The reason I point this out here, is that these 600cc 741s are such nice and usable engines. Yes, a Chief may be better for long-haul, two-up touring, but for running about town, twisty-road country rides and the odd club run (if you're in an odd club) a mildly tweaked 741 is actually a pretty good old motorcycle.

This engine is what any 741 owner (this means you!) can have after a careful rebuild with only pistons and valves upgraded from the original parts and, of course, a modern carb and manifold + good ignition. None of this will cost you more than the stock parts, but the results are so much better. See the 741 page for pistons, valves and manifold. Ignition here (Neil is running a magneto, Lars and Chris IPE electronic).

Chris Ireland (with the "Bella" 741 racer) is working on an "Engine Rebuild for Dummies" article that I hope to post here asap. This will tell you how to go about rebuildng your 741 engine. Chris's engine, Neil's engine, and the one in Lars's "Salt Cracker" (except for the blower stuff) are all the same basic 600cc 741 engine with bigger valves and better carb, manifold and ignition.

I'm more than happy with the results so far and the CV carb is the clear ticket. I suppose a larger intake manifold would help but it ran super well anyway. We never did really get the bike up to speed since they frown on too much romping in the practice area and the salt was rough as hell and not groomed. 

First gear touched about 50-60 mph [95 Km/t] rapped out and we were easily into the high 70s to low 80s mph [130 Km/t] before we even got into third. 

May have to gear things down a touch but it seems to keep pulling OK as is with 23T front and a 36T rear sprockets. From all accounts it's better to start with gearing too high and not over rev the engine. Also there may be some sense to my light bike theory. A speedway tread rear tire grips like glue to the salt and adding extra weight doesn't seem to be an issue since the tall gearing and small HP won't spin the tire easily."

This bike is a great example of the fact that all Indians don't have to look the same/use the same original chassis parts (or, in other words, if you have a 741 engine but no 741 frame, use what you have or can lay your hands on!).

Financially, it is a bad idea to build a 101 from parts (it doesn't matter if they are old or new, except you get a lot of extra repair work with the old parts). If you have the money it makes more, long term financial, sense to buy the best and most expensive running 101 you can find. The poor guy who built it is never going to get his money back. If he did it right and didn't cut too many corners, that is.

This is the major reason for thinking about doing it yourself (and I am here to help you with anything you are not sure of, or don't have the machine tools to do). If you are in control of building up the bike, you decide how well things are done. Second, it allows you to put a personal touch on it, making it "your 101".

The good thing, financially, about building a bike from parts is that you can spread the expense over however long time it takes you to finish the bike.

I am probably not going to put more of these together, but you can special-order the individual parts (you will never get them as cheaply as now, though!) - as well as any you may need to finish this chassis. 

I am willing to sell this for less than the parts cost, and I don't even want to begin thinking about how many hours I have spent on making everything fit and work as it should. This is sort of a lower level version of what I said above: "The poor guy who does the first build will never get his money back".

I have the rest of the parts new, and will help with advice during your rebuild. Any machining jobs you can't do yourself, or have done locally, can be done here. From rebuilding the connecting rods to a complete engine rebuild. So, we can find a way of you doing what you can and IPE doing the rest. Read more here