The Indian Papoose is the skydiving motorcycle you never knew you wanted – Jalopnik

The old saw among motorcyclists is that there are two types of people on motorcycles; those who have dropped their bikes, and those who are going to drop their bikes. Usually this means crashing, but in the case of this strange little Indian Papoosethe trap in question takes place from an airplane and in enemy territory. The underpinnings of this little 98cc-powered folding motorcycle are actually more British than American. because it is based on the Welbike from World War II.

The British-built Welbike was specially developed for Her Majesty’s Royal Air Force paratroopers to fly in and ride around. After the war, surplus production bicycles were adapted for civilian use by Corgi and sold in the US under the Indian flag with a few brand-specific aesthetic modifications, including the Indian-style tapered 1.5-gallon fuel tank and fishtail exhaust. Both Corgi and Indian were owned by the same holding company, Brockhouse, at the time.

That little 98cc two-stroke Excelsior Spryt engine with kick start was certainly no speed demon. Despite having a headlight and taillight for street-legal purposes, the Papoose was limited to about 30 miles per hour. However, it was an absolute fuel sipper, capable of getting about 80 to 80 miles of fuel, and traveling up to 120 miles on a single tank of the finest, most proven leaded petroleum distillate. The bike’s two four-inch drum brakes probably aren’t quite up to the task of stopping it at speeds above 30 miles per hour anyway.

The Papoose was more or less the 1940s version of the current Honda Grom, but foldable like the Motocompacto. They were cheap, sold like crazy and were beaten like mules until they croaked. It is seriously difficult to find a nice Papoose in 2026, despite the fact that almost 30,000 examples were built.

This particular machine was recently sold on Bring A Trailerfor $4,000 with no reserve. It has no title, and without an odometer you can’t know how many miles it has been driven, but it’s so old that many states like to issue it with just a bill of sale. The selling dealer didn’t even know if it would run because they had never tried to start it or drive it. It was a bike that needed saving and could be ridden anywhere with a little elbow grease. For little more than the cost of a Grom, whoever bought this will look significantly cooler riding it than the little Honda. Honestly, how are you going to survive without a little folding two-stroke Indian in your garage?

Once you were on the ground, you simply found your own tube, broke it open and pulled out your new wheels. The British tested that the bike could be taken out of the box, unfolded and operational within 11 seconds of landing. Some bicycles were also used in beach attacks.

Only around 3,600 of these tubed Welbikes were built for use by the British Armed Forces. The Welbike was largely reserved for the British 1st and 6th Airborne Divisions and was not used often, but when it was they were quite effective. The most famous use of a military Welbike was during Operation Market Gardenwhen a fleet of them was dropped into the Dutch city of Arnhem. Thanks in part to the paratroopers’ increased mobility once they were on the ground, Allied forces took control of several bridges and successfully advanced more than 60 miles into Nazi territory.