Indian Announces Release Info on New Chief

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com

Playing catch-up after taking a few more days off:

– Indian today announced the date and location of the reveal of the all-new 2014 Indian Chief. It will be at 8 p.m. Aug. 3 at the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame in Sturgis, S.D. Two and a half years in the making, the redesigned Chief will be powered by a Thunder Stroke 111 motor and have a base price of $18,999.

Indian plans on having multiple copies of the new model at the 73rd annual Sturgis Motorcycle rally and available for demo rides, starting Aug.4 and running through Aug. 10. Demo hours will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Indian’s hospitality venue at Exit 30 of I-90.

In other news:

– Ford has discontinued its pricey Harley-Davidson edition of its F-150 pickup. The Harley version was introduced for the 1999 model year and ran through 2012. “Automotive News” quote Ford executive Doug Scott as saying it only accounted for only one to two percent of sales. “Automotive News” has the story here.

– A day before her 92nd birthday, Josie Snider-Basalla of Zanesville, OH scratched the final item of her bucket list on Sunday by going on a motorcycle ride with her youngest child, Jerry Snider. The “Zanesville Times Recorder” has the story here.

– Lotus sports cars are well known. Will Lotus motorcycles become equally revered?

The newly-opened Lotus Motorcycles plans an initial model dubbed the C-01 that will feature an approximately 200 horsepower engine and lots of “carbon, titanium and aerospace quality steel.”

Shaping Lotus Motorcycles will be renowned designer Daniel Simon, who created the “Lightcycle” for the 2010 Disney movie “Tron: Legacy” and the “Bubbleship” used by Tom Cruise in “Oblivion.” The company’s Facebook page can be found here.