The adventures of a middle-aged man and his belove Yamaha Majesty 400 Maxi-Scooter, Blu-B.




Monday, April 26, 2010

Meeting Heroes: Ray Michrina and the Lil Indian

It's rare that one gets to meet their heroes, let alone walk away from them without being disillusioned, but having met Ray Michrina now for the second time, I am pleased to report that my great admiration for the man remains intact.

Of course, back in the day when Ray first impressed me, I had no idea who he was. It was not until years later that I connected him with the man who, along with his brothers, built and marketed the Lil Indian mini bikes I so lusted after back in the mid-sixities and early seventies. To make a long and interesting story short - a story you can read at Ray's Allied Leisure Corp site - Michrina Enterprises began manufacturing Lil Indian minbikes in 1959 (two years before I was born). By the end of 1970, they had sold 9,261 of them.

I first came to know of Lil Indians through my brother's friend Mark, who lived across the street. Mark was an interesting kid; a year older than my brother and six years older than me, he seemingly could do anything mechanical. Like many kids of that era, Mark was always fiddling with something, whether it was helping my brother make a go-cart out of a plywood board, metal roller skates, and a self-propelled lawn mower (lift the handle to make the mower pull the "cart" as the blade throws back road debris) or building a small hydroplane (don't think that one actually worked out too well, but at least Mark survived to tell the tale). One of Mark's best toys was a red Lil Indian with four-inch wheels and what was probably a two-and-a-half horse Briggs and Stratton. It was so much fun to see Mark tearing out of his driveway and illegally down the street, and while I would soon discover Honda Mini Trails, Benelli Dyanamos, Speedway Shrieks, Rupp Roadsters, and Indian Enduros, the Lil Indian would, for me, remain the prototypical mini.

By the time Mark sold his bike (to finance his hydroplane, if I recall correctly), I was still looking and dreaming for hours on end at the Lil Indian brochure - the closest I ever got to "owning" that or any other mini bike. Every now and then I got the chance to see the newer models at Ace's Hardware, which sold Lil Indians and Schwinns among its vast selection of drill bits, screws, nails, and pipe fittings. One year I spent many a visit marveling at the lime green Lil Indian 6000 featured in Ace's display window, convinced that would be the spring that I would get my own mini (after all, my birthday was in April and my first two initials, M.B., could just as easily stand for Mini Bike as it could Michael Bruce).

But it was not to be. The mini bike craze ended by the mid-seventies and I finally got the message that no matter how hard I begged, my dad neither had the money nor the interest in seeing me get hurt to actually follow through with buying me one. Of course, he never totally destoryed my dream; when asked if I could get one, he'd simply reply, "We'll see, we'll see."

In the early 80s, my brother, a mini bike and motorcycle fan himself, went out and bought a couple of Honda 50cc Spree scooters - one for each of us. I soon bought my own used 1978 Honda CB125 and then later graduated to a Yamaha Virago 500. My brother eventually moved from a Honda Nighthawk to a V45 Magna to a Goldwing to a Harley Ultra Classic Electra Glide, but he has since stopped riding. I, however, continued with a series of classic Japanese bikes, a Honda Elite 250 scooter, a Suzuki 650 single, and, as of today, my trusty mount Blu-B, a 2005 Yamaha Majesty maxi-scooter.


While I might have made that long road from mini desire to motorcycle ownership without the Lil Indian, there is something endearing and classic about the bike's simple design that captured my heart. There is also something endearing and classic and very real about Ray. He loved his product, as he loved his work (still does), and I have no doubt that his enthusiam for it was a big part of its charm. This is the second time I met Ray (I met him about eight years ago after doing some research about Lil Indians) and I am just as impressed as I was back then. Ray gave me something to dream about, and my dad - my true hero - was sentitive enough to let me keep that dream alive while doing what he thought necessary to keep me alive.
-MBK