Long Termer: Indian Pursuit | Month Two

Life with a big, brash American is much as you’d expect. Everyone wants to talk to you, but sometimes you’d rather have the quiet life…

Rider: Dave Manning, 53, 5’ 11”
Cost new: £27,695
Engine: 1769cc, SOHC, 8 valve, water-cooled vee win
Spec: 120bhp (89.5kW) / 131lb-ft (177.6Nm)
Kerb weight: 416kg
Tank: 22.7 litres (5 gallons)
Seat height: 672mm (26.9in)
Miles this month: 396
Miles on clock: 3046
Fuel consumption: 50.4mpg/17.85km/l (claimed)
Current tyres: Dunlop Sportmax Roadsport 2
Modifications: None

While the big Indian is my primary transport at the moment, that’s not to say that it’s not had some downtime already. You’ll read more about my trip to France aboard an Italian lovely in a forthcoming issue, and while that was only for just over a week, the Pursuit did spend a little longer shut away safely in a neighbour’s barn as I focussed on the daily grind and did the stuff that had been ignored for a few months. Like laundry, grass-cutting and putting the bins out.

Practicality

But, as mentioned, outside of its enforced rest period, the big vee has been my primary transport. And, while a 416kg motorcycle that’s the size of an average Mediterranean island isn’t necessarily the best option when commuting into town or for popping to the shops, it is actually rather quite practical. Okay, so let’s ignore that practicality of easy parking, or of  manoeuvrability in small spaces… but instead focus on the practicality of actually being able to take your shopping home after the weekly supermarket visit. Or of being able to carry all one’s camera equipment without resorting to a cumbersome rucksack. Or of being happy in the knowledge that any belongings left on the bike aren’t accessible to light-fingered scrotes but, instead, are locked away in the centrally-locked luggage… Yep, that’s practical! So much so that you can argue that it is more practical than any four-wheeled kind of conveyance…

Rolling stock

Most bikes of this ilk – touring machinery with a base design involving a large-capacity vee twin – tend to have balloon tyres on conventionally-sized wheels with brakes that aren’t of the most recent spec or performance. And that’s fine as, more often than not, they’re perfectly suitable for the job in hand. However, the Indian is blessed with a pair of cast aluminium wheels running on low profile, near-sporty rubber (Metzeler Cruisetec, so probably only sporty in profile rather than compound), with fat inverted forks holding a pair of radially-mounted four piston calipers biting down on plate-sized 320mm semi-floating discs. Given the 416kg mass of the bike (plus the lump sat on the seat), the fact that serious braking can be undertaken with just two fingers on the lever is a bit of an eye-opener. The brakes never, ever, seem underpowered, even if you’re pressing on and trying to get home before dark (please refer to last month’s write-up…).

Pardon, could you repeat that?

Last month I also mentioned the screen – and the way it goes up and down at the press of a button, such that its fly-splattered breadth can sit directly in your eye line – and the tank range. Given that the seat on the Pursuit is, as you’d expect, supremely comfortable, with an ability to shuffle about given by the footboards (although the seat itself tends to pin your bum in one position), then you’d hope for a decent tank range from the 22.7-litre tank. And, yes, the dash informs you that, with a full fuel load, the range is 230 miles. In fact, so certain is the Indian of this fact, it tells you three times, in three different places on the dash… Okay, I heard you the first time!

Stay tuned to see what Dave thinks with another month under his belt!