Never perfect, always awesome. It’s a motto often used by Nicolai Sclater, the artist better known as Ornamental Conifer. And it sits perfectly on the side of this bonkers Indian Chief racer.
Dubbed ‘R/T Four Thirteen,’ this eclectic machine is the result of a collaboration between DicE Magazine and Indian Motorcycle, with Noise Cycles, Hindes Design and Ornamental Conifer all laying hands on it. The idea of turning a cruiser into a café racer is a little left-field—and probably ill-advised. But it’s also awesome.
The project kicked off with a brand new, 2022-model Indian Chief Dark Horse, in the hands of DicE co-founder, Dean Micetech, and Scott Jones at Noise Cycles. The bike was stripped down at Scott’s shop, and ideas were sketched out. The original plan was for Scott to handle both design and fabrication—but he unfortunately had to tap out midway through the project for personal reasons.
Changing tack, the team roped in Zach Hindes to take over the next phase. An accomplished fabricator, Zach is one of the founding brothers of Prism Supply Co., and part of the championship-winning NASCAR team, Joe Gibbs Racing. So the bike was in capable hands.
With the bike in the Hindes Design workshop, Dean and Zach started rethinking the build. The idea of mashing together café racer and endurance racer concepts to create a track-focussed V-twin remained, but Zach had some new ideas in mind too. “The form and function of this motorcycle was very important on this build,” he explains.
“Myself and my team at Hindes Design come from a racing background, so we understood the challenge at hand, and approached it with that mindset. We wanted to find the perfect blend between a vintage-inspired track bike and a modern-day sport bike. Something that was timeless, yet handled to its best ability.”
One of Zach’s most ambitious ideas, was to convert the Indian cruiser’s rear end from a twin- to mono-shock setup. To pull this off, he fabricated a new subframe that would also double up as a sturdy support structure for the Chief’s new tail section. Then he machined a bolt-on upper shock mount, to connect an Öhlins shock directly to the main frame.
Next, the OEM swingarm had to be modified and braced to match. The final arrangement looks aggressive and purpose-built—and it’s made a big difference to the Chief’s stance.
Pushing the concept further, Zach fitted a set of 19F/17R race wheels, custom built for the project by Roland Sands Design. Next, a full set of Beringer braking components went on—including an extra disc for the front, which meant modifying the stock forks to mount a second caliper. Dunlop Sportmax Q3+ tires round out the rolling chassis.
As for the motor, the team left the Chief’s stock 116 ci motor alone, opting to upgrade only the intake an exhaust. A new breather went on, along with a custom-built two-into-one stainless steel exhaust system, hand-built by Zach. A Racefit muffler takes care of the soundtrack.
The Chief’s new race-style bodywork is a mixed bag of styles and origins. Zach fabricated the fuel tank himself, drawing heavily on vintage Manx racers for inspiration. The fairing and chunky tail section are 1970s style reproduction items, modified to fit the Indian.
With no immediate need to make the bike street legal, creature comforts were kept to a minimum—or rather, eliminated entirely. There’s nary a light in sight, and the cockpit consists of little more than new clip-ons and grips, and Beringer levers. Heck, there’s not even a seat pad.
Motoary lent a hand with reworking the Chief’s wiring loom, while Roland Sands sent over a set of rear-set mounts to round out the controls. With the fuel tank left raw, the frame done in black and the swingarm coated in white, the project was ready for its final phase; paint.
This is where Ornamental Conifer stepped in, adorning the Indian in his unique brand of lettering and illustration. A master of typography, Nico describes his work as “an exploration into the concept of branding in a post-consumer society.”
“In a world where signage and advertising are no longer required to sell products or drive business, there is a risk that our lives could feel empty, at least aesthetically,” he explains further. “As an artist, I thrive in an urban environment, my work relies on it for inspiration.”
“I love being surrounded by the visual cacophony of advertising and signage but I can’t help imagining, how might it be if the messages we are force-fed daily were messages of social connection, empathy and optimism? How would we, as a society, evolve if this narrative had the same weight and could issue the same impact as major brand messaging carries today?”
That philosophy is splashed all over the Chief, complementing the work that’s gone into it with a hefty dose of unbridled optimism. All that’s left now, is to set it loose on a track.
DicE Magazine | Indian Motorcycle | Images by Thaddeus James, workshop image by Scott G Toepfer
