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VI NEWS UPDATE JANUARY 13, 2002
Eletronic Ignition (again) -  Hiatt Motocycle Update -  Piston Coating (Hi-Tech stuff!) - Use the VI mag 'Departments'
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Welcome to the second 'edition' of the VI News website. The VI Magazine is very much alive, and there will be a new issue sometime in the beginning of 2002. We will try to stick to a roughly quarterly schedule after that. The grand plan is to use the VI News site to give you brief updates of new developments in Indiandom in a regular and timely fashion. The VI Magazine will continue to contain the heavy philosophy, the in-depth journalistic probes, the mind-melting bike projects and the comprehensive bolt-by-bolt coverage of all things Indian that you've come to expect from the VI site. You will note that the new VI front page also has convenient links to ads, events and other magazine "departments" which are now being updated continuously. If you have any Indian news that belong here (new products, events, pretty much anything "Indian"!) please drop us a note. Thanks. The VI team.
Electronic ignition really seem to be good for Indians. In the next issue of the VI mag we're running a story about a 101 with electronic ignition, and the IPE kit for distributor V-twin Indians is getting lots of positive feedback from users (we're considering a "how does it work?" page in the mag  for feedback on new products). The main benefits seem to be easier starting, smoother running, more power and of course that the kit works under water, and won't drown when it rains like your stock points will! :-)  IPE just got a new batch of the $150 kits, and have fitting instructions and more info posted online. This is a limited production part, so if you want one (it seems your Indian would love you for it!), get your order in now.  [PHOTO]
Jeff Hiatt of Hiatt Motocycle (who is fast becoming THE place to send your tanks for repair as well as an important player on the 4-cylinder engine restoration scene) just announced that he had bought a brand new align-boring machine enabling him to step up his already high standards of accuracy when it comes to 4-engine lower ends. We plan to run a Dealer Page feature on Jeff's shop soon, but here's a couple of older photos for now. [PHOTO]  [PHOTO]
Kiwi is constantly working on developing new parts which can help overcome some of the weaknesses of the flathead engine design and make our Indians stronger and more reliable. One of the latest projects is hi-tech piston coatings, especially interesting as the long stroke of the Chief engine means very high piston speeds and relatively short piston life. Kiwi Mike Tomas says: "One of the improvements that we have benefited from is a quieter running engine using a particular dual piston skirt coating process and ceramic piston head coating, which has been in the Kiwi 84" engine and a few others. While there are many skirt coating processes available and everyone promises that there's is the best, we finally have hit on a multi coating formula that works extremely well for our application. The piston skirt dual coating and ceramic head coating we can do to any piston however the ultimate benefit is to solid skirt pistons. Tighter clearances can be run plus this coating acts as a sound dampening devise. This is not its primary intention however it is a nice side benefit we discovered. Another side benefit is that a minimal amount of this skirt coating material is transferred to the cyl wall which reduces friction. The ceramic head coating keeps the heat off the piston (since it is a heat barrier) which also aids in running a tighter piston to wall clearance. The skirt and head coating process costs approx $125.00 for a set (2) pistons. There are cheaper processes and others make plenty of promises but this is one with the highest credentials and has been well proven in our own testing."  More about this on the VI soon.
Finally, if you need a piece of Indian information, look in the VI departments first (now conveniently linked directly from the VI front page!). The reason we're bringing this up here is that every week there is someone on the mailing list asking for a link to some Indian site that they could have found on the VI Links page in 30 seconds if they had thought of looking. The VI Links page is one of the world's largest collections of up-to-date Indian links, and chances are you'll find what you seek there. If you have any new Indian links we haven't posted yet, please write Stan Jessup.
Stay tuned for more Indian News soon!