The RT 4/13 was created by means of a particular collaboration between Dean Micetich of Cube Journal and Indian Bikes. Unveiled on the 2022 Barber Classic Bike Pageant the closely modified Indian Chief was constructed utilizing a 2 stage method. Underneath the route of Micetich, customized bike builder Scotty “T-Bone” Jones of Noise Cycles developed the design for the bike. After that, it was handed over to race bike builder and fabricator Zach Hindes of Joe Gibbs Racing to create their imaginative and prescient.
The 2022 Indian Chief is powered by a 1890cc Thunderstroke v-twin producing 79hp and 120Nm of torque. That’s respectable energy for a cruiser, nevertheless it’s no featherweight at 294kg. The only entrance brake can be tremendous for cruising highways nevertheless it’s definitely not what you’d need out on a race observe. Then there’s the styling. The Chief is a cruiser in each sense. From its seating place to the handlebars, footpegs, fenders and gasoline tank. This meant that Dean had his work reduce out for him if he was to show the behemoth right into a svelte racer; fortunately he knew simply the fellows to do it.
Stage 1 of the RT 4/13 undertaking noticed the donor, a bone inventory 2022 Indian Chief, transported to the workshop of Noise Cycles in Nashville, Tennessee. Dean then assigned Scotty the daunting activity of reworking the cruiser right into a classically styled race bike.
Scotty kicked issues off by stripping every little thing off the Chief that wasn’t going to characteristic on the completed bike. As soon as he was completed all that was left was a rolling chassis and the v-twin powerplant. This was then photographed and traced onto paper so Scotty might start his artistic course of utilizing pencil on paper. His design took styling cues from cafe racers and endurance race bikes with streamlined bodywork and a balanced bone line. Happy with what he’d laid out on paper, he started fine-tuning the geometry of the brand new bodywork straight on the bike.
Utilizing 2-dimensional plywood templates clamped to the body Scotty found out the sizing and proper positioning for all the brand new bodywork. He then constructed a wireframe buck of the brand new tank in order that it may very well be equipped to the fabricator.
With the styling, stance and bodywork geometry found out, the Indian Chief was packed up once more and shipped to the workshop of Zach Hindes in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Zach’s first activity was constructing a brand new subframe and swingarm for the Chief. For the reason that bike was destined for observe use he opted to over-engineering every little thing. The size for the brand new set-up are a mixture of flat observe and sport bike geometry and every little thing was welded collectively utilizing beefy metal pipe. Throughout this stage, Zach additionally launched the thought of changing the rear finish to a monoshock system. Together with trying the half, the monoshock affords extra exact damping, improved dealing with and a discount in weight. Holding the rear of the shock in place is a modified model of the Chief’s unique swingarm.
For the bodywork, Scotty sourced a Nineteen Seventies FRP entrance fairing and tail unit. Utilizing his idea drawings as a information, Zach decided the most effective placement for every little thing and fabricated all the {hardware} to mount it in place. As soon as on the bike Zach and Dean fine-tuned the bodywork to attain visible stability and expose a few of the bike’s trick design particulars.
The brand new gasoline tank is a hand-beaten aluminium unit Zach constructed from scratch. Styled after Norton’s Manx tank from the ’50s it options deep knee indents and cutouts on the entrance to stop the clip-on bars from coming into contact. Along with the gasoline tank, Zach constructed a one-off set of header pipes for the undertaking and modified the entrance forks to permit the fitment of a twin-disc setup.
To go with Scott and Zach’s efforts, Dean pulled favours from a number of different consultants within the customized scene to finish the Cube Journal RT 4/13 undertaking.
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For the wheels, he reached out to Roland Sands who machined him a customized set of alloy rims. Up entrance, there’s a 17-inch rim that’s been designed to simply accept twin discs. Within the rear is a 19-inch unit and each have been wrapped in Dunlop’s Sportmax Q3+ rubber for aggressive observe and avenue driving. Sands additionally equipped a set of adjustable rear set footpegs for improved street clearance.
Sitting on the finish of Zach’s customized 2-into-1 headers is a titanium Growler muffler from UK exhaust consultants Racefit. And to finish the bike’s transformation from cruiser to racer, the Indian now wears a complete brake package deal from Beringer.
All that’s left now’s for this Indian Chief racer to chop its enamel out on a observe. If it goes anyplace close to nearly as good because it appears to be like nobody’s going to be left upset.
DICE MAGAZINE / INDIAN MOTORCYCLES
Images by Scott G Toepfer
