Indian Motorcycle is about to launch its limited-edition, top-of-the-line Chieftain model on August 12. Called the Chieftain Elite, the bike features a bespoke paint-job that the company claim takes 25 hours to complete. The bike also gets additional equipment like a premium sound system, custom leather seats and more.
To begin with, the new paint on the bike is called Black Hills Silver and features marble accenting. The company claims that no two Chieftain Elites will look the same, thanks to the unique marbling process that goes into this paint. Aside from this unique paint scheme, the bike also features Indian’s Ride Command infotainment system set up with Bluetooth, navigation, and 200W premium audio (the standard Chieftain gets ‘just’ 100W). Other additional equipment includes leather seats with custom stitching and aluminium floorboards.
The Elite also features what the company calls an ‘open fender’. It has a large 19-inch wheel up front – a size seen on every other 2018 Chieftain variant, except the Classic; and has a wheel design similar only to the Chieftain Limited. The Chieftain Elite is powered by the same 1,811cc Thunderstroke 111 V-twin engine seen on many other Indian offerings, but it puts out 161.6Nm at 3,000rpm – 11.6Nm over any other Chieftain model. For braking, the bike uses the same twin 300mm discs at the front and a single 300mm disc at the rear. The suspension and chassis are also the same as other Chieftain variants. This limited model weighs-in with a kerb weight of a massive 388kg.
We believe this model will be considerably more expensive than the standard Chieftain (Rs 32.01 lakh, all prices ex-showroom, India). However, the difference will not be as huge as the Rs 8 lakh gap between the standard Roadmaster (Rs 39.99 lakh) and Roadmaster Elite (Rs 48 lakh) – which is due to the Roadmaster Elite's even more special gold-flake paintjob.
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
