Beschreibung
In 1996, American motorcycle racer and vintage enthusiast Don Emde dreamed of building a motorcycle like the ones his family dealership had sold decades earlier, but with modern technology. John Hoover, Kawasaki’s Director of product management wanted to take his successful ‘50s style Vulcan 1500 Classic even further back in time. The two came up with the idea of morphing a Vulcan with a 1940’s bike and Emde teamed up with Ken Boyko of Cobra Engineering and custom guru Denny Berg to turn the dream into a reality. The resulting project bike was taken to Daytona in the spring of 1997. Traffic stopped, jaws dropped and at a Kawasaki dealer convention that autumn the response was a thunderous standing ovation. “You build it, we’ll sell it” the dealers enthused. Hoover took the concept bike to Japan and by the summer of 1998 prototypes were being tested. In essence, the Drifter represented the rebirth of the legendary Indian Super Chief.
Few were imported into the UK and this later 2002 model in Oxblood Red and Ebony is the fuel injected variant. The original Kawasaki dealer did not sell the bike when new, but first registered it in 2004. It had its first MOT in 2009 when it had only covered 841 miles.
In fact it has only been MOT tested 7 times and had spent extended periods in storage. The first meticulous private owner kept it until 2019 when advanced age forced a reluctant sale. Owned by one of our directors it has done only 250 miles since benefitting from a major £616 service and fitting of new Dunlop tyres to match the original relatively unworn tyres which have been retained. The tyre codes showed them to be 19 years old! The decals and subtle ‘tribute' modifications are tastefully done and most other motorcyclists are convinced this is a genuine Indian bike, particularly with its period six digit number plate which is included in the sale. This stunning show quality Drifter has just 6, 000 miles from new with superb original paintwork and chrome. This is one of the finest low mileage examples in the UK. Utterly reliable, with its legendary 1500cc V twin and shaft drive, this is such a great value, show stopping cruiser.
