Old Skool Cool

2026 Indian Chief Vintage

A bold and badass move by the company formerly owned by Polaris, or a makeshift attempt at a new bike by scrounging through the parts bin? To each their own, but in my humble opinion, the new 2026 Chief Vintage is a win. In a cultural climate that has been focusing on "do all" types of bikes and reducing the equipment offerings by platform (I'm looking at you Harley-Davidson for killing off the Electra Glides and Road Kings... among many others), the guys over at Indian doubled down and said, 'let's take one of our most popular models and make it a true vintage-inspired time machine'. Personally, I think they hit the "old skool cool" mark beautifully. 

What they did

What they did, essentially, was take a current model that has been in production for 12 years- one that has amassed an almost cult-like following, and stripped it down to the basics of what made it so desirable in its original heyday of the 1940's. But obviously, large motorcycle manufacturers can't go back to 1940's tech, and the mass buyers don't want that, so it is a modern iteration of the classic. Ok, I'll be honest enough to say that the biggest changes are wire spoke wheels, a solo seat and some trimmed down bodywork from the 2014 and up Chief Vintage models. This new Vintage is basically just a hybrid of the first generation Vintages, the later model Chiefs and some Scouts. BUT IT WORKS. 

Lookit, Indian just took a page out of Harley-Davidson's playbook, here. Back in the 1970's when the MoCo was in desperate need of some new machines, Willie G. went to the parts bin and started building some new bikes out of what they already had. Mix in two parts big twin, with one part Sportster model and.. "bam!" you've got yourself a new bike! H-D learned that sometimes, a bike can be worth more in the sum of its parts, so they started building on that idea. Make the fairing permanent on the Electra Glide... then put the windshield back on and call it a "Highway King", then later... a "Road King" as a new model. Put a variety of different parts on the Dyna, Sportster and Softail frames, and you have three new families of motorcycles! It made for great business, and they sold a bunch of motorcycles and were able to offer a motorcycle for just about anyone looking to get on two wheels, or upgrade their current scooter. The problem was, that having different factories, machines and tooling for all those different models, became too expensive for the MoCo to maintain when sales started to decline. But, this post isn't about that... this post is about this "new" bike from Indian... so let's talk about what you get for the $19,999 price tag.

What you see, is what you get

Basically, this is the bike. What makes it so cool looking- the solo saddle- goes away if you start adding passenger pillions or other two-up features. The tech is the same as previous model Chiefs and the engine, aside from a super cool retro two-tone paint and finish, is the same mill that Indian has been counting their money from. The other feature that adds to its retro styling is the spoke wheels and, well, spokes are spokes... so there really isn't anything to talk about. But, it's the overall package that makes this bike so cool. It's the retro-inspired machine that has modern day technology like ABS brakes, three different ride modes and fuel injection. Sure, you can add saddlebags, a two-up seat, windshield and a laundry list of other features to this bike to make it more like it's Polaris predecessors, but why would you want to? At $20k, it's not the cheapest Chief you can get (that can be had for $15k), but it's definitely one of the coolest. 

Final Thoughts

Personally, I'm still a die-hard Road King guy, but if there has been any bike that has gotten my attention in this most recent iteration of Indian Motorcycles, this is it. I love that while other companies are consolidating models, Indian took a bold move to expand on one. Not to mention the fact that it is a damn good looking motorcycle. For the kind of riding I do, it wouldn't work for me, but for the guy or gal that wants to go for a ride after work, or meet up with some buddies on the weekend for lunch, then this bike is a top-notch head turner and one that will, inevitably, elicit the question of how old it is.

Till next time MotoReaders...

Ride safe and make cool choices!

*All images in this post are property of Indian Motorcycles