New Indian Chieftain Limited, Chieftain Elite debut

Polaris has recycled its retro bagger into two new models: the Indian Chieftain Limited and Chieftain Elite.

Both the Chieftain Limited (pictured below) and Chieftain Elite have a 19-inch front wheel and 16-inch rear, which are supposed to improve the bikes’ handling. Otherwise, most of the changes are restricted to aesthetic accents to set the bikes apart from the base model Chieftain — stuff like matching headlight bezels, contrasting seat stitching, etc.

The Chieftain Elite will see production limited to 350 units, and has a paint job that supposedly takes a team of workers 25 hours to do by hand (just the sort of thing you’ll want to brag about when you ride one down to your local Tim Hortons). The Elite has some billet aluminum bits bolted on as well.

Other details: the bikes feature the Thunderstroke 111 air/oiled-cooled V-twin motor, Indian’s Ride Command infotainment system, ABS, heated grips, and all the other accoutrements standard to the Chieftain line.

It’s unclear if any of the Chieftain Elite models will come to Canada, as it hasn’t appeared on Canada’s Indian website yet. What is clear is that, for now, Indian seems to be adhering to the same business model used by Victory over the years: build a basic cruiser, and then diversify the line by simply tweaking the trim on that machine.