[NorthernProducer]

My wife and I already have Scouts on pre-order, but wanted a chance to ride the bikes at today's Indian Demo Event at the dealer in Murfreesboro, TN. We pre-registered online and signed in by 10:30 a.m. and we told the event staff we wanted to ride the Scout. That made a big difference in wait time as they only brought 6 Scouts to accommodate what turned out to b a large turn-out. They had 2 groups set up to ride what was suppose to be a 20 minute segments...I (and my wife) were in Group 6 which was to leave the dealership at 12:30. We (and others) were somewhat disappointed that there wasn't much that happened as scheduled because the groups were taking 30 minutes or more to ride the route. When each group came back, nobody seemed to be in charge of calling out the next group-up which caused quite a bit of confusion for those waiting to ride...for example, I saw some Group 5 riders moving Group 6 riders off bikes because nobody seemed to know which group was "up". Not good...but the big issue came when we thought our Scouts would be back for us to demo...after a very long wait, we heard those 2 Scouts had crashed and ended up in a field. This was about 1:00 when we were told that the entire group was being held because of the accident and nobody knew when the demo's would resume. We stayed long enough to hear from the Sheriff's Deputy that the 2 riders were alive, but no more information was available by the time we decided to leave the event. Of course, we were disappointed that we couldn't demo the Scouts, but more importantly, we hope the 2 riders involved in the crash will recover from any injuries. The dealership was concerned, too. They were also disappointed that Saturday's event will be down to 4 Scouts. NOT a good day for this demo event!

 

[fred_g]

Wow not a good day at all. I hope there were no serious injuries, and G B ...

 

[Dwarf]

It would still be a good day if the riders are ok.

 

[aln.brown]

Wow! That's gotta suck! Why do I have a bad feeling that demo days maybe over for awhile? Hope the two that crashed are okay???

 

[jimbojr]

Wow! That's gotta suck! Why do I have a bad feeling that demo days maybe over for awhile? Hope the two that crashed are okay???

I hope not...I am riding at a demo day tomorrow in Greensboro, NC. I will make sure to call them first before driving the 2 hours. I bet we will hear of some demo rule changes, no matter the reason of the crash. I pray that they are all OK

 

[JayFL459]

Hope all is well with the Riders that went down .. Plan on talking to the Dealer about my test ride next month .. If have to go through all that standing around and waiting 3 hours+ might just pass on it .. Have left the Showroom before on a strange never ridden Bike, Can do it again .. Hopefully will go a little better ..

 

[NorthernProducer]

Hope all is well with the Riders that went down .. Plan on talking to the Dealer about my test ride next month .. If have to go through all that standing around and waiting 3 hours+ might just pass on it .. Have left the Showroom before on a strange never ridden Bike, Can do it again .. Hopefully will go a little better ..

Yep...I agree with the reasons for not wanting to do demo events...waiting around for hours to try out a bike is no fun. I do like meeting people and always seem to find an interesting subject to chat about, but that's not the objective of attending a demo event. In fact, I swore off doing demo's years ago when attending the AMA's Vintage Motorcycle event at Mid-Ohio Raceway...BMW was there, but you couldn't ride their bikes because all the slots were filled with one of the BMW club members (who had priority)...think about that for minute...those members are already sold on the bike! Then there was the Harley demo fleet that closed because somebody rode off with one of the bikes while on a demo ride (they were self guided back then)...though you could still demo a Buell!

In spite of my swearing off demo events, I gave in to my curiosity and tried to demo Indian's twice this year, and in the first event, ended up walking away because the wait times grew too long after signing up, or in yesterday's case, an accident shut down the event at the time I was there (and the wait time had grown longer than it should have prior to the accident). The only demo events I remember that worked out fairly well were held by Harley-Davidson at the York assembly plant years ago. It worked like this...you lined up to sign your waivers and then got in line next to the model you wanted to demo...some lines were longer than others, but there was no confusion or debating about who was up next or which bike you were going to demo (a lesson that Indian should learn). Every line was headed by a H-D guy that went over the bike with you and made sure you got off to a safe start. If the H-D guy thought you couldn't handle the bike, you didn't ride it...period. The actual ride was self-guided, but H-D had staff at all turning-points. When you returned from your 15-20 minute ride, you were free to hop in another line to try another bike after you met with a H-D had staff member waiting to get your feedback on the bike (Indian did not seek any feedback at that time...getting feedback from a random email later just doesn't work well). This method of conducting a demo event seems better than how Indian is doing it, and here is why...there is some order and pace established to keep the demo's moving which controls wait time; every rider gets a chance to be briefed on the bike and how the ride is conducted by an event staff person (vs. Indian's driver meetings I saw where not half of the riders attended for each ride); riders "ride their own ride" which is safer than riding in a group with riders of unknown abilities (this may have been a contributing factor in yesterday's accident according to an event staffer); Anyway, I hope Indian improves their demo events to help more people get a chance to ride the bikes and more importantly, to make them safer for all concerned. Until that happens, I won't be attending any more demo events!

 

[mitch96]

Yep...I agree with the reasons for not wanting to do demo events...waiting around for hours to try out a bike is no fun.

Must be endemic with Indian Demo's. At Indian of Daytona Beach you do the sign in, license check then get on line and wait and wait and wait. One line for each model. If it's not a popular model your in quick. Scout line was the longest. Getting a specific time lets you walk around a bit, get some shade or got to the pissateria.
Other mfg's take your info and then tell you when the next bike is available and you sign up for that bike at that time. Star motorcycles had the slickest. Swipe your llicense and use a iPad for the other info and sign.

 

[Guitarist155]

Sorry to hear you had to leave, I attended as well but did not have the same issues. as far as I'm aware the rides were never halted, we were in group 7 and did get to ride the scout, as well as several other bikes prior on a first come first serve basis. As was my understanding there were only 4 scouts in one ride group and after the accident they were down to two. The red and black were still there but both greys were out, one of them is reparable without much difficulty while the other was totaled. When we left at about 2:30- 3:00 however rides were still going and were up to group 9 or 10

 

[NorthernProducer]

Sorry to hear you had to leave, I attended as well but did not have the same issues. as far as I'm aware the rides were never halted, we were in group 7 and did get to ride the scout, as well as several other bikes prior on a first come first serve basis. As was my understanding there were only 4 scouts in one ride group and after the accident they were down to two. The red and black were still there but both greys were out, one of them is reparable without much difficulty while the other was totaled. When we left at about 2:30- 3:00 however rides were still going and were up to group 9 or 10

Doesn't sound like we were at the same event...all I know is that I was in Group 6 and confusion peaked when the accident occurred sometime around 12:30. The two members of the event staff, one person from the Indian demo team, and the Deputy Sheriff told me (and several in my area) about the accident and that the group would not be returning right away...they didn't know when they would be returning (maybe they were taking statements?). There were 2 groups and one was expected to continue with the demo's, but those waiting for the Scout were told by event staff they would probably not get to ride for another 2 hours. They had 6 Scouts (I counted them) to start the event, one group had 4 and the other had 2. I, along many others decided NOT to wait another couple hours...so, a bunch of us left the event. That might be why you were able to get on a bike so quickly? Maybe the second group was put back in the rotation quicker than we were told...but I doubt that would have changed the wait time for the Scouts since 1/3 of them were out of the fleet. As for repairing the one Scout, I don't know if Polaris' attorney's would agree to such a thing, but I'll ask my salesman Monday if that happened.


I still think the event was poorly run and there was a lot of unnecessary confusion generated once the groups didn't know if they were "up" or not (caused by run times that kept getting longer). I saw riders being asked to get off bikes because they unknowingly "jumped" ahead of a group. I know what I saw because I was there to witness some in Group 5 (they probably missed there Group "time"?) rushing to beat Group 6 (me) riders to the bikes. One incident was bad enough that two riders were offered a "private" demo ride (led by event staff) to calm things down. That kind of thing was avoidable. Nobody from the event staff called out Groups...it was basically a free-for-all in a "nice way"...sort of, except when tempers started to show! I watched four groups going through the driver meeting (lead by an Indian's Demo team member) where most of the riders chose NOT to attend...those riders should not have been able to demo the bikes, but the nobody seemed to care much.

I did stop by to say goodbye to my salesman and I can remember him saying he was not going outside to get in the middle of that mess! I don't blame him...my wife and I couldn't wait to get out there. I'm glad you had a good day!

Since I see this is your first post...welcome to the forum!

 

[Guitarist155]

Thank you for the welcome. It was a bit confusing with them not calling out what ride number was up untill about ride 7 at 1 o'clock it really doesn't sound like the same event, I'm a bit amazed at how I missed two bikes and a ride group lol. I only ever saw one from when I got there about 10 to when we left around 3, the ride group with the red and black was never postponed though because I had friends or family in each ride group from about 4 on. When one of the sheriffs left to go to the accident the other sheriff took over traffic blocking duty so the rides could continue. After the accident they had a lead rider change for a couple rides as well. Group 6 left around 1 with the rides taking about 25 min I believe group 6 was also the only time I heard the ride number called out as it was when the lead rider changed. I never saw anyone fight, saw a few people give up scouts to higher numbers though, most were quite polite. I'm not sure if Indian will repair the one scout for a demo bike or what They would legally be able to do, but it wasn't a huge amount of damage, just got laid down as far as I know. The other was toast.

 

[NorthernProducer]

Thank you for the welcome. It was a bit confusing with them not calling out what ride number was up untill about ride 7 at 1 o'clock it really doesn't sound like the same event, I'm a bit amazed at how I missed two bikes and a ride group lol. I only ever saw one from when I got there about 10 to when we left around 3, the ride group with the red and black was never postponed though because I had friends or family in each ride group from about 4 on. When one of the sheriffs left to go to the accident the other sheriff took over traffic blocking duty so the rides could continue. After the accident they had a lead rider change for a couple rides as well. Group 6 left around 1 with the rides taking about 25 min I believe group 6 was also the only time I heard the ride number called out as it was when the lead rider changed. I never saw anyone fight, saw a few people give up scouts to higher numbers though, most were quite polite. I'm not sure if Indian will repair the one scout for a demo bike or what They would legally be able to do, but it wasn't a huge amount of damage, just got laid down as far as I know. The other was toast.

How far did you drive to get to the event, Guitarist? I met several riders from Kentucky and Eastern Tennessee that made the trip...they were in my Group 6...I felt bad for them as they had to leave before getting a chance demo a bike. I am 60 miles from the dealer, so the drive isn't as bad, but the disappointment is the same. As for "fights", I didn't see any either, but I did see tempers flare when bikes were taken away or refused to be surrendered. Besides, given the ages of most I saw, I don't think they could successfully throw a punch. I think one gal on the event staff might have been assigned the job of referee as I saw her deal with tempers during the time I was there...she should get a medal for patience and toughness!

I plan to talk to my salesman Monday, so maybe he will let me know how the 2 riders are doing that crashed Friday. I'll pass on their status if I learn more.

 

[Material man]

I test rode a Victory at Sturgis a couple of years ago and it was very organized and well run. Professional all the way.

 

[Geronimo]

I am sorry to hear about your bad experience. I went to the Demo Day at Greensboro, NC Indian yesterday. It seemed pretty well organized. I got there and showed my licence and signed up for the next Scout ride which was ride 7. I was told ride 5 had just left and each ride was supposed to be about 20 minutes. I walked around to the parking lot. It ended up being closer to 30 minutes for each ride, but I didn't mind, it gave you more time with the bike once it was your turn. Also, Ride 6 didn't fill up all their Chief slots, as most riders were interested in the Scout, Roadmaster and Chieftain, so the Indian staff let me hop on one of the extras.

The Indian staff made an effort to make sure everyone got the bike and ride they signed up for. I could see how an accident might happen as some of the riders seemed new and inexperienced. Heck, I've been riding for 7 years and the Chief was intimidating to me at first because I am used to smaller, sportier bikes, and the size, weight and riding position were all new to me. I kept thinking "Don't break Indian's $20,000 bike, Don't break Indian's $20,000 bike" The running boards took me a couple of stops to get used to as well. I will say though, I was shocked at how easy the big bike was to maneuver. I actually ended up liking the Chief a lot more than I thought I would.

The Scout was a whole different animal, though. Classic good looks of a cruiser with the Soul of a sportbike. I will take Silver Smoke please.

 

[NorthernProducer]

I am sorry to hear about your bad experience. I went to the Demo Day at Greensboro, NC Indian yesterday. It seemed pretty well organized. I got there and showed my licence and signed up for the next Scout ride which was ride 7. I was told ride 5 had just left and each ride was supposed to be about 20 minutes. I walked around to the parking lot. It ended up being closer to 30 minutes for each ride, but I didn't mind, it gave you more time with the bike once it was your turn. Also, Ride 6 didn't fill up all their Chief slots, as most riders were interested in the Scout, Roadmaster and Chieftain, so the Indian staff let me hop on one of the extras.

The Indian staff made an effort to make sure everyone got the bike and ride they signed up for. I could see how an accident might happen as some of the riders seemed new and inexperienced. Heck, I've been riding for 7 years and the Chief was intimidating to me at first because I am used to smaller, sportier bikes, and the size, weight and riding position were all new to me. I kept thinking "Don't break Indian's $20,000 bike, Don't break Indian's $20,000 bike" The running boards took me a couple of stops to get used to as well. I will say though, I was shocked at how easy the big bike was to maneuver. I actually ended up liking the Chief a lot more than I thought I would.

The Scout was a whole different animal, though. Classic good looks of a cruiser with the Soul of a sportbike. I will take Silver Smoke please.

I'm glad you had a good experience...I wish we would have had your Indian staff at our event. It's funny how things seem to work out, I signed up for a Scout demo and even had my wrist band marked for a "Scout" and guys/gals that wanted to ride more than one model had a separate wrist band for each. I think that didn't matter after the first several groups went out because nobody was checking which bike you signed up to ride unless there was a problem and that only occurred where a non-Scout rider (or a Scout rider from another group) wanted to hop on a Scout and event staff may have gotten involved to straighten it out. There were plenty of Chief's, Chieftains and Roadmasters that allowed multiple rides whether or not you signed up for those bikes. I don't have a problem with that...it makes for a great event. I suspect that Indian may have underestimated the interest in the Scout and just didn't bring enough for their demo events...at least that is how it looked here.

 

[pyro]

I was at the demo in Murfreesboro on Saturday, was pre-registered online. My wife and I had wristbands by 8:30 and rode with Group 1. Seemed well organized and safe; ride was about 30 minutes. Enough to sell me on the Roadmaster, which i rode home that afternoon.

 

[Mikehell]

I am sorry to hear about your bad experience. I went to the Demo Day at Greensboro, NC Indian yesterday. It seemed pretty well organized. I got there and showed my licence and signed up for the next Scout ride which was ride 7. I was told ride 5 had just left and each ride was supposed to be about 20 minutes. I walked around to the parking lot. It ended up being closer to 30 minutes for each ride, but I didn't mind, it gave you more time with the bike once it was your turn. Also, Ride 6 didn't fill up all their Chief slots, as most riders were interested in the Scout, Roadmaster and Chieftain, so the Indian staff let me hop on one of the extras.

The Indian staff made an effort to make sure everyone got the bike and ride they signed up for. I could see how an accident might happen as some of the riders seemed new and inexperienced. Heck, I've been riding for 7 years and the Chief was intimidating to me at first because I am used to smaller, sportier bikes, and the size, weight and riding position were all new to me. I kept thinking "Don't break Indian's $20,000 bike, Don't break Indian's $20,000 bike" The running boards took me a couple of stops to get used to as well. I will say though, I was shocked at how easy the big bike was to maneuver. I actually ended up liking the Chief a lot more than I thought I would.

The Scout was a whole different animal, though. Classic good looks of a cruiser with the Soul of a sportbike. I will take Silver Smoke please.

The Greensboro demo started out somewhat disorganized on Saturday morning, because the route wasn't yet clearly defined, and the group kept getting split up because of all the stoplights. There were 39 stoplights on the route, and 16 bikes. Took a while to get the system down, seeing as there was only one lead bike, and a tail gunner (me). Scouts were in high demand, and chances are that if you were waiting for a scout you could kill some time by riding a Chief. Even Roadmasters weren't in very high demand. I think the way that Charlotte Indian does their demo rides is pretty good, they make you make a reservation ahead of time. People with reservations get priority.

 

[Mikehell]

My wife and I already have Scouts on pre-order, but wanted a chance to ride the bikes at today's Indian Demo Event at the dealer in Murfreesboro, TN. We pre-registered online and signed in by 10:30 a.m. and we told the event staff we wanted to ride the Scout. That made a big difference in wait time as they only brought 6 Scouts to accommodate what turned out to b a large turn-out. They had 2 groups set up to ride what was suppose to be a 20 minute segments...I (and my wife) were in Group 6 which was to leave the dealership at 12:30. We (and others) were somewhat disappointed that there wasn't much that happened as scheduled because the groups were taking 30 minutes or more to ride the route. When each group came back, nobody seemed to be in charge of calling out the next group-up which caused quite a bit of confusion for those waiting to ride...for example, I saw some Group 5 riders moving Group 6 riders off bikes because nobody seemed to know which group was "up". Not good...but the big issue came when we thought our Scouts would be back for us to demo...after a very long wait, we heard those 2 Scouts had crashed and ended up in a field. This was about 1:00 when we were told that the entire group was being held because of the accident and nobody knew when the demo's would resume. We stayed long enough to hear from the Sheriff's Deputy that the 2 riders were alive, but no more information was available by the time we decided to leave the event. Of course, we were disappointed that we couldn't demo the Scouts, but more importantly, we hope the 2 riders involved in the crash will recover from any injuries. The dealership was concerned, too. They were also disappointed that Saturday's event will be down to 4 Scouts. NOT a good day for this demo event!

The driver for the truck at the Greensboro demo says that the two scout riders were going way too fast and went off the road and WENT AIRBORNE. Bikes were totaled, riders walked away with scrapes and grass stains. He was not the driver at that event, but is in regular contact with them.

 

[NorthernProducer]

I just returned from my Murfreesboro dealer and the staff confirmed that the 2 riders were able to walk away from the accident Friday (MikeHell...thanks for the heads-up on their condition). Dealer staff that worked the event said they used 3 to 4 Scouts on Saturday (he said one was in and out of the shop) and they were surprised that Friday turned out to be the bigger day. Those Scouts were in the highest demand he said and had the longest wait times, but they considered the event to be a big success as they sold a "lot of inventory" (he didn't say how many, except to say they sold all the Roadmasters in stock). Good thing you grabbed one of the Roadmasters, Pyro while they had any to sell.

 

[MDHawk2]

Very glad to hear that both riders involved in the Scout mishap were not badly hurt.
I have participated in several Indian demo events since the new bikes were introduced... Charlotte, NC; Elizabethtown, PA (twice); Annapolis, MD; and Latrobe, PA (2 days). Fortunately, I have found all of them to be well managed and staffed, and with well-planned and safe demo routes. Most of the demo events required prior reservations for specific bike models and time slots. The others seemed to work out OK with same day bike and time assignments, first come/first served.