Terry Fiedler, a reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune who covered Excelsior-Henderson’s rise and fall, says the company suffered from a mix of hubris, facility extravagance and poor planning. "They didn’t bootstrap well," says Fiedler. "They built a $50 million to $60 million facility before they knew what demand would be for their bikes and hardly marketed themselves at all. Their motorcycles were technically sound, but they didn’t develop a solid dealership network to help them drum up demand. In the end, they sold very few bikes."

Industry watchers say Excelsior-Hender-son had spent a lot of money on the manufacturing facility before it was sure the model would be a success in the marketplace. "I don’t think the Hanlons did their due diligence. They believed that people would buy their machines instead of Harleys, and that simply didn’t happen," says Brown. "They didn’t seek the best business advice or the best design advice and insisted on their own view of what the design should be. But they were a legitimate motorcycle maker, and they took their shot at a life’s dream."

Wagenseller says Indian’s executives (several of whom cut their industry teeth at Harley-Davidson) followed the Excelsior-Henderson story closely to analyze why that business failed. "We heard and read a lot of descriptions of their Taj Mahal manufacturing plant, especially the [$8 million] powder-coating facilities, and we’ve been very careful about where we’re spending our dollars. We’re spending it on technology and building brand awareness instead of on a mammoth vehicle manufacturing structure."

Wagenseller feels success also boils down to the appeal of the bike itself. "Sell-through is extremely important, so we’ve set up our systems to carefully track which bikes are selling in which markets and how long they’re staying on the floor," he says. "Our bikes are selling. In the end the Excelsior-Henderson just wasn’t that pretty, so it didn’t sell. The Chief is a beautiful bike."

The new Chief’s luxuriously sweeping fenders and dazzling muscular chrome wows onlookers, which makes a great brand impression. "I can’t remember when I’ve ridden a motorcycle that generates as much sidewalk attention as one of these new Chiefs," says Cycleworld’s Edwards. "People will pull you over to the side of the road to ask about it. This motorcycle makes a statement?people love the way it looks."

That visual dazzle helped sell more than 5,000 of the $24,000 Indian motorcycles last year, and the company expects to increase those numbers by 20 percent in 2001. The real moment of truth will come this fall, when, O’Connell says, the company unveils its first designs for the completely new model. By the end of the first quarter of 2002 these new bikes should be thundering down the streets.