Indian Chief Vintage Review: The Maharaja

The Indian Chief Vintage is no small motorcycle in size. It is 2634mm in length (tip of exhaust to tip of its front fender) and is 660.4mm tall (seat height) till the base of its pillion seat, with a 1729.7 mm wheelbase. Now that’s not an easy bike to handle unless you are mentally prepared to ride it. As you plant yourself on to the bike and firmly put your feet on either side on the ground, you have got to understand the motorcycle before pressing the start button. There are two broad foot pedals or floor boards on either side that ensure that you can rest your foot comfortably for you to change gears as well as apply your brakes. On top of it you have a highway bar with two extended foot rests that come into use when you are on cruise control and have no plans to change gears for a very long time. You simply lift your feet and place them on these. It’s like riding a sofa on the road!

The bike is heavy, it’s almost 379 kg. Unless you handle this weight with great care, you can definitely go crashing. The turning radius of the bike is not small by any means, hence one needs to be extremely careful taking a u-turn while on the move. On narrow patches, if you need to make such a turn, it would also require pushing back the bike with your feet, which could be a tough exercise.

Whether you like it or not, motorcycles like the Indian Chief Vintage are not meant for the faint hearted with muscles the size of peanuts. You need to have a bit of brawn, besides, of course the brains. Yes, a cool and matured temperament only makes riding this bike a pleasure.

I rode the bike just as morning was breaking. I wanted to avoid the morning traffic rush. The last thing you want is getting stuck on the road with a motorcycle the size of an armoured tank! The moment I started the machine, it roared into life. The bike has a keyless ignition and a mere push of a button wakes this giant instantly. 

As you shift the gear, the distinct clunky sound emanates from the gear box and the dial tells you that you have moved on to gear ‘1’. The bike delivers an incredible torque of 138.9Nm at rpms over 2600. The Thunder Stroke 111 engine has you engaged all along. The leather seats and the leather saddle bags make you feel as though you have embarked upon a great journey. The sound from the dual exhaust is loud and commanding. It does not scream, it simply roars.

Highway cruising is fun on this bike. It simply eats up long distances as it rides on. With an Anti Lock Braking System in place, you are confident that braking is a serious business for the Indian Chief Vintage.

If the leather seats and saddle bags are one major attraction of the motorcycle, so are the generous coatings of chrome. Virtually every surface that could be chromed has been chromed. It simply ups the style quotient of the bike. As you speed along and change your gears with a comforting clunky sound, you realise that the bike does not seem to tire. The front windscreen protects you from the gush of wind and also the miniscule insects that can be found in such large numbers in the air. For a blue blooded Indian (I am talking about myself and there are millions like me) one of the things that impresses is the horn of the Indian Chief Vintage. By jove, it is loud enough to wake up your entire neighbourhood. It’s not raucous, it’s not irritating, it’s like the Maharaja telling you to step aside so that he can move on. I was truly impressed by this.

Though it was a short ride, and the road was wet after a brief spell of rain, I came back satisfied with the motorcycle’s road handling abilities. Even on wet patches and gravel infested roads, the bike rode with ease. The Indian Chief Vintage is a handsome bloke and it can be made even more handsome with a lot of additional accessories. These run into almost 100 different accessories like leather motorcycle wraps, leather floorboard trim, front and rear mud flaps, leather handlebar bag, messenger bag, leather fork bag, upper saddlebag fringe, motorcycle wraps, leather lever wraps, leather floorboard trim, pinnacle horn cover, pinnacle heel shifter, pinnacle seat bolt cover, etc. It’s like topping up your Subway sandwich; it only gets better with each topping. This Maharaja too is something like that!