Indian Motorcycle Company (Indian) is recalling certain model year 2015 Scout motorcycles manufactured May 12, 2014, to February 13, 2015. Due to a problem with the rear brake master cylinder, the motorcycles may have a reduction in, or a complete loss of rear brake power. A full or partial loss of rear braking power may lengthen the distance needed to slow or stop the motorcycle, increasing the risk of a crash. A machining or assembly error made by the component manufacturer may have located the piston retaining groove in an incorrect location. If this was made, the retaining ring would not be fully secured. The potential number of units affected is 806.
Indian will notify owners, and dealers will inspect and replace the rear brake master cylinder, as necessary, free of charge. Owners may contact the Indian Motorcycle Consumer Service Department at 1-877-204-3697. Indian’s number for this recall is I-15-01 A/B. Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153)
Too many recalls in the car and motorcycle industry. why so?
Lowest bidder isn’t always the best bidder…
806 units is peanuts compared to the auto industry. Finally got a chance to ride the Scout at Daytona. Wow! Not my cup of tea, but it is a great bike. Much larger than it looks, and at that price point will compete well in the segment. Indian dealers must be ecstatic.
Bikes and cars are more complicated than ever and market competition plus stockholder demands put more pressure on OEM’s to get new models in production faster than ever before. I suspect recalls are going to be the new normal for some time to come.
How have they even sold 806?
I ordered mine in early August still nothing.
I did get a coupon for 200.00 in Indian clothing because of the delay. Ya , Not
Indian and all parent company’s of Polaris sure good at back orders.
Maybe they should worry about the products the have instead of buying more companies.
Chris W. Hang in there ordered mine in Sept ,came in last week, what a hoot the new scouts are. Keep on top of your dealer, and ask why. I got the coupon also and a letter from dir of op for the scout line. Hang in there brother , try to understand there production issues. I wished I could work for them.
I wonder if 806 is the total number of 2015 Indian Scouts produced to date?
Rodent. No. Orders are pouring in for the Scout. Affected are only a small number of those produced.
The number of orders pouring in have nothing to do with the situation. Two things would help to determine the real situation:
1. How many were built by February 13, 2015?
2. How many were built between May 12, 2014 and February 13, 2015?
The second question may be moot as I do not recall when the actual manufacture start date for public production started.
Once we have those numbers, then we can say how bad or good it really is. Until then it is all speculation.
BobS,
Nice try, brake systems for motorcycles, are absolutely mature technology.
You can buy a complete, supremely reliable system/parts, from a ‘gazillion’ after-market dealers and never have an issue.
This is what happens when you try to make an expensive design cheap.
On this very forum I predicted at the time, the Polaris Scout is well priced, but how is it achieved – slack quality control (an expensive manufacturing process commodity)?
With CAD/CAM capabilities incorrect machining is almost criminal.
They buy suspension parts from specialists – why not the brakes? Buy standard brakes in bulk from (eg) Brembo, ISR, Nissin, etc and standardize for all Indians – eg heavier models use same disk dia and calipers but with double disk up front, etc.
There is a lot to like about the Polaris Scout, as noted before, I will wait for the baby to do a bit more potty training.
Rodent,
Very likely…
Perhaps some stockholder at the annual stockholders meeting should bring up the question about production numbers which Polarias won’t release. Stockholders have the right to know.
Years ago there was a film, “The Solid Gold Cadillac” about a stockholder asking embarrassing questions at a stockholders meeting.
I love the way my new Scout rides 🙂
Sigfreed, read P. Hamilton’s question and I think you will better understand my response. Whatever Indian Motorcycles decides to use on the Indian Scout is an issue only for the Indian Scout. But Mr. Hamilton’s question was not specific to the Indian Scout. Speaking only in regards to motorcycles, we have seen Indian, Victory, Harley, BMW, and I’m not sure who else issue multiple recalls lately. It more than just the brakes on the Indian Scout.
The numerous recalls are I think a result not of any spike in shoddy craftsmanship, but simply recognition of what can happen if the government and their subsidiary – the tort bar – gang up on you. Specifically, all saw Toyota have to fork over a billion dollars for an acceleration “issue” that could never be proven to exist. Whether it existed or not doesn’t matter – you want to avoid the shakedown.
So you recall every little thing, because no matter what its costs or the amount of bad publicity, it is massively cheaper than the alternative.
Rodent, I’m a stockholder and the annual stockholder’s meeting is April 30th. I thought about doing what you asked, but only for about a second. The thing is people getting in an internet pissing contest over production numbers is of absolutely no concern to me. Return on my investment is 100% of my concern, and the same goes for several of my fellow stockholders that I know. I’m interested in the direction and profitability of the company. I’m concerned about recalls, but overall the company has been outperforming it’s competition and most other investment options. I want them to keep on keepin on. They don’t need to give up any information to the competition just so guys can get in an internet argument over the relevance of those numbers.
” Too many recalls in the car and motorcycle industry , why so ? ‘
Because there is far too much outsourcing in both … much of which is coming from 3rd World Countries with under trained and under educated workers that barely understand what the part they’re building goes on … never mind how it works .
As to BobS … The SEC mandates that all relevant information be given to all investors as well as potential investors [ and potentially the competition ] equally . There is no mandate that the information be either accurate or up to date … but the information given to the $1 million investor must be exactly the same as given to even a potential investor. Not doing so is a breach of Federal Law with the potential of draconian penalties . So for your’s and PVI’s sake … lets hope what you’re implying … is not what PVI is doing . As far as them ‘ out performing ‘ the competition ? Have a look at the numbers coming from the business side of things . Suffice it to say … making such a claim about PVI’s performance is more than a bit of hyperbole … not to mention potentially a whole lot of wishful thinking on your part 😉
Lot’s of people like to slam winners. My prediction is Indian will get more slams because they are going to keep on winning with their bikes.
TJ where do you come up with this stuff? Where did I ever say that Polaris was giving different stockholders different information? Just so you know, their stock symbol is PII, not PVI. and all you have to do is look at the stock’s performance over the last few years. It has outperformed HOG by far as well as most of the stock market in general. The claim I made is fact, not hyperbole.
Free lesson in stock performance: In 2010 if you bought 100 shares of HOG it was going for about 26 dollars a share. Today it’s trading at about 59 dollars. So a 2600 dollar investment would have grown to 5900 in just 5 years. Doubling your money every five years isn’t bad. But if you also bought 100 shares of PII in 2010, it was going for about 22 dollars then. So 2200 invested. Today it’s trading at about 151 dollars. But wait there’s more. PII also did a 2:1 split in 2011 so today you would actually own 200 shares at 151, or 30,200 dollars worth of stock. As an investor it’s beyond obvious which stock is by far outperforming the other.
I don’t understand why it takes so long to get parts for recalls.
Still waiting for fuel pumps and now master cylinder.
Can’t that get parts faster then 3 or 4 months
Bob ole bean . To borrow the Geico ads line ; ” Everybody knows that ” PVI was not intended to indicate Polaris Victory Indians stock market designation [ which most folks neither know or care about ] . Its an abbreviation … plain and simple ! As in ; Polaris = P .. Victory = V … Indian = I .. in order of importance [ Polaris being the parent company ] and then when the spin offs came about … Victory being first . Now .. was that really all that difficult to comprehend ?
As to the rest … I’m not about to give a lecture here on economics and the realities of many current stock prices [ suffice it to say many currently are over valued and over inflated due to the actions of what ever company may be in question ]
Suffice it to say as well … the other guy .. is currently selling more bike n’ accessories than PVI and all of the Rice Cruisers combined in the Heavy Cruiser/Tourer market . So you tell me who’s the best bet in the long run when once again as all trends do .. Heavy Cruiser/Tourer sales fall flat … again ?
And by the way … your previous post did intimate that perhaps some get more information than others from PVI … or PII … if you must . Perhaps that was not your intent . But by definition … that is how it came across
Better a recall to fix the problem, then company’s that pretend they don’t have a problem.
TJ Martin. Sorry to tell you this but you are 100% incompetent about business, the economy and the stock market. Just one example among your non sense. Since when the company selling more units is a better investment??? Have you ever heard about profitability, net income, cash flow projection, price earning ratio, earning protection, etc… You just ridiculed yourself. By the way (yes, I know), Polaris sells more Indians than Victory from 15 to 5 Indians depending of the dealer for only 1 Victory). Ask your dealer.
Um Drake, good stuff but also not accurate. There are between 2-3 Victory dealers to every 1 Indian dealer. The Indian dealer needs to sell at least 3 Indians for every 1 Vic in order for them to be even. From my stock holder reports Victory and Indian were very close to providing equal revenue even though Victory cruisers sell for 12-14k and Victory baggers sell for 17-21k. Meanwhile Indian cruisers (pre Indian Scout) sold for 18k and baggers sold for 20-23k. Victory would have to sell more units to provide the same revenue. That was Q3 and Q4 2014 information. I suspect Q1 and Q2 2015 Indian has surpased Victory in revenue, and likely units sold by now. I have no doubt Scouts and Chiefs will outsell Gunners and Cross Country / Magnums regardless of my personal preference. The really interesting thing will be to see where we are three years from now. Polaris put a lot of R&D resources into launching Indian. They also doubled the R&D facility and expanded the manufacturing plant in Spirit Lake. No inside knowledge but I suspect the last couple years a new design staff has begun designs to take Victory someplace other than H-D competition. They have Indian for that now.
BobS, Drake is almost right. Currently, more Indians are purchased than Victory. It has nothing to do with the number of dealers for each brand.
RE:
“…interested in the direction and profitability of the company…. [its about how] … overall the company has been outperforming …”
-Yes- gotta agree with that.
Never have been much good at figuring out all that data pumped out by company bean-counter reports.
But the average biker can look at what’s going on in the market and on the street. Because its there that their “performance” meets reality.
If they can consistently deliver value over a time (regardless of where their parts are made) they’ll make out fine. If they don’t we’ll see it soon enough, regardless of what got printed in their stock report.
-nicker-
One should keep in mind that total motorcycle sales (Victory and Indian combined) for Polaris represent only about 10% of their revenue which is about the same as Polaris’ parts, accessories and clothing sales. This recall is an accounting rounding error for them. Compare that with BMW’s recent recall of a wheel flange for 367,000 bikes going back 12 years. Now that’s a hit.
The company that made the Indian brakes is Zhejiang Jingke Auto Parts Co. They make hydraulic parts for quite a few makes and brands – autos and motorcycles.