28 | MARCH 2026 QUARTERLY SUPPLEMENT
An illuminated headdress ornament and a round LED headlight lead the way. Below left: Hand shaping the fenders in clay. Below right: Silver-painted cylinder heads pay homage to aluminum heads from the past.
As Indian charts its new path forward as a company, it’ s also celebrating its history and the legacy that has kept the brand alive( even when the company wasn’ t) for over a century. Which brings us to the 2026 Chief Vintage. Unlike the model of the same name that debuted in 2013 and stayed in the lineup until 2022, the new version more closely resembles the Chiefs of the 1940s. It’ s darker, with no chrome, and minimalist, with less ostentatious styling and fewer baubles.
During the unveiling of the Chief Vintage at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, Ola Stenegärd, design director for Indian Motorcycle, showed a photograph of a’ 40s- era Chief that he saw as a young boy in Sweden. That
Chief inspired Stenegärd’ s lifelong love of cruisers and led him to become a motorcycle designer. His career includes stints at Gilroy- based Indian, designing cars for Saab, and 15 years as a designer for BMW Motorrad before joining Indian again in 2018. His first assignment: redesign the Chief.
The new Chief platform, introduced for 2022 and the basis for the Chief Vintage, took after its smaller stablemate, the Scout. It was more stripped- down and elemental, with a shortened wheelbase, a tubular- steel frame replacing the previous modular aluminum backbone, and exposed twin laydown rear shocks rather than a single shock hidden behind bodywork. It was also more than 100 lb lighter than its predecessor.