THE BROCKHOUSE ERA

In 1950, then-Indian Motorcycle president Ralph B. Rogers resigned from his position and was replaced by English businessman John Brockhouse. In 1953, the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company ceased operations and discontinued production of all models, and the brand name was purchased two years later by Brockhouse Engineering, which began selling imported Royal Enfield motorcycles branded as Indian Motorcycles. In 1960, John Brockhouse sold the dwindling remains of the Indian Business to the Associated Motorcycle Company, and the brand died out soon after.

Industry leader Floyd Clymer bought the rights to the brand name in 1963, and again tried rebranding British bikes with the ‘Indian Motorcycle’ badge until his passing in 1970, when his attorney took ownership of the trademark. Under Clymer’s attorney’s direction, sales sharply declined and operations ceased yet again in 1977.

BURT MUNRO

In 1967, 68 year-old New Zealand native Burt Munro made motorcycle history by setting a new official land speed record – 184.087 mph with unofficial top speed of 205.67 mph – when he raced his heavily modified 1920 Indian Scout Streamliner across the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

Munro started claiming a number of New Zealand land speed records in the 1940’s, and by the 1950’s his Scout was too fast for New Zealand’s speed courses. He formed a new goal: to race on the flat, expansive Bonneville Salt Flats. Over the years, Munro and his Scout raced on the Bonneville Salt Flats nine times and set world records in three of them, culminating in his final trip and record-setting ride in 1967. Burt Munro was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in 2006, a tribute to the pursuit begun eight decades earlier.