cool indian

Speaking of twist throttles, Sylvester Roper invented those back in the 1870’s for use on his steam bikes. It turned out to be a pretty handy method to control a motor. (that was a handy pun). You might recall that Indian placed the throttle on the left hand twist grip, not the right. Don’t believe the old story that it was placed there so that the bike riding sheriff could ride with his left hand while he shot his revolver with his right hand! The truth is much less dramatic… Early motors responded strongly to variable ignition timing, due to their low compression and mild cam timing, and the primitive carburetion of the time. Indian made the decision to put the ignition control in the rider’s right hand, and relegated the throttle control to his left hand. As motors developed, and throttles became the dominant control method, Indian stayed with their layout. As an option they eventually did offer reversed controls, to help sell bikes to riders who were used to right hand throttles. (And Harley sold bikes with “Indian type” controls too, trying to woo customers away from Springfield).