Author Topic: Interesting meeting  (Read 770 times)

guest7

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Interesting meeting
« on: November 24, 2010, 09:35:32 PM »
I bumped into a local classic bike stalwart today, a a bloke very closely linked to the Enfield owners club. He's always got intersting bikes and he told me that he (and some mates) had recently bought an Enfield Interceptor Indian. A what?



Apparently Floyd Clymer made a batch of Interceptor engined bikes badged as Indians. 15 were made and now he and his mates own one. It's currently being restored. The bikes were designed and constructed by a bloke called Leo Tartarini (Italjet Motorcycles) and in fact my acquaintance is off to Bologna in a couple of weeks to meet Tartarini.

Interesting stuff.

He also told me about the rumoured current whereabouts of Bruce, the bloke who blew up a Goldie on one of our early club runs. Apparently he lives in a pre-war houseboat in the living museum section of Rotterdam docks. Having met Bruce I can only think this is true.

GC

Ian

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Re: Interesting meeting
« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2010, 01:02:22 AM »
Just a bit of further information on this (which I didnt know but I had to look up)


From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_(motorcycle)

Floyd Clymer imports, 1963-1977
 
1972 Indian MM-5A minibikeFrom the 1960s, entrepreneur Floyd Clymer began using the Indian name, apparently without purchasing it from the last known legitimate trademark holder. He attached it to imported motorcycles, commissioned to Italian ex-pilot and engineer Leopoldo Tartarini, owner of Italjet Moto, to manufacture Minarelli-engined 50 cc minibikes under the Indian Papoose name. These were so successful that Clymer also commissioned Tartarini to build full-size Indian motorcycles based on the Italjet Grifon design, but fitted firstly with Royal Enfield Interceptor 750 cc parallel-twin engines, then with Velocette 500 cc single-cylinder Thruxton engines.[citation needed]

After Clymer's death in 1970 his widow sold the alleged Indian trademark to Los Angeles attorney Alan Newman, who continued to import minicycles made by ItalJet, and later manufactured in a wholly owned assembly plant located in Taipei (Taiwan). Several models with engine displacement between 50 cc and 175 cc were produced, mostly fitted with Italian two-stroke engines made either by Italjet or Franco Morini, but the fortunes of this venture didn't last long. By 1975, sales were dwindling, and in January 1977, the company was declared bankrupt. The right to the brand name passed through a succession of owners and became a subject of competing claims in the 1980s, finally decided in December 1998 by a Federal bankruptcy court in Denver, Colorado.



Interesting reading!!
« Last Edit: November 27, 2010, 01:05:25 AM by ian650 »
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guest7

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Re: Interesting meeting
« Reply #2 on: November 27, 2010, 08:30:37 PM »
If you search for this bike on the Burton Bike Bits website there's a list of the 15 bikes and who now owns them, 2 or 3 are missing so there's still hope for an outstanding 'barn-find' one day  ;)

GC