SERVICES - Research and Development
The majority of Kiwi Indian R&D and testing is performed by us upon our own Indians as well as a select few dedicated high mileage riders who work alongside us so as to provide accurate testing data. Our testing is not just limited to just motorcycles but also includes sidecars fitted to our Indians as these apply additional extreme conditions to components, namely transmission/driveline parts. One can claim to make good transmission components when testing is limited to just the motorcycle however when testing those same components with a sidecar attached to the motorcycle over many thousands of miles, that soon separates the men out from the boys when it comes to durability of components. Kiwi Indian continually develops new products to improve the operating efficiencies and over come some of the short comings of the original Indian designs. While we strive to design and manufacture cosmetically correct replacement parts, our main emphasis is on improved parts which is what we have become well known for. As Mike Kiwi Tomas quotes "It's easy to copy and make a reproduction part, after all, the 3rd world countries have been doing it for years just like many Indian motorcycle suppliers". "On the other hand it takes an engineer and someone skilled to improve a part and make it better than the original. Now that is where Kiwi comes in with better engineering, development, knowledge of their components. No one even comes close to our knowledge base of Indian parts, their assemblies and the whole motorcycle in general". The other big leg up we have over our competitors is our knowledge base that has been created from my riding of 100's of 1000's of miles upon my Indians. It's not just lip service but actual documented rides all over the US, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, etc. When I do a road run in the US, the bike gets ridden to and from the start/finish points as we don't believe in trailer queens. And not to leave out Kiwi's most important test bed and proving grounds in the world, Death Valley. This place allows use to do our extreme testing with its extreme hot 125 degree temperatures (engine/trans durability), long steep up hill grades (engine/trans durability), down hill grades (brakes) and off road (suspension/ fork & handling). I've gone out there in 125 degree heat with my sidecar bike and just lugged it continually up those long never ending grades just to get extreme testing data on our engine and transmission components. There is no better place in the world to do general durability testing than in Death Valley.
