There’s a surprising amount of old American iron around these parts of the Netherlands, two wheels and four, some left over from the war, others brought over from the U.S. for avid collectors that can’t get enough of anything from the good ‘ole U.S. of A.
These two Indians that Mart owns are neither of the above, but two motorcycles that could be considered barn finds, except they weren’t found in a real barn but a farmhouse, and when you see them in person you can just hear them talking to you, decades of use all over them in every scratch, paint chip and burnished frame rail.
So, the story behind Mart’s two Indians, while not as wild and interesting as his Cees Fick Vincent Cees Fick Vincent, still warrants telling here.
Back in 1972 or so, in a little village called Gemert, in the Netherlands, Mart’s cousin was reading a local motorcycle road racing magazine, one of those 10 or 15 page paper ones, and he came across an advertisement for a 1930 Indian Scout for sale.
Somewhere along the way, he mentioned it to Mart, and a few months later Mart called the phone number listed on the ad and apparently spoke to the seller’s wife.
Mart had never owned an Indian before, so it wasn’t really a case of “I gotta have it now”, it was more of “that looks like an interesting old bike’ according to Mart.
During the course of conversation and negotiation she basically said she wanted the bike out of there.
It was a basket case, literally, it came in 4 boxes according to Mart. She said he could even come and pick it up on Sunday.
Now, Sunday is a strictly adhered to day of rest here in the Netherlands, everything is closed, except for gas stations, so Mart knew that if he was able to come and get it on a Sunday, she must really want the Indian gone.
So a deal was struck and Mart got his first Indian motorcycle.
Original Indian fenders with the original paint from the ’20’s on them too.
The tank to the right is from a Vincent.
The Splitdorf generator, this one a DU-5.
The Splitdorf generator has been a source of frustration, darkness and mystery to those who ride and restore old Iron, bar none.
Splitdorf’s were standard equipment in those days and widely used on such steeds as Ace, Indian, Excelsior, and Henderson to name a few. It’s rare to find them complete and undamaged today, much less in operating condition, which is why they can command upward of $1,000 to buy one, and maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t.
Indian started using the DU-1 on the 1918 Powerplus and the Indian Scout in 1920. The DU-7 appeared in early 1928, a significant improvement over the DU-5 for a number of reasons, one being a jump in output from about 3 3/4 amps, 7.5 volts at 1800-2500 generator rpm to
5 1/2 amps at 3500 rpm, pretty good for those days.
I have one more article left from here in the Netherlands from the Classic Motorcycle Race weekend at Mill in the Netherlands, and then I leave for Germany, Denmark and Sweden where my friends Karin and Kjell (pronounced Shell) live in Vejbystrand. I met Karin and Kjell in Death Valley in November 2010 as they were finishing up the U.S. leg of their 3 year Round the World ride.
By the time you read this I will probably be in either Denmark or Sweden and on the way to Nordkapp in Norway. I expect to reach Nordkapp by the end of October and then start to head over to Finland and down to St. Petersburg in Russia. I have an invite to attend the Black Bears MC Winter Rally the first week of December in Yaroslavl north of Moscow.
The Black Bears MC, Yaroslav Russia and Rolling Anarchy Russia.
Now I just have to make it there.
I can honestly say I’m a little nervous about the trip, as in Nov/Dec temps will be in the -30’s to -50’s so I’m told.
I have a little experience in riding in -20 but thats it. We’ll see.
Thanks for reading and if anyone has any questions or tips, you can always send me an email to Wheresmurph@gmail.com or leave me a message on my Facebook Page.
–Murph
EXPEDITION PORTAL “In Progress” THREAD
