Phil Irving on the Vindian

Phil vincent

One generally notable omission when enthusiasts talk of historic Indian motorcycles is the Light Twin which is a radical departure from the big V-twins which had already established a good reputation by the time that the Light Twin came out in 1917.

It had a 250cc side-valve flat-twin engine with the cylinders lying for-and aft, magneto ignition and an outside flywheel.

According to the descriptive brochure, the cylinders were provided with generous cooling fins, but as these were at right-angles to the air-flow and the rear cylinder was badly shrouded, it is doubtful if the claimed output of the full brake horse power could have been sustained for any appreciable shock less jolt less, noiseless, jerking riding comfort but in view of the rigid forks this statement was probably just a wee bit exaggerated and in any case these attributes were not sufficient.

To keep the model in production for long. Wal Maynard of the Vintage MCC of Victoria has restored one to what he trusts is its pristine vigor.

The 350cc single-cylinder Indian Prince was brought out in 1925 as a counterblast to the small English machines, which were beginning to gain a foothold in the American market. It was a more successful model than the Light Twin and was evidently the outcome of a close study of several imported machines. It has a rigid frame and girder forks with a central spring and except for the color scheme, bore a strong resemblance to the Raleigh. The engine had a detachable cylinder head and one of the gems in the publicity material which caused some amusement was the statement that the head could be removed and replaced 72 times without renewing the gasket. Nobody seemed to know why such a monumental number of detachments would ever be required but some very prospective customers seemed to be impressed. The Prince was not very fast, but it was reliable and the Australian rider Vic Barclay broke a couple of intercapital records on one.

The 216cc single and 433 parallel twin which were introduced after the was were reputedly designed for the Indian factory by two Dutchmen named Stockvis. They had been virtually hounded out of their business as DKW distributors in Holland by the Nazi regime on account of their Jewish blood. Being also Velocette agents they came over to Birmingham with a 125 DKW to see if Velocette could produce a similar model. I was at Velocette at the time and after the machine was virtually dismantled, we concluded that we had no machine tools suitable for the job. They then went to Tony Wilson-Jones of Royal Enfield, who agreed to the project and production started in time to supply a large number to the air-borne troops for use against the German army. Rather a nice twist of fate.

Phil Irving on the Vindian

Later on the Stockvis brothers went to the States and became involved in the new Indians which were a costly failure partly because of their low performance and the fact that they were too highly built to be reliable. And also partly because to buyers loyal to the name-plate, an Indian just had to look like an Indian, which at the period meant a cumbersome but impressive V twin. This venture was said to have cost several million dollars for tooling-up and the factory was disinclined to repeat the process with another design despite the falling sales of the 74 cubic inch  Chief, which was then the factory’s only answer to the Harley Davidson. The Vincent was also beginning to penetrate the market following its capture of the American speed record.

In 1948 when P.C. Vincent was conducting a sales campaign in North America, he met a very suave gentleman who happened to be the head man in the Indian Company which was by then in very low water. An English businessman named Brockhouse, who owned a number of engineering companies, was anxious to obtain a controlling interest in Indian, and the upshot of discussions by the three was that if the Vincent unit could be fitted in the Chief  frame without much alteration, the result would be a very saleable machine with financial benefit to all concerned..

On receipt of drawings in England, I made a quick check which confirmed the feasibility of the scheme and the result was that the Indian company would contract to buy 100 power units and 50 Vincents with American electrical equipment per week, provided Brockhouse could get a permit form the British Government to export the funds necessary to buy a controlling interest in Indian. This was very probable in view of the value of the orders mentioned. There would also need to be some finance injected into the Vincent Company to cover the greatly increased purchases of the material but this was dismissed as a mere matter of a signature on a cheque.

Everything worked pretty quickly. A Chief was shot over to Stevenage and as a preliminary it was road tested. Its 580 pound weight seemed enormous compared to the 450 pound Rapide and while it could attain 88 m.p.h. for a short distance, the sustained maximum was only about 80.
After removing the engine and sawing off some unwanted frame parts, the Vincent unit fitted in like a kernel in a nut. Engine plates were used instead of the standard cylinder head brackets and the existing foot boards and break pedal were retained but some cross-over linkage had to be devised in order to use the near side heel-and-toe clutch pedal as a gear change pedal.
The dynamo remained in the original position under the saddle (sorry buddy-seat), and was belt-driven from a short shaft and pulley in the space normally occupied by our Miller generator. The accompanying photo shows how snugly the unit fitted in and also the way in which separate exhaust pipes were used in order to retain existing silencers.

The conversion job took only a couple of weeks and although the finished article was not much lighter than the original, the performance was vastly improved. Top speed went to 104 and it was as fast as it used to be in top. Changing gear by foot instead of by hand improved acceleration. Fuel consumption, although not as good as with the Rapide, improved from about 35 m.p.g. to more like 50.
A Rapide was fitted with American electrics and the rear brake and gear pedals changed over and the two machines were presented to the Board of Trade. Brockhouse received permission to export funds required to buy the Indian Co. as the proposed arrangement would have brought several million dollars per year back into England.

Phil Irving in later years

To cope with the increased output, orders for castings, forgings and accessories, had been doubled and material was beginning to come in. So were the bills, but the money so glibly promised, failed to materialize on the flimsy and quite untrue grounds that the plant and stock did not provide sufficient asset backing. Vincent had thus been wangled into an intolerable position with the possibility of an enforced liquidation and sale of the factory to the highest bidder, and there are no prizes guessing just who that would have been. However, this situation was averted by action of the official receiver after which the whole scheme fell to the ground. This was a great pity because if it had come off, there is little doubt that the Indian would have remained on the market and the Vincent factory also would have benefited financially. As it was, the Indian Co. was forced to sell an insignificant 250cc model to keep going at all and afterward handled Royal Enfield bearing the Indian transfer. Finally the company was acquired by Associated Motor Cycles in 1953 and the history of the famous company founded by George Hendee, came to an end.