Hunting Harley's, 1939 Indian Hillclimber 

As a 16 year old, I I once nearly slid off the back of my 48 Chief buddy seat while demonstrating how my new clutch and rear sprocket would burn rubber, managed to regain control while headed for a new Lincoln. Thanks for your intelligent comments about Indians. About to sell my second '48 Chief at 75.

Anybody else love the sound of that old kick start?

I love the sound of that old kick start gear.

Sounds great! Hard to believe that an 80+ year old bike still looks and sounds so good. Really enjoy your videos.

The smiles are contagious! THANKS again Tod.

Sounds pretty wicked after you get it all lined out on timing and carb settings. I'd love to see it climb a hill. It would be scary as hell to it though!!!!

Its great to see you guys rebuilding and enjoying these older bikes . Really fun stuff !

man that things sounds nice...i could listen to that rev all damn day lol

pretty kool how they used to hillclimb with that chain wrapped around the rear tire like that , wow!!

nutmegger1957 You have to feel for the compression stroke before you kick a kick start bike. If you don't kick down on the compression stroke, with the right amout of gas, you will not start it. Thus, when cold, or semi warm, you also have to kick a bit before a starting kick to prime the motorcycle

+airboatkid1 factory racer, very special, only 18 made in 1938 and again 1939, total of 36 bikes for both years

I saw an 80+ year old man ride one of these up the ski hill in Kewauskum about 20 years back. Very cool.

I hope this bike doesn't suddenly fail. It should be in some museum, and you guys are hittin it around. How much is this bike worth ? 50k, 80k, maybe much more, I don't know. You guys got balls.

nice can't wait to see the new video! Thanks for taking the time to do it.

Brett Brandstatt I've been involved with the antique motorcycle world for 35 plus years. Rick Najera, who at one time was my best pal, formed the Yerba Buena chapter. I know many from NorCal

Awesome little history lesson you put together here. Thanks for sharing the knowledge and the videos.

as far as vintage bikes go it doesnt get any better for me. what a sweet bike

That little carb adjustment was all she needed. What a KOOL old Indian motorcycle. 👍👍💙

That's a bike "pimped" for quarry climb, they were driven on steep inclined sand quarries to see who made it to the top, that's why it has a short ratio and two gears with the selector in that awkward position, you had to select the appropriate ratio and open the throttle, if you made to the top, you won

glad you like the vid! I don't play with those years, but should be easy enough to find on ebay or at the local swap meet, if you go to a swap meet, ask the vendor's, most have other bits at the shop they do not bring out

Todd thanks for sharing this cool stuff with us!

I ride a Indian Scout, not vintage but the power is a blast. That was a fun video, thanks! Cheerz!

This video is a time capsule. It's great seeing those old bikes still runnin.

cool like to hear it again! Sounded like it was skipping a bit. It is awesome that you guys fired it up and ran it around the yard most people let them sit around.

I was instantly reminded of the brand new FTR 750 and exp FTR 1200 looking at this bike. Ultra cool old machine.

The Indian story is quite interesting. The company formed initially in 1901. George M. Hendee was a wealthy manufacturer of bicycles. (Bicycles were the rage during the 1870’s - 1900 and were bicycle races were quite in vogue at the time). During the late 1890’s, it became common for a new motorized invention to break wind for the riders. Essentially, it was a primitive motor strapped onto a bicycle frame, and most often used in Tandem bicycle races.

Thanks! The motor design was 'taken' from a Sport Scout and the fork 'taken' from a Junior Scout. The heads seem the be unique in their design to this racer. I say 'taken' because the actual motor, frame and forks, and the trans, are unique to these flathead hill climbers. They are quite unique and powerful machines. I ran the spectrometer over the machine, it is absolutely original paint. We are fixing a stud issue on the bottom mount of the rear section, then we will re-video her running.

Jeeeezus that bike is the coolest thing I've ever seen. You guys rule!

Now thats Impressive.Very first Motorcycle I changed gears on was a W.L.A. with a sidecar.My Pappy,s Postal work bike.In a paddock just like that & smiles just as big all round.He let me putt that old Walla round there all day.I was 11.A great Man who instilled a Love of Bikes ,Life & of course Harley Davidsons.Thanks for the Vids man.Great Stuff!!

Love it brother. Great video. Those guys had the balls to full throttle those beast up those hills. True riders or die baby.

Sweet bike!! The sound it makes is rad as hell.

It is call FCI Hill Climb Model by the Indian Factory. They were not made after 1939. These flathead models were only made in 1938 and 1939, 18 (I think) in 1938, and for sure 18 in 1939. Value is subjective. this is original paint, I have the original title, and it RUNS. it is the only one known with this, plus the history I have on this machine is substantial.

damn todd look at the size of the sprocket. I think the kick starter is neat as well because of the gears are exposed. all in all a very neat bike.

Harley, as a family-owned company, was much more careful and didn't squander good money that fast. After the Great Depression Indian had no money left to replace worn out tooling and had little options left but to keep selling old designs, praying for a profit to survive. When Rodgers came only a miracle could have saved Indian. So, the bikes were okay, but if business was too the Board of Directors was quick to bleep things up. Great footage of a fantastic rare machine in action, love it!

Best sounding engine dude... My gosh that bike that bike fun to ride, great Video! Got a new subscriber man

That is so awesome. Way COOL . Thanks guys for the video.

glad you enjoy the videos!

Even in 1930’s advertisement’s and on Indian catalog’s of the 1930’s, Indian still called their machines MOTOCYCLES. In 1913, Mr. Hendee had the bright idea of making a new type of motorcycle with an electric start. He invested $500,000 of company money into this venture, finally producing the Hendee electric start special in 1914. The machine had a fatal flaw. The batteries of the time were not up to the task of continually starting a motocycle,

Excellent video, thanks ! That rear sprocket is definitely for hill climbing , what is it like , 80 teeth ?

holy crap man that thing sounds like a freakin' demon

Oscar Hedstrom had the most reliable motor during this time and Mr. Hendee took note of this. They made an agreement, signed onto the back of an envelope, to form a company to manufacture and distribute this new form of bicycle. Initially, this was called the Motocycle by the newly formed Indian Motocycle company. These devices were not called Motorcycles until later by other companies and eventually, Indian followed this.

Thanks for posting!

That beast has a rear sprocket like a ferris wheel! For climbing up the side of them vertical hills! Hella nice!

Right, I looked at my pics again. The hill climber he has that looks similar to that one doesn't have the Indian head on tank, it just says "Indian". The rear fender is different, has a cover over the kicker hear etc,. Have you found any new old machines lately?

we just got her running again. This was the "test" to see how she ran. you have to test them in the field, not on a bench. Indian's never go into gear well. We did some adjustment's in the field and she is back on the bench for further refining. These carb's seldom idle, it is how they are set up. I was surprised Duncan got her to idle as well as he did by the end of the video. They are special race carb's, meant to run on alcohol not gas and are basically on and more on.

I have a set of those heads, like new. Robin Markey of Bob's Indian sales said they were 1 year only for a 1934 750 indian standard scout. They came with a 1937 standard scout basket, but I built it as a chief. They are aluminum.

How many things are there that were wicked cool 75 years ago and still are? The funnest rototiller anyone's ever operated.

we just got it running again after not starting for a year and a half. My flipping it a year and a half ago didn't help. After I warmed it up some, we dialed the carb in a bit more. This bike is 45 cubic inches. It will not have the deep bass of a bigger V twin

I think this was the first time I've ever seen you smile man.

Sounds amazing!!

+Geert de Jonge Indian and Harley both overed throttle's on either side for customers preferance

Really cool bike. I don't know if it was those mushrooms I eat or was the video distorted.

This is the kind we used to race around the Hooterville dirt track.

it was running too rich when we 1st fired her. Only way to tune them is to run them. We are fixing the bottom studs by the transmission. Someone years ago replaced them with studs that are too short. I will bring her out and video again once this is fixed. Watch the whole video and you'll hear her run better by the end.

Love the kicker!

glad you loved the vid!

Awesome piece of history!!!

awesome bike would love to have seen on of those going up a hill!

That old mans pacemaker keeps going off

By 1945, Ralph Roger’s (who was instrumental in making a viable Diesel motor used for big trucks and became wealthy from his company, Cummins. Mr. Roger’s had this great idea, make smaller versions of the motorcycle, like those the GI’s were exposed to over in Europe, and market them in the US. This lead to the Indian Vertical twin.

Todd nice demo thanks for sharing this with us..Leo

So cool love what you guys do... Fight the good fight! Love it

Sounds like HD right before the sold a dying company to AMF. Glad you like the vids!

cool old bike thanks for posting

Hey Todd, I think I recognize you from somewhere. Are you a member of the Yerba Buena AMCA chapter?

glad you like the vid!

Duncan has gone over the machine again for me. We will take it out again soon and take another video. I plan on bringing this one to Hanford and riding her around if you make it

after u tuned the jets it made the world of a difference. I'd love to ride this bike.

Beautiful!

glad you enjoy them!

This is too dang COOL !

interesting. I don't have the machine with me here, it is at Duncan's for final tuning. These appear to be steel. I will have to test if they are aluminum or not. BUT, I can't see Indian using a "regular" set of heads on a factory racer, especially one this powerful. We have not been into the motor. Dale from Wheels Through Time has 1939 # 18, the last off the line. This one is #8.

Yeah, that would be pretty wild :). Make a nice Christmas advertisement too.

who is?

That is the best looking bike I have ever seen.

CMC manufacturing won and brought out the “Indian” using an S&S motor, which has since gone bankrupt as well. My 1939 Hill Climber is a factory racer made by the motor company after their famous 45 inch flathead Scout design. This was the last year Indian made a Hill Climber as they concentrated on the Daytona big base style racer’s starting in 1940. Ed Kretz is the most famous racer of the Daytona big base era

that bike is sold, long ago

I'm a 57 year old, with 11 years of riding a motorcycle under my belt, but I've never owned a kick-start bike. Why do you have to ratchet the kick-start a few times before attempting to do the starting kick? What is the mechanical reason for that? Is it about building up torque or compression?

similar, the factory racer's with the big base came out in 1940. these particular flathead's were the Hill Climber's. As far as I am aware, the factory dirt racer's were not made in flathead design 1938 / 39 when they made these limited edition Hill Climb models. Factory production was a total of 36 machines for both years. These motor's are NOT stock, nor is the rest of it. All special race stuff. Unreal power, for a 39

@huntingharleys whats the price you would put on this bad boy?

Hell the dam camera was almost as bad as the bike was

and the motocycle did not have a mechanical means of starting, like a kick starter. It is important to realize that in 1913, Indian was the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world and produced 30,000 units in 1913 to Harley’s 25,000 units. Neither Indian or any other contemporary company realized that the world was about to be introduced to the Model T courtesy of Henry Ford

How many cc

During the war, the government required motorcycles from Harley and Indian at such a discount that profits were very limited, further damaging the cash trapped company. By late 1918, insolvency loomed and the plant manager (I cannot recall his name and I no longer have the era magazines from which I am writing this historical account) asked (begged?) Mr. Hedstrom to help him save the plant.

Man this thing is awesome!

Coolest bike stuff i've seen in a long time, awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That sound... pure music.

Man that bike needed some sorting out. Hope u got it dialed in

They essentially said to Roger’s, use our engineer’s for your design, and we will lend you the money. Roger’s agreed, and the result was the huge success of the vertical twin turned into a financial disaster as all the initial units sold came back to the factory with a bad lower end. Additionally, Roger’s never re-introduced the flathead Scout that had kept Indian alive all those years.

I never thought I'd see an old 2-wheeled farm tractor. 😆😆😆

This is also why all 1953 Chief’s have a Police generator. Thus a true 1953 has a different shape to the fender’s and tanks on the Chief’s. The banks marketed for many years Royal Enfield’s in the USA (and other’s) as Indian’s even into the 1970’s. Over time, the actual owner’s to the name became lost and this caused a legal battle when people wanted to reintroduce the Indian in the late 1990’s.

Hi Tod, I looked it up for you in Sucher's Iron Redskin: Frank Wechsler got Hedstrom back in 1917 to help with war production. According to Sucher he wasn't involved in the development of new models. That was left to Charles B. Franklin, who came up with the sidevalve Scout for the 1920 model year. The recurring theme in Indian's history is how greedy boardmembers constantly diverted profits to fund all sorts of doomed non-motorcycle activities.

certain types of races are far more exhilarating then other types. At the top of this list I put hill climbs and oval dirt tracks

That looks like so much fun

I guess you Hunt Indian Motorcycles too?? Awesome Job, You sir (The work you Do) Is my dream (I am at two right now) an 03 RK and a 95 FXSTF

what a beautiful treasure of history

`I've had a few Indians in the past as well as a couple of chief's now. I'm assuming it had a sport scout engine at 750 CC. The front fork appears to be a junior scout, same as I had on my 1940 flat tracker. The heads puzzle me, They are not sport scout, but more like the 1934 scout.Nice bike and congratulations on keeping it, the way they made it.

They only produced, in very limited numbers, the Chief after the war. By 1953, Indian only produced 300 civilian Indian Chief‘s, and only because an order to make these Chief’s for the Police had been canceled. They actually had to recreate the molding for the fenders and tanks for the 1953’s as these had already been destroyed or disposed of thinking they were out of business in 1952.

This reminds me of that Steve McQueen movie.

WHAT'S THAT VALUE ON IT !!!