Just seen The World's Fastest Indian

[RiderInBlack]

Loved the line his chick gave:

"Even dirty old men need loving"

Yaaah

[Gixxer 4 ever]

Good movie I seldom watch them cos I go to sleep. I recon they picked up the passion of the man well. Like a lot of us the bike is always in the back ground to one degree or other. I would have liked to see more of the work he did on the bike. I recon I could understand what drove him. Bikes just get in and you have to let it run in the veins cos they are what we need to be better people. 9 outa 10.
Now I will go back and see what others have said on here.

[gav]

Pretty cool movie, some good laughs too.
One queation though, when he went over the border and was speed testing on the open road, the state trooper turned after him, how did Burt manage to get out of the bike on his own? When the trooper pulled up, Burt was already out of the bike.....hmmmmm

[onearmedbandit]

Do you mean how did the bike not topple gav?

[RiderInBlack]

Do you mean how did the bike not topple gav?

Bike had little wheels that he could put down where the centrestand usually is.

[gav]

Do you mean how did the bike not topple gav?

Yeah, how did he get out of the bike on his own. At Bonneville, looked like he needed a couple of guys to hold the bike upright so he could get out?

[onearmedbandit]

As RIB said the bike had 'trainer' wheels that set down when either the bike got to a predetermined speed or Burt activated them.

[mstriumph]

saw it last weekend ........good write-up Beemer, it was magic; nothing to add to what you said EXCEPT that, as a foreigner meself, i thought he sounded a bit british in spots [was then told that's the way they ALL sound down in Invercargill lol]

[oldrider]

[QUOTE=kerryg]Saw it yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it.
But I guess I would be being less than honest if I didn't say that I found some elements in it very trite and other things very implausible. Because I don't know the true Burt Munro story I can't be sure what was true and what was made up to give the movie more interest (so I stand to be corrected if I'm out of line) but here are a few things that jarred:

The bikies: what a mean nasty bunch (but surprisingly clean shaven, attractive and nicely attired) of jokers, making a special trip just to mock old Burt (and on his birthday too), knocking drinks out of people's hands (nobody seemed to react either...thought those guys on the deep south were a harder bunch).. and the same nasty guys give Burt beer money for his trip AND give him a motorcycle escort. WTF? Why the turnaround?QUOTE]

The bikies of the day were portrayed reasonably accurately in appearance but not in attitudinal behaviour. Bike gang blokes were always very generous good guys especially in the fifties. (They probably just gave him the money)
There was apparently some sort of challenge that took place on the beach. I remember talk about something like that at the time it filtered right up to Lower Hutt and Petone where we were.
The helmet didn't ring true with me I never saw anything like that. Well not untill many many years later. Cheers John.

[parsley]

Loved the film. What CC was the Indian? It said at the end he still holds the speed record for bikes under a litre.

[RiderInBlack]

Loved the film. What CC was the Indian? It said at the end he still holds the speed record for bikes under a litre.

From this link "Burt Munro, A New Zealand Motorcycling Legend":
"The Scout itself was a 37cu.in. (60Occ) 42 degree V twin with side valves."

"Burt, then a grandfather, visited the Bonneville salt flats several times from 1962 onwards. In that year he set a then world record of 178.971 mph with his engine out to 51 cu.in. (85Occ). In 1963 a con-rod broke while he was traveling at an estimated 195mph. In 1966 it was displacing 920cc, when Burt, unhappy with some loss in top speed, completely rebuilt it again."

"In 1967, with his engine punched out to 58 cu.in. (950cc) he set a class record of 183.586 mph. To qualify he made a one-way run of 190.07 mph, the fastest ever officially recorded speed on an Indian."


Just think Burt's old 1920 Indian Scout still has the record for the fastest speed done by an under 1000cc streamlined bike today. Considering that most modern so called "1000's" are actually less than 1000cc (the newest GXSR1000 is accually 998.6cc), and would therefore fit in as being under 1000cc, I find that quite impressive and amusing

Doug

[Unit:Me]

Has been on our must see list as soon as we learned about the movie. Isnt it great to be proud to be a Kiwi? We may be a little country thats little known (still, but thats changing), but it seems no other country in the world (including Aussies) can come close to the #8 wire we can fix or make anything out of anything attitude, we OWN that, everywhere we look in out history we are full of inventors and go getters. Cant wait to see the movie, will definately own the DVD.