Country: USA

Language: English

Currency: United States Dollar (USD)

Year: 2014

Distance: ~3,000 km

Route and Map: Los Angeles > Badwater Basin > Furnace Creek > Death Valley > Las Vegas > Grand Canyon > Vermillion Cliffs > Los Angeles

Ride on: Right Side

Metric System: Speed in mph and Fuel in gallons.

Machines: Indian Chieftain

Being an Indian there was this initial confusion when I first heard about this brand many years ago. That is usually the case for the uninitiated in India. The reference is obviously to the Native Americans (formerly known as Red Indians) rather than to the centuries-old civilization located on the other side of the globe! 

But let this be a history lesson that we shall delve into in a later issue of the xBhp magazine. This is a story of riding one of the most beautiful motorcycles I have ever seen across 3,000 km of the choicest of highways in the western USA.

So the destination was the USA. It was three years ago that I visited this part of the globe. It does suck the energy out of you and makes your body clock go haywire. To top it off, I only had a total of 6 days to do everything, including adjusting my biorhythm to the almost 12 hours of time difference between Los Angeles and New Delhi. And don’t even ask what of the 20+ hour haul in the flight! 

Cribbing aside, I was excited when an opportunity arrived with Polaris and Eagle Riders partnering to give me an Indian Motorcycle from their headquarters in Los Angeles.

Who are Eagle Riders? ER is perhaps the world’s largest motorcycle rental company with multinational operations headquartered in the city of angels- Los Angeles. From the USA to Australia, they are everywhere. The best thing about them would be that they hire hardcore motorcyclists who know what goes on in the heads of nutjobs like me who want to rent motorcycles and trundle down the open highway at the drop of a hat. 

With a wide variety of bikes to choose from, along with riding gear (leather et al) and friendly route advice, one can go on a solo self-guided tour or a group ride. You can check out more details at www.eaglerider.com 

So now you know where I got this beautiful bike in the USA, let’s get down to the details.

I arrived at the Eagle Rider facility directly from the airport and was greeted by the friendly staff there, who then showed me to the huge parking bay where they had a plethora of bikes ready for customers to collect. There were people from all nationalities who were getting ready to ride the motorcycles they rented and romance the American highways which are especially exotic to someone who is coming from Europe where you rarely have the emptiness and rustic charm of the US country roads and highways.

It was then that I spotted the odd one out. Amongst a load of Harleys, an amazingly beautiful Indian Chieftain awaited me. It was blue, Springfield blue to be exact. A gentleman that I met on the road told me that it’s called Springfield Blue because it is one of the most common town names in the USA. Not sure how accurate that is but I instantly fell in love with that colour. Not only that, they added a personal touch by having a post-it on the tank with my name on it! How cool is that! 

The bike, even though it was a rental, looked brand new and was immaculately kept and serviced. Eagle Riders surely are a great bunch of pros! What overwhelmed me was the amount of chrome on the bike. It was simply beautiful! There is no other word for it and I do mean it from the bottom of my heart! The Indian Chieftain is a hard bagger which meant that I had decent space to put my five days’ worth of stuff in it. After completing the packing I stored my suitcase in the Eagle Rider facility (another great advantage) and thumbed the starter on the bike to start the journey. 

The Chieftain comes with a keyless function where the bike and the panniers can be operated with the key in your pocket. The handle lock is near the right side fork column and is a bit of a stretch sometimes. 

I have said enough about how much I love the looks of the bike. The last time I rode an Indian was in Sydney, Australia. That was a Vintage with its beautiful brown side panniers and a more classic look. This one essentially is the same bike with hard baggers and a fairing that provides wind protection and a great audio system.

The 1,800 V-twin is a beautiful chrome-treated mill which makes it the centre of attraction in the bike. It looks meaty and big enough for you to comfortably hold your head high in any cruiser mega meet that you might find yourself in. Not just that, the key design elements of the Chieftain are its front yin-yang-styled wheel cover with a transparent glowing Indian Chief’s head on it. This coupled with the hard fairing and integrated indicators make for a wonderful mega cruiser look. 

The Indian golden head is present on both sides of the blue tank and looks classy. And then you have the Indian on the chrome on the front fairing which reflects the blues of the American skies and makes for a fantastic close-up photo every time. There is a chrome section on the tank that has the modern ignition control. There are two fuel tank caps on either side of the tank mounted skywards. One of them is faux. Then there are two oblong buttons on the tank to lock and unlock the panniers remotely. 

The main console is housed in between the two speakers on the fairing and it has two analogue meters with a vertical LCD orange detailed unit. The meters show the speed, rpm and temperature while the LCD shows the time, temperature, radio station/ song and other useful information like range etc.

The left handlebar has a chrome housing in which you will find the audio controls. On the right side, you have the starter, engine kill switch, hazard lights and cruise control functions.

I was not appropriately dressed for this kind of a motorcycle. Racing leathers? Yikes, I know! However, that didn’t prevent the beauty of this bike from shining through and people admiring the bike wherever I went. They especially got a visible pleasant surprise when they saw that it was an Indian. Many of them were not aware of the brand and were also pleasantly surprised to know it was an American company. However, everyone universally appreciated one thing from what I deduced was that it looked graceful and stunning and the quality was top-notch. And it was different. 

The biggest draw for me was the fact that it had a lot of high-tech electronics and functions included in a package that stayed true to the early Indian Motorcycle design philosophy. 

ABS, a great sound system (one of the best I have listened to on a motorcycle), an electronically adjustable windscreen, keyless operation and a host of information on the console educating you about the bike and ambient conditions make it a great package. It also had a USB port to which I attached my iPhone and controlled the songs via the left handlebar controls on the go pretty easily. 

Nothing comes close to the experience of listening to Highway to Hell and Hotel California riding these highways in America at sunset on an authentic American motorcycle. Trust me I have experienced the same while riding the Death Valley and the Vermillion Cliffs and they were one of the most exhilarating moments of my life.

The route I took was from Los Angeles to Amargosa Valley (gateway to the beautiful Death Valley) and then through to Furnace Creek and Badwater Basin (the lowest point in North America at -86 m). Then from Death Valley, I went east to Las Vegas and through to the Grand Canyon National and onwards to Vermillion Cliffs and then back to Los Angeles. The weather at this time of the year (early November) was fantastic and the skies were spotless. 

Follow this route on a cruiser at the right time of the year and you shall thank me. Until Next Time…