Indian 841 production year

Hello again Fellas.

Can anybody tell me exactly what year the Indian 841 was built and did the frame / engine numbers both start from xxx101?

I am led to believe that they may have been a 1942 or 1943 vintage, but have heard notions of 1944, although doubtful.

Cheers in advance.

1942 only.

Thanks Chris.

I am not doubting what you are telling me, as I believe the Americans didn't enter the war until Dec, 1941. What I wonder though is, from what I do know; The 741 was developed in 1941 and the 344 was a 1944 military chief. So why do we have an 841 and not an 842, if the bike was a 1942 model?

I am not trying to be smart. I have just had trouble finding any accurate info on the bikes. Most of what I find is the same old rhetoric about 841 and XA developed and pushed out by the arrival of Jeep, but bugger all on dates or anything else. If anyone knows if any good info sources out there, I would love to know.

The demise of the XA had nothing to do with the Jeep. It is a very long story about patent infringement.

Strewth,
Normally the military numbers were from when the contract was awarded. After the US entered the war the time between awarding the contract and beginning of production got much shorter.
Dusty

Chris wrote: "1942 only"

Chris!

I hate to sound like an AMCA judge (which of course I am not),
but can you document that for us?

...Cotten

I can't. But Bruce has in his How To Restore Your Military Harley-Davidson book.
Here are a couple shots of the XA and 841 undergoing testing at DTC in So Cal. Notice the date of 7/4/42.

Chris!

Were Harley's XA's also produced only that year?

The reason I ask is because of the similarities of their carburetors.
The 841's had a fair share of nickel hardware upon them, whereas cad appears to have superseded nickel for the 642, 342, etc.

I suspect the carbs were made the previous year.

....Cotten

Thanks so far fellas. I am finding it quite interesting.

There seems to be many reasons for confusion, ranging from guesswork dates, to just pure misunderstanding I suppose. One of the good Indian sites http://www.indianmotorbikes.com/resources/serials.htm even states in the date line that the 841 is a 1941 motorcycle. I would really like to find some accurate hard evidence, but especially with the folding of Indian twice over now, it is a hard thing to do.

Well I found something quite interesting in an original 841 Parts List which came out in March, 1942.

Below is an image from one of the pages that shows the parts as 1941 for year of manufacture on all parts. This occurs on all pages throughout the book.

So it is starting to look like the bikes were actually manufactured in 1941.