Indian Chief Classic, Indian Chief Vintage, Indian Chieftain, Indian Dark Horse, Indian Roadmaster, model years 2015 to 2016. Filed by Indian Motorcycle Company and reported to NHTSA on 2 November 2015. 7,614 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Indian Motorcycle Company (Indian) is recalling certain model year 2015-2016 Chief Classic, Chief Vintage, Chieftain, Roadmaster, and 2016 Dark Horse motorcycles manufactured January 2, 2015, to October 23, 2015. Due to a problem with the rear brake master cylinder, the motorcycles may have a reduction in, or a …
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
Indian's own number for this recall: I-15-04. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 15V721 is the number NHTSA gave the same campaign, and the number this page is filed under. They are one recall, written two ways.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 15V721 cover?
- Indian Chief Classic, Indian Chief Vintage, Indian Chieftain, Indian Dark Horse, Indian Roadmaster, model years 2015-2016.
- What is wrong with them?
- Indian Motorcycle Company (Indian) is recalling certain model year 2015-2016 Chief Classic, Chief Vintage, Chieftain, Roadmaster, and 2016 Dark Horse motorcycles manufactured January 2, 2015, to October 23, 2015.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- A full or partial loss of rear braking power may lengthen the distance needed to slow or stop the motorcycle, increasing the risk of a crash.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. Indian will notify owners, and dealers will replace the rear brake master cylinder piston assembly, free of charge. The recall began on November 5, 2015. Owners may contact Indian customer service at 1-877-204-3697. Indian's number for this recall is I-15-04.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on. Indian calls this recall I-15-04, which is the number on the owner letter and the dealer paperwork.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “A full or partial loss of rear braking power may lengthen the distance needed to slow or stop the motorcycle, increasing the risk of a crash.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 15V721 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Indian Motorcycle Company |
| System at fault | Service Brakes, Hydraulic:Foundation Components:Master Cylinder |
| Reported to NHTSA | 2 November 2015 |
| Model years | 2015-2016 |
| Vehicles named | INDIAN CHIEF CLASSIC, INDIAN CHIEF VINTAGE, INDIAN CHIEFTAIN, INDIAN DARK HORSE, INDIAN ROADMASTER |
What the notice says today
The consequence
A full or partial loss of rear braking power may lengthen the distance needed to slow or stop the motorcycle, increasing the risk of a crash.
The remedy
Indian will notify owners, and dealers will replace the rear brake master cylinder piston assembly, free of charge. The recall began on November 5, 2015. Owners may contact Indian customer service at 1-877-204-3697. Indian's number for this recall is I-15-04.
What it said before
This campaign is in the register but not yet in the dated wording archive, so we cannot yet say whether its text has moved. It enters the archive on the next pass.
This is one of 583 notices in the record whose component field names service brakes, hydraulic. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 37 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The same recall in other countries
This campaign carries a manufacturer code that also appears in another country’s register, which means the same defect was recalled there too.
- Canada: Transport Canada recall 2015526, recorded 5 November 2015 (within a week of the American filing)
Matched on I1504, the manufacturer’s own number for this campaign, which is the only field the registers share. Exact match, nothing paired on brand and date. The two dates are adjacent instruments rather than the same one, so a difference of a day or two means nothing.
How often the two countries file on the same day · The European alerts
The models named here, across their whole recall history
- Indian Chief Classic recalls: 8 US campaigns
- Indian Chief Vintage recalls: 5 US campaigns
- Indian Chieftain recalls: 11 US campaigns
- Indian Dark Horse recalls: 5 US campaigns
- Indian Roadmaster recalls: 12 US campaigns
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 15V721, wording as read on 16 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/15v721/
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
Other Indian notices we hold
- 25V108: 2025 Challenger Dark Horse, Pursuit Limited, Roadmaster Elite and Springfield Dark Horse motorcycles
- 24V970: 2025 Scout and Scout Sixty motorcycles
- 24V860: 2022 FTR 1200 R Carbon, FTR 1200, FTR 1200 S and FTR 1200 Rally motorcycles
- 24V550: 2024 Chieftain, Challenger, Pursuit, Roadmaster, and Springfield motorcycles
- 23V582: 2023 Challenger, Pursuit Dark Horse Icon w/Premium Package, Pursuit Dark Horse w/Premium Package, and Pursuit Limited w/Premium Package motorcycles
- 23V293: 2022 Indian Chief Bobber, Indian Chief Dark Horse, and Indian Chief Bobber Dark Horse motorcycles
- 22V957: 2022 Chief, Chief Bobber, Chief Bobber Darkhorse, Chief Darkhorse, Super Chief, and Super Chief Limited motorcycles
- 22V636: 2019-2020 and 2022 FTR 1200, 2019-2020 FTR 1200 S, and 2020 FTR 1200 Rally motorcycles
All 20 Indian campaigns we hold · Every manufacturer in the record
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 15V721 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
bfd4be9b - Consequence
7ebe77d1 - Remedy
953b7464
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 15V721 · how the whole register is watched
This notice names one vehicle among several registers that have written about it. Every notice this site holds for the Indian Chief Classic, in all seven, is kept on that vehicle's own page, with the newest in each.
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Owners of these cars
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