5. Indian Motorcycles

William Kyro was an enterprising man. Throughout his life he loved to investigate new opportunities and to start new businesses. Around the year 1915 he checked into a new development called the motorcycle. He liked what he saw, and became the first motorcycle dealer in Port Arthur, selling Indian motorcycles.

Early cars were not very fast. The Ford model T, the most popular car at that time, had a 20 horsepower engine and a top speed of 45 miles per hour. But motorcycles had a lot of power for their weight and were faster than most cars. Testing one of his Indian motorcycles, William received a ticket for excessive speed. At that time, such tickets were not common and an item appeared in the local paper which specified how fast William was traveling on his motorcycle. William was surprised to discover that his speeding ticket proved to be an advertisement of great value. Young men visited the Kyro motorcycle agency with the newspaper in hand. Their first question was always, "Will it really go that fast?" Many sales resulted from that speeding ticket.

On one occasion, William gave a ride to his wife in a motorcycle sidecar. She was holding an infant, their youngest child, Erick. William passed over a bump faster than he should have. Erick flew out of Anna's arms. Anna and William found Erick in the bushes beside the road, not far from a large rock. Anna realized that Erick might have been killed if he had landed on the rock. She announced that there would be no more motorcycle rides for her or for any of her children.