The Indian Motorcycle brand – for decades identified with this region of California and once manufactured in Gilroy – has come roaring back thanks to Polaris Industries, a Minnesota-based maker of all-terrain and off-road vehicles.
One local retailer is selling the new Indian bike – Hollister PowerSports along San Felipe Road.
Indian is considered America’s first motorcycle company. The famous brand – started in 1901 in Springfield, Mass., until it went bankrupt in 1953 – made a name for itself in the region. Gilroy produced the bikes from 1999 to September 2003, when the business was scrapped.
“It’s been around for a while (Indian motorcycle). A lot of people are buying them now,” said Cesar Flores, chairman of the Top Hatters Motorcycle Club that is based in San Benito County.
After production stopped in Gilroy, the investment firm Stellican Ltd. bought the brand and manufactured the motorcycles in North Carolina from 2006 to 2011. Gilroy officials tried to keep production of the bikes in the city at the time with the new owner, but to no avail.
Polaris bought the brand in 2011 and is selling 2014 models of the bike, including the Indian Chief Classic, Indian Chief Vintage and Indian Chieftain.
“We’ve had the line for about 90 days,” said Rey Sotelo, general manager at Hollister PowerSports. “We had our first three hit the floor about three weeks ago, and, basically, they were all presold.”
PowerSports is one of 100 dealers nationwide committed to selling the new brand. It is expanding its showroom to accommodate the new bikes, Sotelo said.
In July, Sotelo and other managers were invited to Washington, D.C., by Polaris to preview the new bike for about “a minute and a half,” he said.
Sotelo was president of the Indian Motorcycles production company in Gilroy from 1999 to 2002.
“Their (Polaris) first target was that they wanted us to put the showroom either in Gilroy or San Jose,” he said.
But after a year of negotiations, Hollister PowerSports convinced Polaris to allow the Hollister business to sell the bike. Hollister PowerSports has been in the city since 2007.
“The turning point was the rally this year,” Sotelo said, referring to the Hollister motorcycle rally. It was revived this summer after a five-year hiatus.
“This last year was huge for the store,” he said.
Unlikely Gilroy presence
As to whether Gilroy might produce bikes again, Sotelo was skeptical. A spokeswoman for the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation, which helped bring the now-defunct shop to Gilroy in the late 1990s, said there were no plans to try to woo new production of the bike back to Gilroy.
“I find it not probable,” Sotelo said, noting that Victory, also sold by Polaris, and Indian bikes are now produced in Spirit Lake, Iowa. “I don’t see them doing anything out here. California is a tough state to do business in.”
He said even with 800 employees in Gilroy and the amount of revenue the company produced for the city back in 2003, it was still difficult to operate.
“My comments to them is, they did everything we didn’t (about Polaris producing the new line),” Sotelo said. “They lived up to the brand. We tried to live up to the brand. We had issues with funding. From day one, it was a struggle.”
He said Polaris has done the brand “justice.”
“I’ve been a Harley guy forever,” Sotelo said. “But this bike, I sold my Harley. The Indian brand is huge.”
He said people are coming from all over to buy the bike and that next week, the store is going to a showroom in Los Angeles to showcase and sell the motorcycles. Currently, there is no dealer in L.A. He said people are coming as far away as Idaho to buy the bike at the store.
“Right now, the brand is hot again. The motorcycle exceeds expectations,” he said. “If you’re a motorcycle enthusiast or a rider, and you ride this bike, you will be amazed.”
He said he expects that Hollister PowerSports will have a secondary business of Harley trade-ins for the new Indian bikes.
“We don’t think it’s going to be a bigger challenge to get people off the Harleys onto this bike,” he said.
Still, it may be hard for some of the Harley enthusiasts in the county to switch out.
“We’re old Harley riders. We’ve been riding Harleys forever,” Flores said. “Indians are pretty cool bikes.”
Hollister PowerSports expects to do demonstrations of both Victory and Indian bikes at next summer’s motorcycle rally. Sotelo said the store will be open and will be participating in rally events.
“I’ve had a Harley registered for 40 years and, after riding a Victory, I sold my Harley,” Sotelo said. “I will also have an Indian. They’ve done a fantastic job.”
