Indian 1720 CHIEF BOMBER 2010 — Specifications

Imagine a P-51 Mustang pilot touching down on the base tarmac, pulling off his leather helmet, and searching for a mount worthy of his exploits over occupied Europe. Indian clearly had this scenario in mind before launching the Chief Bomber, a limited series produced exclusively for 2010 and built around an unabashed tribute to American military aviation of the Second World War.

The staging begins at first glance. Available in steel grey or military khaki, the Bomber plays the authenticity card down to its most absurd and seductive details: exposed rivets on the fenders, a pin-up painted directly on the 21-liter tank, a small molded bomb beneath the front skirt. This is far from the generic custom that slaps a standard frame in metallic burgundy and calls it a special edition. Here, the storytelling is coherent, almost scholarly. The saddlebags and seat are genuine leather, designed specifically for this version, which partly justifies the €32,000 price tag.

The engine is the 45° V-twin displacing 1,720 cc that powers the Chief lineup across its standard variants. With 71 horsepower at 4,500 rpm and, more importantly, 135.3 Nm of torque available from just 2,400 rpm, this is not a powerplant trying to impress on a spec sheet. This twin pulls low and wide, with the ease of something that has nothing to prove. The claimed top speed of 150 km/h is not an admission of weakness — it is a statement of intent: the Bomber does not race, it rides. The 6-speed gearbox and belt drive complete the picture of a cruiser that prioritizes highway comfort on long American stretches over blistering acceleration.

The flip side of this philosophy is weight. At 375 kilograms fully fueled with a seat height of 708 millimeters, the Bomber shows no mercy to smaller riders or those with limited low-speed maneuvering experience. Against a Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail of the same era, the weight difference remains moderate, but the comparison with a Triumph Thunderbird or a Honda VTX 1800 favors the Japanese and British machines the moment you need to exit a parking lot. This is not a beginner's motorcycle, and Indian makes no such claim.

The Bomber speaks more to a collector than a tourist, to a military history enthusiast as much as to a purebred American custom devotee. Few production motorcycles can tell a story this specific without tipping into cheap kitsch. This one manages it, because the details are executed with enough care to make the narrative hold up. As a limited series produced for a single year only, it has already traveled much of the road toward collector's item status.