Indian is probably one of the most interesting motorcycle brands at the moment. With the former BMW designer Ola Stenegärd, an experienced man was brought to Minneapolis to lead the traditional brand as ‘Head of Design’ into the future. We visited him in frosty February and collected all kinds of impressions.

Indian’s comeback began in 2011 when Polaris Industries acquired the trademark rights. More precisely, the last comeback, because since the bankruptcy of the Indian Motocycle Company from Springfield, Massachusetts in 1953, some companies and investors tried unsuccessfully to permanently revive the traditional brand, which calls itself “America’s first motorcycle company”. Polaris is the market leader in power sports motorcycles and is quite experienced in motorcycle construction: Victory was founded in 1997 to stir up the American market as a modern brand. The vehicles were also delivered to 30 German dealers until 2017, when the deal was announced – sales figures were far below expectations.

Check this video we produced while our visit in Medina:

With self-confidence in the fast lane

But Polaris has big plans for the Indian myth. The latest new development, the 1.769 cubic centimeter, liquid-cooled PowerPlus engine not only takes its name from the innovative V2 engines with side steering of the 1910s, but also challenges the industry giant from Milwaukee with its performance, not only on paper: in provocative ‘Challenger-Challenge’ videos, Indian’s marketing department reignites the age-old cockfight, in which the weaker Iron Horse looks into the Indian’s exhaust pipe during acceleration races against Harley’s ‘Road Glide Special’. Indian can also score quite patriotic points with local interested parties because the entire production takes place in the USA and not in Asia, where various Harley models are assembled: All engines are built in the Osceola, Wisconsin plant, and the final assembly of the vehicles takes place in Spirit Lake, Iowa.

Three years earlier, a murmur went through the scene, when Indian conquered the original American flat track racing sport in an impressive way. With the FTR engine developed by the subsidiary ‘Swissauto’ in Burgdorf, Switzerland, the Indian factory team ‘Wrecking Crew’ dominated the American Flat Track Series (AFT) at the first go. The FTR 750 Production Racer, costing almost 50,000 dollars, is a competitive racing machine for ambitious racing teams, and racers are also inspired by the rich prize money. So it’s hardly surprising that in the current AFT of 18 racing teams registered in the SuperTwin class, no less than 13 are racing on FTR 750, including the three works riders Briar and Bronson Bauman and the six-time ‘Grand National’ winner Jared Mees.

The Design Department is located in the Polaris headquarters in Medina, about half an hour’s drive northwest of Minneapolis. Ola Stenegärd was brought there two years ago by his former lecturer, now Vice President of Design, Greg Brew, and now heads the seven-member department. Over the past decades, design has matured into an important value for every brand that needs to be clearly emphasized. For the 50-year-old Swede, this is “the best job in the world”, even if the challenge of working between three locations in two-week cycles does not seem particularly easy: Medina is the base camp, but in addition to the European location in Rolle at Lake Geneva, he also works from his farm on the island of Gotland – which he considers an enormous enrichment for his private life after 15 years in Munich, during which he only flew home to his family every other weekend.

Stenegärd is a much respected character in the motorcycle industry. When he was young, he and his older brothers worked on everything that powered engines on his parents’ farm, won competitions with his custombikes and has influenced the Swedish chopper scene together with his mates from Plebs Choppers. “Winters in Sweden are long and dark, you either become an alcoholic or you just work on motorcycles, haha.” The notorious energy-drink drinker decided to pursue a creative life, attended the Industrial Design School in Stockholm before studying vehicle design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He had already worked for Indian when they were still being built by a group of investors in Gilroy, California. One year before the insolvency he left the already sinking ship and moved to Munich for BMW Motorrad.

Design is a success factor today

Today, his job at Indian runs under perfect conditions: “We have access to the best development and production facilities and also have one of the most interesting brand stories to tell. All employees have an extremely strong bond with Indian and are very proud to work here. In fact, this can be felt in all my employee interviews and coffee-kitchen chats during the two days on site – everyone is bursting with energy, there is petrol in the air, motorcycles and all kinds of fun mobility are lived here.

To prevent the inner Swedish clock from getting completely confused by this permanent time change, Stenegärd usually starts his working day in Medina at 4 am. In the quiet morning hours, he can carry out intercontinental correspondence and conceptual work undisturbed. After all, his area of responsibility has changed more and more in recent years towards brand strategy and series production design. This kind of design is what particularly appeals to him about his job, because Indian, with its long heritage, a financially strong group behind it and the who-is-who in the design team, is probably one of the most dynamic motorcycle brands at present. Stenegärd considers it an enormous privilege to be able to actively shape this future.

Three of his designers – Mike Song, Rich Christoph and Ian Dunn as well as the project engineer Jacquie Slovak are based in Medina, while his colleagues Olivier Béboux, Bartek Krawczykowski and Mike Philpott operate from Switzerland. The thoroughbred designers not only exchange information about current projects via video conferences. After all, their different areas of experience are essential for a ‘global player’, and completely different ideas apply to the American biker on his extensive highways than to the Bavarian curve rider.

Mike Song, as the longest-serving designer, plays a kind of mediating role here, as he has known Polaris since 1998. The Victory Vegas was his first motorcycle design after he also studied at the Pasadena Art Center and worked for Yamaha in his first job with the GK Design Group. Together with the New Yorker Ian Dunn, who came from Kiska to Indian in 2014, Song worked on the Challenger. Rich Christoph, who grew up on a farm in neighboring state of Iowa and graduated from the College for Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit, spent two years at Ford at the beginning of his career and then four years at Harley Davidson under Willie G. Davidson himself in Milwaukee, where he gained experience with the ‘Nightster’ and ’48’.

The Design Studio is located on the first floor, directly below them the Clay Studio, where four employees are currently working on modelling the designers’ design specifications on real models. A mix of innovation and craftsmanship also breathes next door through the test workshop, where the first drafts are implemented right through to prototype construction, before the parts are finished one door down the line by the painters Steve, AJ and Zack. The homologation process, which takes about two years until series production, is then completed at the Product Development Center in Wyoming, Minnesota, about an hour’s drive northeast of Medina.

In any case, the studies hanging on the pinboard and prototypes standing around give an exciting outlook on future model series. We are curious to see what will be shipped to us across the pond from the bustling Viking and his design team.