ADVENTURE BIKE:
2017 INDIAN CHIEF VINTAGE
'S he ' s M y R etirement plan '
“Over the top, highly customised and a showstopper,”
laughs Chris Keeble as she describes her 2017 Indian
Chief Vintage. It’s a massive piece of bike, approximately
500 kilograms according to Chris, perhaps not an ideal
traveller in the eyes of many yet a bike that has taken
Chris on many an adventure and continues to do so.
Purchased new, the Indian which, is called Calamity
Jane, has done around 35,000 kilometres, mostly up and
down the Eastern seaboard of Australia and a little in-
land. It’s a big bike, especially for a rider that weighs no
more than a butterfly fart, but it’s a bike that fits a need,
and fits it well. But why Calamity Jane?
“She’s brave,” Chris laughs again. “And crazy!”
Bike or rider? Perhaps both, Calamity Jane was a
frontierswoman in America’s west during a time of ro-
manticised storytelling. A dancehall girl, a pioneer, an
explorer; we think this Calamity Jane is more akin to that
of the Deadwood version rather than that of Doris Day …
TRAVERSE 51