AMERICANRIDER. COM MARCH 2026 | 21
Left: Old Chiefs and Fours displayed with historic photos at Indian’ s 125th anniversary party. Right top: Numerous customs, like this one built by Carey Hart, were on display at the party. Right bottom: Country music star Tyler Hubbard performed.
names became legendary: Chief and Scout models still form the backbone of Indian’ s lineup a century later.
In 1927, Indian purchased the Ace Motor Corporation and added Ace’ s 4-cylinder motorcycle to its lineup. The Indian Four was known for its smooth, well-balanced engine, giving the motorcycle an air of elegance and luxury that was lacking on most other machines of the day.
During World War II, Indian and Harley-Davidson, head-to-head competitors in engineering, sales, and racing, both committed much of their production to the war effort. An ownership change in 1945 and corporate decisions that followed put Indian on thin ice after the war. After struggling for a few years, it finally closed its doors in 1953.
In the years that followed, the Indian name endured but never found itself on solid footing. Ownership of the brand changed numerous times: from Brockhouse Engineering to Associated Motor Cycles to Floyd Clymer. Various claims to the brand followed, but not until the Gilroy, California-based Indian Motorcycle Company of America was there a serious attempt to revive the brand and produce new motorcycles. The Gilroy effort, from 1999-2003, was short-lived.
In 2006, Stellican Limited, a London-based private equity firm, acquired rights to the brand and restarted production in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. Few motorcycles, which were largely a continuation of the Gilroy designs, were produced. In 2011, Polaris Industries, which owned Victory Motorcycles, acquired Indian. It relaunched the brand in 2013 at the Sturgis Rally with an allnew lineup of three models: Chief Classic, Chief Vintage, and Chieftain.
Over the ensuing 13 years, Indian expanded its lineup of models and reignited its old racing rivalry with Harley-Davidson with factory efforts in American Flat Track and King Of The Baggers.
In October of last year, Polaris announced that it would sell a majority stake of Indian to Carolwood LP, a private equity firm based in Los Angeles, and the deal was finalized in February. With this change, Indian will be led by new CEO Mike Kennedy, who previously held CEO positions at RumbleOn and Vance & Hines and worked at Harley-Davidson for 26 years. Under its new ownership, Indian will retain key staff as well as its manufacturing facilities in Spirit Lake, Iowa, and Monticello, Minnesota, and its design center in Burgdorf, Switzerland.
Indian kicked off 2026 with a new campaign called“ Never Finished,” highlighting the brand’ s history and reaffirming its commitment to the future.
“ The pursuit of innovation that drove our founders continues to drive us today,” said Nate Secor, director of marketing for Indian Motorcycle.“ Whether through design, engineering, or marketing, we push ourselves every day to honor that legacy. The Never Finished campaign isn’ t just a celebration of our 125-year history, it’ s a commitment to our riders that we are always innovating, always competing, and will always be pushing forward.”
In January, Indian held its annual dealer meeting in Los Angeles, where it unveiled the new Chief Vintage( see review on page 26), and hosted a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum to celebrate its anniversary. Hundreds of dealers, celebrities, journalists, and friends of the brand were in attendance. Spread out on a vast red carpet on the Petersen’ s rooftop parking deck were dozens of Indian motorcycles: current models, historic models, racebikes, and customs built by Carey Hart, Roland Sands, and others, including those from Indian’ s FORGED series.
The next chapter of Indian Motorcycle is still being written, but by all accounts, the brand is in good hands and the future looks bright.