Greetings,
I am new to the forum and this will be my contribution to anyone suffering
from insomnia. I salute you for keeping the old bikes running.
As a young Michigan guy just before my teens in 1969 and after much
begging & pleading my Father bought me a Lil Indian 7000. That was the
top of the line that year and was comparable to the Rupp Roadster. 5 Hp
Briggs & Stratton, two speed transmission, disc brakes, front & rear
suspension and lights. I remember it relatively fondly but man was that thing
a pile of crap. The best thing I can say about it is at least the engine never
threw the rod, I’d seen several Tecumseh engines do that probably because
they were easier to hot rod. Back to the Lil Indian, the 2 speed tranny failed
weekly, one way bearing would fail in the low gear. Brakes never worked
worth crap so riding was rough on the boots. And to top it off was the #35
chain used front & rear, it was good for a month maybe before it was worn
out. This was a year or so before torque converters replaced the two speed.
On the other hand I did ride in sandy areas 95% of the time but in hindsight
it was just poorly engineered.
Among my various riding buddies there were a wide variety of bikes over
several years, mostly Rupps, a Fox, a Benelli, a Harley-Davidson, an Indian,
a Montgomery Wards, numerous Honda Mini-Trail 50s, 70s, and a couple
Bonanzas-one mini-chopper and the other had a 100cc Hodaka engine. The
Hodaka motored Bonanza was the baddest of the bunch while the Hondas
were by far the most reliable. The Benelli, Harley-Davidson & Indian were
all two strokers with a gear box and manual clutch but didn’t hold up well.
After the Lil Indian I got a 3rd hand Mini-Trail 50-I wish I would have done that in the first place when they came out, price was same as the 7000 and
I would have had a bike that worked.
Today I have some Chi-Com bike called a Pantera, they’re sold at Pep Boys
auto parts stores here in Texas. It was just kind of a lark, they had them on
sale and I saw it had the same engine design (probably stolen) as the old
air-cooled Honda so I figured what the heck. I haven’t ridden it for two
years since I set it up for storage the first winter. I’ve since managed to put
on a few pounds so I am over it’s weight rating by 20 lb. instead of a couple. It will probably be a nightmare for parts if it breaks. At present I ride a Honda Metropolitan to work when the weather allows, it’s all right if you can travel by secondary roads.
I hope I can be useful at some future date.
The link here is to a story about the guys that built these Lil Indian heaps, I
found it informative.
http://www.recleisure.com/recleisure.php?pageid=about&subpageid=indian_history
Later
I am new to the forum and this will be my contribution to anyone suffering
from insomnia. I salute you for keeping the old bikes running.
As a young Michigan guy just before my teens in 1969 and after much
begging & pleading my Father bought me a Lil Indian 7000. That was the
top of the line that year and was comparable to the Rupp Roadster. 5 Hp
Briggs & Stratton, two speed transmission, disc brakes, front & rear
suspension and lights. I remember it relatively fondly but man was that thing
a pile of crap. The best thing I can say about it is at least the engine never
threw the rod, I’d seen several Tecumseh engines do that probably because
they were easier to hot rod. Back to the Lil Indian, the 2 speed tranny failed
weekly, one way bearing would fail in the low gear. Brakes never worked
worth crap so riding was rough on the boots. And to top it off was the #35
chain used front & rear, it was good for a month maybe before it was worn
out. This was a year or so before torque converters replaced the two speed.
On the other hand I did ride in sandy areas 95% of the time but in hindsight
it was just poorly engineered.
Among my various riding buddies there were a wide variety of bikes over
several years, mostly Rupps, a Fox, a Benelli, a Harley-Davidson, an Indian,
a Montgomery Wards, numerous Honda Mini-Trail 50s, 70s, and a couple
Bonanzas-one mini-chopper and the other had a 100cc Hodaka engine. The
Hodaka motored Bonanza was the baddest of the bunch while the Hondas
were by far the most reliable. The Benelli, Harley-Davidson & Indian were
all two strokers with a gear box and manual clutch but didn’t hold up well.
After the Lil Indian I got a 3rd hand Mini-Trail 50-I wish I would have done that in the first place when they came out, price was same as the 7000 and
I would have had a bike that worked.
Today I have some Chi-Com bike called a Pantera, they’re sold at Pep Boys
auto parts stores here in Texas. It was just kind of a lark, they had them on
sale and I saw it had the same engine design (probably stolen) as the old
air-cooled Honda so I figured what the heck. I haven’t ridden it for two
years since I set it up for storage the first winter. I’ve since managed to put
on a few pounds so I am over it’s weight rating by 20 lb. instead of a couple. It will probably be a nightmare for parts if it breaks. At present I ride a Honda Metropolitan to work when the weather allows, it’s all right if you can travel by secondary roads.
I hope I can be useful at some future date.
The link here is to a story about the guys that built these Lil Indian heaps, I
found it informative.
http://www.recleisure.com/recleisure.php?pageid=about&subpageid=indian_history
Later