Rare 1920 Indian Family Hand-Me-Down

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com

The registration is in remarkably good condition. There is some fraying along the top edge, but the information about the bike – 61 cubic inches and two cylinders – is clear. The fact that motorcycle is repeatedly spelled as “Motor Cycle” provides the first clue to its age. That a manual typewriter was used to fill in the form is also suggestive of the vintage. So is the fee that the Dept. of Motor Vehicles charged the then-owner to make it legal to ride on the street: $3.25.

“That was a lot,” said current owner Sal Masotta. Look closer at the registration and it becomes clear what he means. It records the bike as a 1920 Indian model “N.E.” and notes that it was “Taxed as personal property in the Town of WATERBURY.” The registration is dated “9:00AM MAY 21ST, 1932.” Yes, $3.25 was a lot of money more than 75 years ago. 

Masotta had the plastic-encased registration resting on the bike’s solo seat on a recent Saturday afternoon when RIDE-CT stopped by his Waterbury home. He’s owned the Indian “Type NE-20,” better known as a Powerplus, since 1970 when it was given to him by his “great-uncle,” Nicholas Ieronimo.

Is a better hand-me-down possible? “It’s pretty neat – 90 years old and it runs,” said Masotta.

It only took 39 years for Masotta to get the Indian in shape to register and ride once again. He was just out of Sacred Heart High School when Ieronimo, whom he affectionately called “Si-Nick,” presented it to him. Ieronimo bypassed his own two sons, Joseph and Samuel, in the process. “He gave it to me because he loved me and figured I would fix it someday,” Masotta said, noting that this definitely upset one of the sons.

“It was a rusty, dilapidated thing.” Masotta recalled, so he immediately dismantled it. It wasn’t running at that point due to a broken valve lifter. One of Ieronimo’s neighbors had told him that the last time he’d seen it on the road was around 1940. “I took it apart, put it in boxes and it sat from 1970 to 2003,” Masotta reported.

The Indian wasn’t always so neglected. While Masotta can’t pinpoint when Ieronimo obtained the Powerplus, he does know that Ieronimo, who was a distant cousin, loved motorcycles and loved to ride. The bike once had a sidecar, long since gone. On at least one occasion, Ieronimo took his wife, Concetta, and the two boys on a dirt road adventure to Philadelphia and back. Ieronimo’s brother lived in Philly.

It was certainly a different time. “There were still horses on the road; trolley cars. The country was strong and prosperous, just before the Depression,” Masotta noted. 

Masotta said that he even once took Ieronimo for a ride aboard his own 80cc 1966 Suzuki. Ieronimo was 73 years old at the time. He passed away in 1991 at 97 years old.

When the bike was disassembled in 1970, Masotta did have the valve lifter repaired and the frame stripped and painted. Unfortunately, he had it painted black, which wasn’t the original color. Marriage, starting a family, eventual divorce, and caring for an ailing parent all contributed to him having neither the time nor the cash to get the Indian running again. It wasn’t until 2003 that the restoration really began.

Masotta sent the wheels out to be rebuilt. That started the process. The next year work commenced on the sheet metal. Mice had deposited pasta in the gas tanks and it was necessary to have windows cut in them to clean out the debris.  The tanks then had to be re-welded, sealed and prepped for paint.

In 2007, Masotta met Indian expert George Yarocki of Torrington, whom RIDE-CT has written about extensively in the past. Yarocki’s practice in bringing old Indians back to life is to have the owner do the work alongside him, paying him for the tutorial. “He interviewed me,” said Masotta, who evidently passed muster and got to study under the master.

At this point, the rebuild process picked up speed. “I did most of the work myself. We worked on the motor there. We did a lot of stuff back and forth.” On June 26, 2009, the Powerplus was fired up for the first time. Four months ago, Masotta rode it for the first (and only time so far) in the parking lot across the street from Yarocki’s Riverside Avenue work complex.

The hardest part of the rebuild, as might be expected, was finding parts. “What I’ve learned over the years is that whoever has parts doesn’t want to give them up. There aren’t many Powerpluses around,” he said.

While the overall bike, with its foot clutch and suicide shifter, is a head-turner, what really makes the bike stand out are the Coker tires. “I put white tires on it because that’s what it had in the brochure,” Masotta said.

Overall, Masotta spent “an easy 10-grand” getting the Powerplus rebuilt, and he has it insured for $40,000. His next project won’t be as expensive. It’s a 1976 Kawasaki KZ400 that he has tucked in his basement. Last ridden regularly in 1980 and mothballed for 10 years, he hopes to get it back on the road, too.

Masotta’s goal next spring is to get the Indian registered. He has a concern that the D.M.V. may balk because it doesn’t have matching VIN numbers on the engine and frame. While the engine is stamped “76R966,” the frame is bare. In 1920, frames on motorcycles weren’t stamped with a VIN.

What he might do is take the 1932 registration with him. He might also point out that the clerk back then misspelled his relative’s name as “Jeronimo.” Considering that the bike is an Indian, if a mistake had to be made wouldn’t a spelling of “Geronimo” been more appropriate?

(Originally published in “The Republican-American” on Dec. 11, 2010.)