This 1915 Indian Twin Board Track Racer is a machine elevated to the level of art, built by one of America’s most historic brands at the height of its ascent and in its purest form. By the middle of the 1910s, Indian stood at the center of a rapidly accelerating motorcycle culture in America, shaping not only the standards of design, marketing and distribution, but also helping form the very sport that captured the country’s imagination. A natural evolution of the wildly popular sport of bicycle velodrome racing, of which Indian’s founders George Hendee and Carl Oscar Hedstrom were active at its height, motorcycle board track racing emerged in 1909 as a thrilling and popular spectacle. On the walls of a wooden saucer, only those features that produced the fastest motorcycles were required, and Indian used what it learned on the perilous board tracks to distill its racing motorcycles to the very essence of speed. Hedstrom’s relentless experimentation with racing machines fed directly into production improvements, creating a feedback loop that allowed Indian to lead in both competition and the showroom. Innovations like Hedstrom’s twist-grip throttle, V-twin designs, loop frames, leaf-spring fork, and cradle spring frame introduced advancements that reshaped motorcycling, all born initially from his undying quest for competition glory. Indian’s factory board track racers were an expression of that philosophy, stripped of unnecessary weight and optimized for sustained high speed, unburdened by amenities like suspension, brakes or multi-speed gearboxes. By the early 1910s, Indian board track machines, jockeyed by legendary racers like Jacob DeRosier, Charlie Balke and Eddie Hasha, held numerous speed records and championship victories, cementing the Springfield marque as the king of the culture. A former museum piece, this gorgeous 1915 Indian Twin Board Track Racer preserves the legacy of both the brand and the famed venue on which it was built. Finished in Indian Red, the racer features a 61 CI F-head Big Twin engine, direct chain drive, dropped racing handlebars and a rigid leather racing saddle. It’s approximately one of 25 built in its configuration, and has undergone a highly detailed restoration with nickel plating. This is an exceptionally rare offering, standing as a visceral artifact of motorcycling’s most fearless and dynamic age, when Indian built its legacy on the slanted timbers of the American motordrome. 1915 INDIAN TWIN BOARD TRACK RACER
