LiL Indian fork lengths from bottom of tree to axle. I think the later frames have a steeper neck angle to compensate for the longer fork.
1. 7 & 3/4
2. 8 & 3/4
3. 9 & 1/16
mine show 8 5/8" from bottom of tree to axle centerline, The bike is an early 1968 600 and forks are not altered-was still in factory paint before blasting. They definitely did seem to play around with height/where they put the plates, On the earlier bikes the frames themselves are physically smaller, another member here near me has a 65/66 first disc brake version, a 69, and a 1970. The 65 is like an inch shorter between top and bottom of the frame and you can see quite a difference in angle in the rear of the frame. Its not really noticeable until you put the bikes side by side so it may have alot to do with frame dimensions and size placement of headtube.
I will note also that the 1968 lineup catalog seems to show the lower models having the bend closer to the top plate, where the 600 and 700 show sitting higher, I have never seen a better cleaner photo than this one that Joe51 had posted up years ago though and cant see the dimension info to see if that jives with that.
One thing I remember is someone on here had bought lil indian kickstand from me which ended up being too tall, he said he had a 700 4" wheel frame and his measurements (bottom of frame to ground) did come in lower than any other bike I owned. My current 600 should in theory measure the same as his, but I haven't ever gotten as far as actually bolting the wheels back on it to take measurements to make a stand for it yet.
the 1969 brochure seems to show the bikes as all the same frame, even the dimensional info shows the same. the variances noted are for the due to tire sizes (4.10 4" on 400-500, 10.5 4" for 600, and 4.10 6" on 700)
Thank you! :thumbsup:
Is the presence of a fender bracket on the fork significant for determining the build date or model? Some of the photos in this thread show the bracket, while others do not.
Looks like 1967 is when the strap was added for a front fender bracket, then they seemed to be standard on all the models regardless if it had fenders or not. 1964 was the stated year they started to offer fenders but they mounted them to the bottom of the lower tree, then briefly they had some conduit strap type setup in 66 timeframe area, so if it has the strap is pretty safe to say 67-up.