You'd be hard-pressed to look at a motorcycle manufacturer these days and not find an entry-level motorcycle. It is, after all, the hottest segment within the industry, and it's not hard to see why, as the economy is trash, worker pay is stagnant while inflation booms, and just about everything costs a trillion dollars. Small bikes, ones that are cheap to buy, insure, and fix up, make a whole lot of sense.
Hell, even Harley-Davidson is getting in on the trend in 2026.
So you may be surprised to hear that Indian Motorcycles, which just went through an ownership change and is looking to achieve further growth after its separation from Polaris, ain't barking up that tree. In fact, when RideApart asked newly minted CEO Mike Kennedy about the future, and specifically about entry-level motorcycles, it was an emphatic "No" on entry-level, small-displacement motorcycles. The future, however, is in Indian's strengths, which are its past.
