(FORTUNE Magazine) – The rumors started the moment Indian Motorcycle closed shop. The company, and the flamboyant motorbikes it had made for 53 years, would be back. Today, four decades later, the rumor turns out to be true. Onetime motorcycle cop Wayne Baughman, 57, who two years ago revived the brand -- free of charge, since all trademarks had expired -- has started making the bikes again. By early 1995 he will be selling them through 50 dealers who have signed on in the U.S. and Europe. The new bikes will be manufactured in Albuquerque, where Baughman was a policeman for two years before becoming an auto salesman for various companies in the Southwest. The machines will have the skirted fenders, teardrop fuel tanks, and other stylistic features that so endeared them to fans over the years. Baughman himself fell for the bikes at 12, ''when my dad gave me my first ride on an Indian.'' Prices will start at about $17,000 for either the Century, a traditional model with a 100.6-cubic-inch V-twin engine, or the Silver Chief, which will have the same engine plus high-tech features like a special front suspension system. This comeback evokes that of another motorcycle classic, Harley-Davidson. Its chairman, Vaughn L. Beals, has returned the company to profitability -- and has become something of an American folk hero in the process.