It’s a legend in its own time: Exquisite design. A thrilling past. A well-known rivalry with Harley Davidson. And a diehard band of loyal followers who proudly keep their engines revving—some 40 years after the last Indian Chief motorcycle rolled out of its Springfield, Massachusetts, plant.

Take a good look at the lean, mean, Indian machine, through rare vintage photos and films. And meet some of the hardy fans who gloss the shine on the Indian mystique: People who made them, grew up in their sidecars, and rode them at the speed of wind in the most daredevil days of motorcycle racing.

Rumble back to the early years of this century—a time of rutted roads, leather helmets, steamed-up goggles, and improvised raingear (courtesy of the Sunday newspaper). Check out the dangerous sport of motor board racing, where fearless riders pushed speeds of 90 miles an hour on steeply banked tracks—and tires as thin as a bicycle’s. Give a nod to the Van Buren sisters, who in 1916 became the first women to ride solo cross-country, proving they were as tough as a man (and were arrested for dressing like one). And catch up with today’s generation of loyalists who—spurred by the Indian legacy—have taken on the challenge of resurrecting these classic bikes, in what one young rider calls “a labor of love.”