Left: Erle“ Pop” Armstrong( second from left) with Indian racer Brownie Betar( center) and Gene Townsend( far right) at the Indian Come Home Day Rally in Springfield in the early 1970s. Right: The author on the Chief in the early’ 80s.
Although the factory was no longer producing American motorcycles by the time I was born in 1961( they were pushing rebadged Royal Enfields by that point), I was hooked. More than anything, I established a lifelong fascination with one particular – and peculiar – Indian: the end- of- the- line Blackhawk Chief“ Eighty,” the product of that telephone call from Springfield.
Upon accepting the offer to obtain one of the parts- bin Chiefs, Gene was informed that he would have
few options. Like it or not, the bike’ s bodywork would be painted orange, and it would be assembled from a hodge- podge of standard civilian model parts and police- spec components( likely left over after completion of an order of bikes for the New York City Police Department).
The machine was, essentially, a police Chief in civilian clothing. It was equipped with a large highoutput generator and an oversized police- duty battery. It was fitted with the traditional Linkert carburetor
The inscription on the back of this photo, in Gene’ s handwriting, says:“ Gene Townsend’ s Chief 1953-54, one of the last to be built by Indian.” and left- hand throttle / right- hand shift configuration as specified by the NYPD( civilian’ 52 and’ 53 Chiefs had English Amal carburetors and righthand throttle / left- hand shift as standard equipment). Chrome handlebars were no longer available, so the bike was fitted with the earlier- style handlebar in black. The Chief had a police- style solo saddle instead of the civilian“ bread loaf” bench seat. The rear fender had the distinct knock- out hole on the left side for siren fitment( thank you Robin Markey for pointing that out to me) and three drilled holes on the right- side fender skirt per police- equipped bikes. It also had the“ telltale” speedometer with an additional indicator hand that would capture top speed traveled and mark the position as evidence.
Although it was mostly built to police specifications, this Chief was painted a very un- police color the factory called“ Tangerine.” It sported Roadmaster badging, a factory touring windshield, and premium civilian- model leather saddlebags – complete with leather fringe and conchos( the right- side bag conceals the three drilled holes). While the powerplant in the Chief is the standard, lower- compression mill, Gene was also sent a spare engine directly from Indian’ s engineering department that was, as Gene put it,“ a hot one.” The performance- tuned spare engine remained on its wooden factory crate in a backroom of the shop for many years.
22 | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2025 | AMERICANRIDER. COM