Pursuit of happiness

To be deserving of the moniker 'Pursuit', one's initial thought is that a bike would need to be fast and lithe, but that's not the term in which the name is used in this case. It's referencing a hobby or pastime, rather than a quick chase, so this Pursuit is one upon which to use all your spare time...

- Dave Manning

Take a look at this bike, or any other American-built touring motorcycle, and you’ll undoubtedly think that it has been designed and built to cruise the cliched American highways – die straight and with a 55mph speed limit. Aside from the fact that the majority of roads in the USA aren’t straight, and that the 55mph speed limit was consigned to history many years ago, you could still be surprised by the fact that the Indian you see here wasn’t built with those cliches in mind.

Contrast that thought with the area in which we got to ride the new Pursuit – amidst the stunning Alpine peaks of Switzerland and France, on twisting and turning switchback roads far, far removed from the billiard-table flat dual lane highways of ‘the American dream’. It might seem to be counterintuitive, but there’s logic for the launch being in this location. Indian wanted its new tourer to not only appeal to those who wanted the ability to cruise through expansive scenery in a straight line directly into the setting sun, but also those of us who wanted a little more variation in our terrain. Specifically, European touring riders. So, they built the bike to suit a rather specific test route that the Indian test riders had laid out. And it was this very same test route that we rode on the European launch of the Pursuit.

The hills are alive Leaving the ski resort of Chamonix, we headed deep into the mountains, experiencing all that the region has to offer in terms of panoramic views and tortuous, twisting Tarmac. It was, in brief, like being on the set of The Sound of Music. Truly stunning, and a fantastic playground in which to test any kind of motorcycle, especially one that may not be perceived as being ideal for this kind of terrain.