An Indian motorbike built to endure
Some time in the 1960s, and maybe earlier, a motorbike rider came to an unplanned stop on Mt Ruapehu.
It prompted the rider, who was probably a hunter, to make a decision that was to have a profound impact on a Witt tutor more than half a century later.
The bike was left where it had come to a halt, and abandoned. Sanson bike enthusiast Alistair Burling stumbled on the decaying remains of the bike in bush in the 1970s and arranged to take it home.
Witt tutor Gary Sharpe joked with his mate that he would never get round to restoring the old bike, and eventually convinced him to part with it to be given a new lease on life.
Three years on, the finished article is now on display at The Learning Centre. Gary Sharpe’s pride and joy is a 1941 Indian 741, one of many left in New Zealand by the US Military after the end of World War II.
The Indian was popularised in the 2005 film The World’s Fastest Indian where New Zealand motorbike legend Bert Munro was played by Anthony Hopkins.
Eleven years on from that movie a new book, by Christchurch author Neill Birss, Burt Munro – The Lost Interviews, has just been released. To celebrate the arrival of the book Sharpe’s bike now has pride of place in The Learning Centre at Witt.
The Indian at The Learning Centre is one of two he is completing. The other is being presented as a Rat Rod. It’s been stripped down to the metal and allowed to rust, then sealed. Rat Rods have become more popular among car and bike restorers in recent years.
Sharpe has also restored BSA and Triumph bikes, but he pulls no punches about the beloved Indian. ’’They are horrific to ride,’’ he says. All the controls are reversed and people say the company couldn’t work out whether they wanted to build a bike or a car.
‘‘It’s also got a hand gear change and a left hand throttle, the theory being you could shoot as you rode.’’
Of course, that wasn’t good news for American soldiers who were left handed. Sharpe’s Indian has just been completed and is being primed for a pilgrimage to Invercargill at the end of the year, when he hopes to have both bikes running.
He also had plans to add a side car on the right, of course, rather than the traditional left.