THE BIG RED BULL

Chieftain 2020, now with added muscle and bigger brains …

- David Cohen

You may recall that Brum christened our long-term Indian Chieftain test bike as Running Bull back in 2014 and the bull theme has run through our Indian stories since.

This 2020 edition has to be Red Bull for the very nicely executed matte/satin finish on the Ruby Smoke paintwork. The quality of the paint is one of a number of improvements that Indian has been making steadily since the initial launch. It’s now really good.

It was also an interesting finish in the way it color-shifted when photographed, depending on the ambient light. It’s a polarising finish in more ways than one. Some people loved it – others were not so sure. Overall, I find the new Chieftain shape and styling slightly more attractive than the ‘freight train’ of the previous models – but it’s a close-run thing.

The Dark Horse black engine finish and the contrast cut wheels worked really well with the new shape. It had a definite show bike feel as I rode it out of the Fortitude Valley parking lot and over the bridge to Redcliffe for some photos. I do see some Victory motorcycle in its lines and bodywork – but it still has a big nod to the Indian Heritage look.

It’s not just a good-looking engine either. It now has an under square bore and stroke of 103mm x 113mm for a capacity of 116 cubes or 1890cc. The throttle body size has been increased to 54mm, it has the bigger pistons, heavy-duty valve springs and heavy-duty clutch – all standard.

The guys at Indian told me that the new stock factory 116 would be familiar to me as I had previously tested a few of their Stage 3 builds – also taken it out to 116ci.

As you would expect, the 2020 stock tune and exhaust gives more low-down torque and power than the Stage 3 kitted version but the top end isn’t as long.