Indian Prince

The Indian Prince is a motorcycle manufactured by the Hendee Manufacturing Company from 1925 to 1928. An entry-level single-cylinder motorcycle, the Prince was restyled after its first year and discontinued after four years.

This article is about the motorcycle model. For the Indian princes of the Princely States of British India, see Princely state.

The frame and forks of the Prince were revived in 1933 and used with V-twin engines to form the Motoplane and the Pony Scout.

Design and production
1927 flat-track racer based on an Indian Prince

The Prince was designed by Charles B. Franklin and began production in 1925.[1] It was a single-cylinder motorcycle for beginners[2] and for export.[3] The 1925 Prince gear box was separate from the engine, the frame under the tank has a tube which the tank is bolted too, the gas tank is mounted from underside of tank, front and back it was a wedge-shaped fuel tank. The Prince was redesigned for 1926 with a separate gearbox and a fuel tank similar in shape to that of the contemporary Scout. Both versions used coil-sprung girder forks instead of the leaf-sprung trailing link forks used on the contemporary Chief and Scout. A front brake was added in 1928, the last year of production.[1]

Legacy

Harley-Davidson began production of their single-cylinder motorcycle for 1926 and continued them until 1934.[4]

In 1933, the Prince frame and forks were revived for use in the Motoplane and Pony Scout V-twin motorcycles.[5][6] The Pony Scout was later renamed the Junior Scout and continued until the beginning of World War II.[5][6] Girder forks were used on the 1934-1942 Sport Scout[7] and on the 1945-1948 Chief.[5]

Notes
  1. Wilson 1995, p. 103.
  2. How Stuff Works: 1926 Indian Prince
  3. Girdler 2002, p. 71.
  4. Hatfield 2002, p. 50–51.
  5. Wilson 1995, p. 107.
  6. Girdler 2002, p. 97.
  7. Girdler 2002, p. 103.

References
  • Girdler, Allan (2002) [1997]. The Harley-Davidson and Indian Wars. St. Paul, MN US: Motorbooks International Publishing. ISBN 0-7603-1353-9.
  • Hatfield, Jerry (2002-09-01). "The Flathead Era". In Darwin Holmstrom (ed.). The Harley-Davidson Century. St. Paul, MN USA: MotorBooks International. pp. 47–65. ISBN 0-7603-1155-2.
  • Wilson, Hugo (1995). "The A-Z of Motorcycles". The Encyclopedia of the Motorcycle. London: Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 0-7513-0206-6.
  • The Auto Editors of Consumer Guide. "1926 Indian Prince". How Stuff Works. Archived from the original on 3 June 2013. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
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