Indian bikes had a lot of surprises for me. While Chinese bikes have many simplified details to facilitate maintenance and assembly, Indian bikes have taken a different route while still achieving high levels of mass production and durability.
Bike stands:
Most Chinese roadsters have a sidestand with a rear wheel stand being reserved for 28" frames or utility bikes, but in India, there are no sidestands on roadsters. All seemed to have a rear wheel stand exclusively.
Rear package rack:
Chinese roadsters have package rack that are usually a tubular affair that bolt right to the seat clamp. In my mind this is a very logical simplification. Indian roadsters however, have package racks that CLAMP to the rear frame tubes in a "dutch" style. The package rack itself is also somewhat larger and made of I-beam pressed steel strips and not tubes. Really heavy duty racks like the one below are riveted from steel strips.
Decorative Hardware:
Indian roadsters definitely have it one up on Chinese bikes in this regard. First there are the detailed chainrings which I had mentioned last time. Additionally there are lots of little things like fender ornaments. Although these are not unknown on Chinese roadsters, they are certainly uncommon. In India though almost every bike seemed to have one.
Other items like the fork brackets show a higher level of detail as well like this one from a BSA. Yes, BSA bikes are still made in India.
Badges, Paint and Decals:
As you might have seen from the bikes above, most, if not all Indian Roadsters have a badge riveted to the rear fender. This is different than Chinese roadsters where this place is usually occupied by a decal.
Other finishing details were highly variable between brands with the best offering nothing to criticize. However a on an unusually large number of bikes the quality of these finishing details seemed to be haphazardly applied. Decals are often overly thick, applied off center and not covered by clear coat. One bike had a decal that said "Latest German Paint Technology". Clearly while the company management might think that is a selling point, I doubt anyone else does. The decal was peeling and the "German paint" had somehow been dripped /sprayed onto parts of the brake rods. But you have to remember these bikes are built to withstand hostile monsoons and cratered roads. They need to resist rust first and foremost and look pretty second. Although, as I was to find out later some looked very pretty indeed.
Operational Hardware:
Quite simply, all the bikes had Philips style side pull rod brakes. There was not a single center pull to be seen. All had westwood rims. No drum brakes or coaster brakes were in evidence. All were single gear.
Seats:
Seats came in several forms, all of them were heavily sprung to withstand the harsh road conditions. There was a plunger type sprung seat, where the springs pull rather than compress with a shock. Then there is the ore conventional (to western eyes) hairpin spring type saddle. Another type had normal compression springs but acted on a pivot under the seat nose. Occasionally this type could be seen with 3 rear springs. This seemed to be the most comfortable of the types I saw.
None of these seat types are readily found in China.
You can tell in the BSA picture where braking action has pulled the rod stirrip forward, bending the rod slightly. A common problem with rod brakes.
Posted by: Dadabean | February 22, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Just got done working on my second Indian roadster, and I have to say: these bikes are a step above a lot of Flying Pigeon's I've seen.
The Phillips-style (side-pull) brake components are stainless steel and the rear brake is connected to the bike via a bolt in the bottom of the bottom bracket. The rod draw bolts connect all the way through their links with the rods.
Generally, all of this leads to a bike built for harsher riding, and demands a bit more polished of a finish.
Flying Pigeons are still good bikes, but having looked at the Indian roadsters I feel that they are a bit better overall.
How do you feel about it?
Posted by: ubrayj02 | March 03, 2009 at 02:37 PM