1975 Indian ML100
We all know someone who deserves a lump of coal in their Christmas stocking…right? The person that leaves their motorcycle out in the rain because that’s the only time it gets washed, checks tire pressure only when they go out to ride and find a flat tire, oil changes happen as regularly as Congress actually does something (never), they come over to a barbeque and all they bring to the party is their appetite, they borrow a couple of tools to do a clutch adjustment and only one of them comes back…the list goes on but we all know that person.
Most of us have bought a motorcycle or two that we thought would be a good winter project only to find that it’s probably more work than it it’s worth, in so many ways. We end up finding a sucker…uh, I mean friend, that thinks he can make something good out of it (I have been that sucker more than once in my life..) and you are more than happy to send that two wheeled (if you actually have both wheels) was a motorcycle, off to new home.
Years back a group of riding buddies and I started this running joke of passing around a fruitcake at Christmas. It got mailed all over the country and after about ten years somebody actually opened it up. Surprise,surprise…it was just the same as it was when it started it’s all over the country journey.
A year or two later one of the band of merry men decided to resurrect the tradition but this time with a junk yard motorcycle. Ok, now this one didn’t shipped around the country it was just transported house to house here in So Cal. I was the first recipient of said junk yard P.O.S.
I awoke December 26th to a Suzuki something or other that had one wheel, a rusty gas tank, no seat and one turn signal(which was hanging by one wire) laying on my front porch. No one ever fessed up to being the one to start it but that almost rolling Suzuki ended up in someone’s Christmas stocking for the next ten years or so. Not a one of us ever did anything to it, we just laughed our asses off every time we dropped it off on a friends front porch with a bow on it.
Today I found on ebay a bike that you can buy and start a fine tradition yourself with your ‘friends'(?). It’s a 1975 Indian ML100. It is truly a classic Indian motorbike, well the seller thinks so. It is almost complete? so says the seller, it’s a rare find? Oh sure it may be missing a few parts but it has some extra rust to make up for that. And the best part is that the seller is willing to part with it for just under $1000 dollars…how can anybody pass up a deal like that to start a running joke with your riding pals. A good tradition isn’t always as cheap as a fruitcake, but how much do you like a good joke.
Click on the pics below for more pictures and more info. Also, a good laugh at what someone thinks something is worth. This is one Indian you know the Chief doesn’t want to admit siring.
1975 Indian ML100