Hmmm, where to start ?? If you go back about 2 and a half years, Indian Motorcycle was just starting to bring their corporate website online. One of the features of their new website was a messaging area where people could register and post comments and requests for information. Indian did not have any Service manuals back then so much of the information about how to fix something was gleened from postings to Indian's website by other Indian owners. The major drawback of the Indian website was that they had to preview every message before it was posted.

The Squaw Magnet - Owner: Mike Plate

This was done to control the messages content which was publically available on their site. They obviously needed to moderate their forum to prevent objectionable content from being posted there. So, it could be a few days before a message you posted actually showed up on their forum. If you had an important question to ask, this time delay was painful.

As more and more problems surfaced with the early Chief models, the owners of those cycles got more and more vocal about their disatisfaction with Indian and their dealers. IMC's image was beginning to suffer with all the negative messages. Eventually, Indian started censuring posts which criticized the company. If you continued to post messages which they found objectionable, they would cancel your account and ban you from using the site.

One of those members who was banned decided to start his own internet forum which would be free of Indian scrutiny and control. Members of this new forum could post anything they wanted without fear of being banned or censored. This was the start of the cybocorp forum on the internet. I was one of the early cybocorp members. This forum later became known as the Iron Indian forum. For about a year and a half, the cybocorp forum was THE alternative BBS for Indian Motorcycle owners. It's trademark was "no censorship" and "no banned users".

In July of 2002, the Iron Indian forum became part of the Iron Indian Riders Association (IIRA) - a motorcycle riders group for Iron Indian forum members. I was one of the founders of the IIRA and a Manager (Tribal Council member) for the first six months. There were seven Managers running the company when it started. For personal reasons unrelated to the operations of the IIRA, I resigned from the company in November and my last day with the IIRA was Dec. 31st, 2002. As is usual in any company, internal politics and power plays made life with the IIRA interesting. In January 2003, shortly after I left the company, a coup occured where one of the remaining founders was voted out of the organization. Another founder resigned in disgust. After this takeover, the Iron Indian forum became a control mechanism for the IIRA Tribal Council. Iron Indian members found their posts being censored and deleted. Council members would post their own spin on reality and then lock the topic so there could be no rebuttle. Forum members were banned for posting messages the Council found objectionable. It's interesting to note that this is exactly what IMC was doing before the cybocorp forum was created; now the Iron Indian forum administrators were (and still are) doing the same thing themselves. So, that brings us to here. I decided that what was needed in the Indian Motorcycle world was an internet website dedicated to Indian Motorcycle OWNERS, not a special interest group like the IIRA, IRG, or IMC. I've created this site to be just that.

I hope you'll find this alternative to the other forums a much better place to spend your time on the internet. Everyone is welcome here - I don't care what colors you wear. I welcome your suggestions for improving the site. eMail me at IndianChief@TXIndianRiders.com. I have posted the Terms of Service governing the use of this site for everyone to see. You can condense the Terms of Service down to one word - "Respect". If you've made it this far, why not register ? You might like it here.

Ride safe; Have a good time; Make new friends. Thanks for stopping by.

Alec Carlson - "Mohawk"
Forum Administrator