American Motorcycle Company
May 25, 2006
Hey,
It is 11:55 p.m. est so,true to my word I am posting a story.I have been aware of the American Mootorcycle Co for about a year.They are new and debuted at Sturgess 05.The three main guys are Bob Page,Murray Smith and Branscombe Richmond of t.v. fame.The first two guys were principles in the re-birth of Indian but as we all know,that didn’t work out too well.Richmond was the Indian spokesman and a sr. v.p.
There was an AMC way back when.The company was around for 20yrs.from 1902-1922.These guys learned a lot of lessons and one of them was not to build a proprietary engine(s).They use s&s like many others.They use baker and trickshift transmissions but they do make their own billet parts.They spend more time on making their motorcycles and from what I have seen,they are amazing.I am a pro-street kind of guy and theirs is beautiful.I haven’t riden one yet but with the way it looks and the parts and engines they use and the detail,I am sure I would love to own one.The pro-street I was looking at costs about $47,000.That’s a lot of dinero but compared to people like Trotta,Bourget,Lane and a host of others seems pretty reasonable.These other motorcycles are $60,000,$70,000 and up.AMC also has less expensive motorcycles(ie Bobbers $25000).They also manufacture the Apache Bagger,and the Choctaw chopper.These motorcycles all have American Indian names as Branscombe Richmond is an American Indian and then of course there is the old Indian brand these guys owned.The frames are built by Frame Works in Glendale AZ and an AMC motorcycle is a liccensed product manufactured by Abbruzese’s Carefree Custom Cycles also in AZ.
Branscombe Richmond was on t.v. for 5 yrs. on a program called renegade with Lorenzo Lamas who also is an enthusiast.He played Bobby Sixkiller.
These guys say that if you buy a motorcycle from them you become part of a fraternity of AMC owners.The benefits include rides,charity things and a group of celebrity men and women to cruise with.They seem to be sincere about what the motorcycle lfestyle is and,that is what they stress.”It’s about the lifestyle”.I don’t know if Branscombe is doing any t.v. or movie work right now but,I do know he does a radio broadcast for Bikernet and is particularly active promoting the new company.I really love the look of these motorcycles and would pursure owning one if I had the moolah.
Andrea will be posting photo’s of some of these motorcycles in the gallery and probably in this post.She is under the weather today and that is why there are no photo updates.You can see these motorcycles in Sturgess and at other events around the country.Their website is www.amc1902.com.
Ride safe
Beach
Hey beach,
Not trying to be negative, but since you brought it up, I would like to hear from the ownership group you mentioned; on supposedly why the past version of the “Indian” company that you were referring to, went belly up. I was surfing recently and saw that the Indian Motorcycle Company site is still up and running. Evidently it’s been sold again and the new ownership is doing what it can to revive the brand, starting with improvements to engineering, quality, etc. They have stated that their intent is to start manufacturing bikes again as early as next year or early 2008. I guess we’ll see. I personallly think there’s a niche market still there for “Indian”, I would like to see someone restore the old glory to the company, but with a modern direction.
As far as AMC,… never layed eyes on one, except for in a magazine, so I really have no opinion. However, I just can’t help but think with the way things have gone the last couple of years,… I mean, “everyone and their brother is building and or “manufacturing” bikes these days”, i.e. “and this is just the tip of the iceberg”, American Eagle, American Iron Horse, Big Dog, Boss Hoss, Big Bear, Boar, Bourget, CCC, Harley, Independent, Merch, Ness, OCC, Redneck, Simms, Titan, Victory, WCC, and Trotta,… yada, yada and that’s some of the larger ones. I’ll bet I could take 15 minutes with the AMD guide, a few top magazines, and give you 1000 or more names whom consider themselves to be legitimate motorcycle builders. I guess what I’m trying to say is, the custom bike market has to slow down and or come to a screetching halt someday. That’s when I’ll be looking for some new shop equipment, on the CHEAP!
Ok I’m not answering my own post, but I forgot something. I couldn’t help but chuckle when I first heard “AMC”, my first thought was the Javelin, Gremlin, and one of the worlds funkiest cars, the Pacer. I think it would be funny as H*ll for them to come out with their next models of bikes with those names. Harr harr!
Hey Bone,
Good to see you pumped up.There are a lot of stories about the second coming of Indian and why it didn’t work.Personally,I think these guys just didn’t really have a handle on what they were doing.As I inferred,they tried to make a propietary engine and ran into a lot of trouble.Branscombe Richmond was in marketing for obvious reasons.I never watched his t.v. show but it was on for 5 yrs.More importantly he is a true American Indian.
I don’t know what happened exactly but,it seems they had production problems,organizational problems,more manufacturing problems and a motorcycle people didn’t want to buy.
This new company is entirely different in structure and from what I see and the care they seem to be taking in Fabricating and producing these machines they have learned some lessons from their past experience.They are also asking people to pony up 25% of the cost of the motorcycle up front which says to me they got burned a lot last time around.They are making these things to order rather than just pumping them out and selling them to dealers.I don’t know but,I don’t think many people will agree to those terms so we’ll see.There are too many stories about builders who took money and went out of business or just plain stole it.The risk is high so a lot of background work or perhaps an escrow account where no one could touch the deposit until delivery might work.The bikes look good in my opinion.The components are first rate and the framers and builders have good reputations.It’s a high risk business as you know so,time will tell.
I agree with you about the world of custom motorcycles or semi-custom or whatever they choose to call it.There is Big Dog,Victory,and all the others whose motorcycles do look too much alike and offer nothing really unique.That was not the case a few years ago but it is now.Perhaps that’s why there is more interest in metrics,who Knows? In so far as the names are concerned it might be cool to go with the Gremlin,that’s cool for a motorcycle but I’m not sure about the Javelin or pacer.
Hey bone,you can curse here as long as it’s tasteful(so to speak).Andrea and I are the only ones with the ability to edit and we don’t unless it’s really offensive to someone.Hey bone,Andrea told me she enabled you to post on here so,if you want to write an article or post something you found have at it.That’s a big compliment.You are our first roving reporter.Yuk Yuk.
Beach
Thanks Beach, Andrea!
I feel honored to have the assigned authority.
Regarding the cursing; my not doing so must be habit as much as anything. I rarely find the need to express myself using expletives, but in the future,… watch out. Ha ha.