A friend has just bought a 1938 Matchless model X that has been in a barn since the early sixties...It's fitted with Vincent girdraulic front forks and a pre war AJS tank from an R7 racer!!!!....Ian
About the Indian left hand throttle twist grip.
I was told by a very, very, very knowledgeable guy who restores vintage Harleys and others for a semi-living (and who did the cylinder work for my M21) that one of the very first Indians to have a motor on a cycle had the ignition timing on the right hand grip. The reason for this was that this was the only rev-adjustment that there was.
When Indian soon enough developed their constructions to have a throttle as well this ended up being on the left since they already had a working construction for the timing and saw no reason to alter it.
Sorry I have no source or reference for this, I know the guy to be someone who knows what he's talking about but realize that you all don't know him (or me). Some more research may need to go into this...
