Great for long drives - doesn't work for bullet casting or reloading because it's so compelling. It is both compelling, and at many points straight out depressing, as he describes the daily life of a WWI soldier in almost clinical detail. Maybe particularly compelling to me after 30 years of being lawn dart infantry.

Anyways, one of the last parts is compelling because it deals with what REALLY happened towards the end of WWI and afterwards, after Ludendorff devised the plan to go retrieve Lenin from exile (Switzerland if I remember now) and turn him loose in Russia. Forgetting that the population in Germany was almost in as desperate straits as the population in Russia was by that point in the war.

Lenin's promises to angry, disaffected, hungry civilians seeing the daily casualty lists in Russia were just as appealing to Germans in the same situation. And to a lesser extent Britain - leading to a worried British government coming up with the first of what we would call today 'reasonable gun control laws'. Germany wasn't so much beaten at war (although they were well on their way to being there), as the Kaiser and German Empire were looking at having what had just happened to the Russian Empire next door happen in Germany. They had to get out of the war ASAP before internal affairs back at home handed the country to the communists as in Russia.

I'm a military history buff, and the back story behind many wars is often at least as interesting as the history of battles, strategy, tactics, etc. Military history often intersects with politics past and history repeating itself in the present. Will remember to be more careful in the future.

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
 
Last edited:

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
that's not just an Indian in that first picture.
I bet it would hammer over a million dollars rolling across the auction block if that bike were found.

that's a 4.
it would have been the super bike of it's day, and probably close to the fastest thing on dry ground in it's time.


I knew that Photo posted by Gary was one special Machine!
Probably was the fastest thing on the roads back then!
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
I enlisted in the Army to fly Cobras or U-1C's (four .30's) but did not get to do that. Have no interest in flying Cessna's.
 

Jag

Active Member
I never had any interest in being a motor officer.

On the other hand, no motor officer ever went back to the office listening to the drunk he had just arrested and was going to put in cells, bugling and puking in the back seat behind him... And smelling it.

Drunks and family disputes. Made the decision to instead go jump out of airplanes and helicopters an easy one.
 

StrawHat

Well-Known Member
My Grandfather courted my Grandmother on an Indian. The only motor vehicle he had. When they married he drove a horse drawn carriage.

Kevin
 

Missionary

Well-Known Member
My dad rode Indians When I was about 15 he said "Son I will not tell you what motor cycle to buy but never come home with a Harley".
He felt the same about cars.
 

popper

Well-Known Member
H.S. buddy got to fly the Huey as medivac. His mom didn't want him in the Cobra as she thought too dangerous.