The Indian 841 was a

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

designed by the Indian Manufacturing Co. for desert warfare. It pioneered the drivetrain configuration later popularized by

Moto Guzzi Moto Guzzi is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer and the oldest European manufacturer in continuous motorcycle production. Established in 1921 in Mandello del Lario, Italy, the company is noted for its historic role in Italy's motorcycling ma ...

, having a longitudinally mounted air-cooled 90-degree V-twin with shaft drive to the rear wheel.

History

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the US Army requested experimental motorcycle designs suitable for desert fighting and offered Indian $350,000 in exchange for 1,000 shaft-drive, side-valve, twin-cylinder test motorcycles. In response to this request, Indian designed and built the 841 (8 for the new engine design and 41 for the year). The Indian 841 was heavily inspired by the BMW R71 motorcycle, as was its competitor, the

Harley-Davidson XA The Harley-Davidson XA (Experimental Army) was a flat-twin, shaft drive motorcycle made by Harley-Davidson for the US Army during World War II. Development and production During WWII, the U.S. Army asked Harley-Davidson to design a specification ...

. However, unlike the XA, the 841 was not a copy of the R71. Although its tubular frame, plunger rear suspension, four-speed transmission, foot-operated shifter, hand-operated clutch and shaft drive were similar to the BMW's, the 841 was different from the BMW in several aspects, most noticeably so with its 90-degree longitudinal-crankshaft

V-twin engine A V-twin engine, also called a V2 engine, is a two-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Although widely associated with motorcycles (installed either transversely or longi ...

and

girder fork A motorcycle fork connects a motorcycle's front wheel and axle to its frame, typically via a yoke, also known as a triple clamp, which consists of an upper yoke joined to a lower yoke via a steering stem, a shaft that runs through the steering h ...

. Also unlike the R71 and the XA, the 841 used a heel-and-toe shift pedal with heel-operated upshifts and toe-operated downshifts. The bike also had a low compression ratio of 5.1:1, meaning that it could be run on low-octane fuel, crash bars to protect the cylinders, 18-inch wheels, two separate gas tanks for a total of 5 gallons of available fuel and newly designed girder forks for better shock absorption. In order to reduce costs, the new V-twin shared several internal components with the existing Indian Sport Scout, resulting in the same bore and stroke of . The Indian 841 and the Harley-Davidson XA were both tested by the Army, but neither motorcycle was adopted for wider military use. It was determined that the

Jeep Jeep is an American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with remaining assets, from its previous owner American Moto ...

was more suitable for the roles and missions for which these motorcycles had been intended. The 841 had also been found to have gearbox problems. Surplus 841s were eventually sold from the corporate warehouse in Springfield. Indian enthusiast Sammy Pierce used the tank and frame of his 841 along with the case and cylinders of an Indian Chief to make his P-61 American Rocket, featured on the cover of the May 1952 issue of ''Cycle'' magazine.

Drivetrain configuration

Similar drivetrain configurations, using wide-angle longitudinally mounted V-twins with shaft drive, were later used on the 1953-1956 Victoria Bergmeister motorcycle, the

Honda CX series The Honda CX series motorcycles, including the GL500 and GL650 Silver Wing variants, were developed and released by Honda in the late 1970s, with production ending in most markets by the mid 1980s. The design included innovative features and tech ...

, and, most notably, on medium- and large-sized

motorcycles.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{Cite web, url=http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/asp/classics/bike.asp?id=72, title=Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum: 1941 Indian Military Model 841: The Wigwam's desert warfare bike, publisher=Motorcyclemuseum.org, access-date=2011-02-26, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120727003609/http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/asp/classics/bike.asp?id=72, archive-date=2012-07-27, url-status=dead {{cite web , url=http://www.motorcycle.com/mo/mcmuseum/i841.html , title=The Soldier that Never Was – Indian Military Model 841 , work=Motorcycle Online , access-date=2007-05-10 , last=Tharp , first=Dave , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19961219005337/http://www.motorcycle.com/mo/mcmuseum/i841.html , archive-date=1996-12-19 , url-status=dead {{cite journal , title=Motorcycles for Combat , publisher=Popular Science Publishing , date=September 1942 , editor=Charles McLendon , journal=Popular Science , volume=141 , issue=3 , location=New York, NY, USA , pages=118–121, 212, 214 , issn=0161-7370 {{cite book , chapter=The A-Z of Motorcycles , url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofmo00wils_1 , title=The Encyclopedia of the Motorcycle , publisher=Dorling-Kindersley , last=Wilson , first=Hugo , url-access=registration , year=1995 , location=London UK , pag
108
, isbn=0-7513-0206-6 {{Cite web, url=http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/asp/classics/bike.asp?id=71 , title=Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum: 1942 Harley-Davidson XA , publisher=Motorcyclemuseum.org , access-date=2011-02-25 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120727003729/http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/asp/classics/bike.asp?id=71 , archive-date=2012-07-27 , url-status=dead {{cite book , title= Standard Catalog of U.S. Military Vehicles, last= Doyle, first= David, date= Feb 28, 2011, publisher= Krause Publications, isbn= 978-1-44022-799-8, edition=2nd, pages= 17–18, access-date=July 24, 2012 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ljdma-SYU0gC, quote= Unfortunately, the gearbox was hard to shift and trouble prone., author-link=David Doyle (writer) {{cite web, url=http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/legendary-riders/2007-09-01/indian-hot-rod.aspx, title=Sammy Pierce's P-61 American Rocket, publisher=Motorcycle Classics, access-date=2009-08-11, date=September–October 2007, author=Margie Siegal {{cite book , chapter=The A-Z of Motorcycles , url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofmo00wils_1 , title=The Encyclopedia of the Motorcycle , publisher=Dorling-Kindersley , last=Wilson , first=Hugo , url-access=registration , year=1995 , location=London UK , pag
191
, isbn=0-7513-0206-6 {{cite book , url=https://archive.org/details/motorcycleclassi0000mitc/page/56 , title=Motorcycle Classics , publisher=Publications International , last=Mitchel , first=Doug , year=1995 , location=Lincolnwood, IL USA , page
56–57
, isbn=0-7853-0889-X 841 Military motorcycles Motorcycles introduced in the 1940s

History

Drivetrain configuration

See also

References