This story starts way back, when at the age of about seven, I would be drawing pictures of motorbikes. Not a very girly thing, but having two older boy cousins I had the chance to express my love of motorbikes. Even at this young age, I clearly remember thinking the Indian had such lovely clean lines and here the obsession began.

Years later, after dabling in the run of the mill starter motorcycles - well actually we went down the chopper/customising route from bike number one - we arrive at a For Sale advert in my local newspaper. The year is 1995 and it is for an Indian 741B, nearly complete and nearly running. The important word here is "NEARLY".

Before I go on to explaining the word "nearly", I have to confess to buying the very first Indian motorcycle I saw in the flesh. It had taken me a total of 21 years to realise my ambition to own one of these machines. Here starts the story..........