We were headed to the Bikes, Blues & BBQ rally, and what better way to give the Chieftain a proper shakedown than head out on a six-day, 1,600-mile road trip through three states and over the Ozarks. To sample the merits of the 2016 Chieftain, we hopped aboard Indian’s bagger in Austin, Texas, and set our sights on Fayetteville, Arkansas. Yes, Indian has done a bang-up job of finding the happy medium between old and new. The motorcycle is equipped with a bevy of electronic conveniences, including a windscreen that raises and lowers at the push of a button, cruise control, saddlebags that lock remotely, keyless ignition and ABS. The aluminum design also houses the airbox in the frame’s backbone, which helps force-feed the monster powerplant. Using cast and forged aluminum keeps the frame’s weight down to a claimed 58 pounds.
The motorcycle’s 1811cc engine is packaged tightly within a cast aluminum chassis, a first for the company. The Chieftain’s front fairing sports its own unique design, classy like a Cadillac, from the chrome wings around its headlight to the tidy integration of the turn signals. The Chieftain’s thunderous V-Twin does likewise as the design of its fins and parallel pushrod tubes were borrowed from Chiefs of the early 1940s. Valanced fenders, the headdress logo on the tank, and the War Bonnet emblem on the front fender pay tribute to its predecessors. Though baggers are identified by signature cues, Indian did an admirable job of providing the Chieftain with its own identity by combining heritage and modern traits.
Fortunately, Indian did its homework and produced a bike that strikes an emotional chord aesthetically and also performs at competitive levels with other top-tier baggers. Of course, simply launching a bike into a new niche doesn’t mean crap if the proper amount of time hasn’t gone into its design and engineering.
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And the bagger segment has been riding a wave of popularity in recent years, spawning TV shows like “Biker Battleground Phoenix.” Go to just about any custom bike show and the bagger competition is always the most hotly contested. The Chieftain matched up with the hugely popular bagger of Indian’s primary American competitor, the Harley-Davidson Street Glide. It gave them a strong competitor in a very lucrative niche, both in the production and aftermarket sectors. A motorcycle with a fork-mounted fairing and hard saddlebags was a first for the company. When the first Polaris-produced Indian Motorcycles were introduced on Main Street at the 2013 Sturgis Rally, the Chieftain was the biggest surprise of the bunch and elicited the loudest ovation from the crowd.
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