My Indian Arrow

This photo is not the bike I owned, but it is identical to it.

Although Indian Motorcycle production had ceased in the early 1950s there were yet many of them around long after that, up to and including today.  I had an affinity for motorcycles since my introduction to them by Donald Hillhouse in 1956.

So it was that in 1962 a friend named Hepler offered to sell me one that he had found somewhere and was having no luck at all making it run.  It was a 1948 or ’49 Indian Arrow which was a smaller bike than most that Indian manufactured.  This sounded like it was right up my alley so I purchased it for the princely sum of $50 with the understanding he would return my money if I found it impossible to get it running.

I brought the little Indian to my house trailer in Cox’s Park and parked it in my back yard.  As far as I knew it was complete, and merely would not run although the engine would turn over and had good compression.  It was getting some age on it, but there was no reason to believe it couldn’t be resurrected.  I worked on it for a while before I discovered it had no ignition points in it.  Someone along the way had removed them, and they were no longer with the bike.

I tried all of the motorcycle dealers I could locate in the Jacksonville area, but to no avail.  None had any idea where I could buy a set of points for an Indian more than 15 years old.  As Indian had ceased production several years before I couldn’t even go to the factory for replacement parts.  At some point I learned there was a large Indian parts place in the Midwest, maybe Oklahoma or Nebraska, I don’t remember now.  I splurged on a telephone call and attempted to find a set there, but it was the same as everywhere else.  They couldn’t help me.  If I had the old set I would have somehow remanufactured them, but I had no idea what they even looked like.

I finally gave up, and returned the bike to Hepler and got my fifty bucks back, but I hated to.  I liked the looks of that little Indian.  I never did get a chance to ride it with the wind streaming through my hair as I had pictured myself doing.  So much for my daydreams.  I’d give quite a bit to have that bike today.