Harley-Davidson/Indian Rivalry Did Indian sue Harley-Davidson in the mid 1900’s and why or was it just a rumor? Indian did sue Harley-Davidson in the mid 1900’s because Indian saw that on Harleys new model was a carburetor of his design and Indian accused Harley of plagiarizing their design of a the carburetor so Indian sued them for steeling their carburetor design. In court Harley won because Indian did not have any contract our paper work that would secure their design. A century ago, Harley-Davidson and Indian had a fierce rivalry on dangerous, steep banked board tracks. After the wooden track times quit the two American egos continued their rivalry on gravel tracks. Indian won its last National and its last Class C championship in 1950’s — then right of way went out of business. …show more content…
Until dismissed in 1953. Indian Motors Timeline In 1900’s George Hendee founded a bicycle creation company called Hendee Manufacturing Company. The bicycles carried make names such as Silver King Silver Queen and American Indian, which was shortened to Indian and became Hendees primary brand name. In 1901 bicycle promoter and former champion George Hendee hired Oscar Hedstrom to build a gasoline engine powered bicycle to pace bicycle races. In February, Oscar began work on the motorized pacing bike in a shop in Middle town Connecticut. He completed the first motorized bike in May and shipped it 38 miles to Hendee in Springfield, Massachusetts. The machine and other two bikes proved to be powerful and reliable, establishing the company’s reputation for outstanding performance. Later that year the company’s first factory was established on Worthington Street in downtown Springfield. 1902 the first Indian Motorcycle was sold to a retail customer. It had a chain drive and a single cylinder engine built by the Aura Automatic Machinery Company. The company with who George and Oscar contracted for engine