2022 Indian Chief Review - First Ride

2022 Indian Chief Line First Look

And in this case, Indian’s gambling many of them just want less. The Chief Classic I rode around Texas in 2014 weighed 812 pounds with a 5.5-gallon fuel load, atop a 68.0-inch wheelbase. The new similarly equipped (bags and windshield) Super Chief weighs 739 pounds with 4 gallons of gas, Indian says, and rides on a 4-inch shorter wheelbase, with a seat just 26 inches from the pavement. That 70-pound weight difference feels like even more, maybe aided also by the optics of the thing: The new Chiefs just look much smaller than the outgoing models. The base Chief has a claimed weight of just 670 lbs wet.

Like Brandon said, people want performance. The bargain bikes get the 111-cubic-inch Thunderstroke V-Twin, rated by Indian at 108 foot-pounds of torque (and 105 on our dyno in 2018). The Dark Horses and the SC Limited get the 116-cid version, rated at 120 ft-lbs. And if you’re one of those people who already know you want the tech, going for the premium bike also gets you Indian’s new four-inch round TFT instrument display with Ride Command, for turn-by-turn nav, Bluetooth connectivity and all that modern jazz. Modern jazz also includes ABS, sadly, which will cost you $800 extra on a base Chief.

Every one of them comes with standard cruise control at your right thumb. Also, every new Chief represents a clean break at last with all that bulbous, valance-fendered, 100-years-old tailfin tradition we’ve come to expect. It’s about time.

That new frame is also going to be less expensive to manufacture than the aluminum one, which allows these new Chiefs to come one shelf down closer to Indian’s entry-level Scouts. Indian hasn’t really had anything to compete with Harley-Davidson’s Softail line-up. Now it does. And maybe it’s good timing, since some are still mourning the demise of the twin-shock H-D Dyna, which went away after 2018. Lots of V-Twin enthusiasts were big fans of that bike for its ease of modification. It’ll be even easier to swap shocks on the new Chief, our pal Jeff Holt points out: The fact that the shocks are mounted on studs means you don’t even have to fool with finding the right bolts and spacers.

“We also wanted to keep it simple enough to allow riders’ imaginations to take flight with personalization options and possibilities,” says Stenegard.

Other motojournalists and influencers on the Arizona launch last week, better at planning than I, had requested their choice of Chief ahead of time. I like to be surprised. That put me by default on a Dark Horse Bobber, which would have been a regular Bobber if Indian had brought any of the downscale 111-inch bikes along, which they did not.

They were thinking seriously of basing the new frame around the Challenger PowerPlus engine, but the cooling system requirements just didn’t meet the desired aesthetic, and so Thunderstroke it is. (Not that the PowerPlus couldn’t still happen; the prototype is reported to be a beast.)

It’s a great American-style V-Twin, really, and the Bobber is the lightest motorcycle you’ve ever experienced it in. Until you ride the Chief later anyway. Swinging a leg over, Sir Cathcart style, and grabbing a handful of throttle, the Bobber peels right out, especially in Sport mode and especially off the line – and the base Chief I rode later was still accelerating at an indicated 111 mph later on a long straight.

The Bobber goes around corners well enough, too, until the footpegs start grinding at what Indian tells us is 28.5 degrees of lean. Things remain nice and stable all the time thanks to 5.2 inches of trail. Well-chosen spring rates fore and aft keep the Bobber from too much bobbing whether you’re hard on the gas or the brakes. With the mini-ape handlebar, though, I felt like I was having to maintain pressure to keep the Bobber in the corner, or that feeling may have been due to the fat, 130/90-16 front tire. (Another downside of the wire-spoke wheels is that they require tubes.)

At 5’8, I’m not a fan of the mini-ape hanger handlebars or the Bobber’s forward-set footpegs at any speed above about 50 mph. But people on the taller side seem to like both those things. Which makes this a good time to segue into…

The Super Chief handlebar lets you sit mostly upright, and the rubber-mounted floorboards let you move your feet all over the place, which is key to long-distance comfort. With those things and cruise control, the Super Chief feels like it would be a superb cross-country road tripper minus the bulk of a real touring bike – sort of an American-style sport tourer. (American is another thing we’re told Indian buyers want, along with Simple and Mechanical.) The Super Chief’s claimed weight is fully 93 lbs less than the Challenger’s 832.

Handlebar risers are rubber-mounted on all the bikes too, and at 2800 rpm or so and 80 mph, all systems are smooth, especially on the Super Chief. The only thing I can think of that’s going to harsh your buzz on a nice road trip on the Super Chief is a roofing nail or drywall screw. Those wheels contain tubes. When I had a blowout on an Indian in Texas, the Harley dealer I got flat-bedded to would not help me. Sad. Okay, I can think of two things: The previous Chief was doing good when it got 35 mpg. With a four-gallon tank, range could be a problem.

This one’s the hot rod of the bunch. The flat bar and mid-mount pegs rotate the rider forward into a more aggressive posture. And again, I’m not sure if it’s the handlebar or the 130/60-19 front Pirelli Night Dragon, or both, that make this Chief a more neutral-feeling, easier-handling bike than the Bobber. And that encourages you to wring its 116-inch neck all the time. Or could it be that the specs have the Chief weighing in 24 pounds lighter than the Bobber? Those fat tires and spoke wheels must be heavy.

The six-speed gearbox somehow feels less clunky than the ones in the big Indians, and you wouldn’t think a single 300mm disc would be enough for a 670-lb motorcycle when you’re trying to make time on curvaceous Arizona backroads. But it is, and it all hangs together in a package that’s sportier than it looks. Limited, again, by a slight lack of cornering clearance. Most Chief buyers probably won’t care about that; the ones who do can get a pair of longer shocks and slide the fork tubes down a bit.