Indian® Scout Bobber® Review
Is the new Indian Scout Bobber Indian motorcycle personal way to strike into youngsters hearts? Maybe it is, but this new addition to the Scout family is not just a quick fender chop and a badass riding position, there’s a ton more to this new Bobber than what meets the eye. Let’s discover all its features together.
Indian Scout Bobber: perfection is in the details
Let’s begin with style! This whole new bad ass bobber look comes from a combination of new components that makes a huge difference. We have a brand new blacked out fairing nacelle that really cleans up the headlight area and gives it that more aggressive look. Speaking of which, the new tracker bars force the rider to lean forward 4 inches more than what we are used to on a regular Scout. We thought this would have caused us some sort of discomfort but we could have not been more wrong: after a learning curve of a couple of miles, riding posture felt very natural and – to be completely honest – better than what is possible to experience on a regular Scout.
Icing on the cake? Bar-end mirrors, which might be less effective than regular ones but…damn they look good! They could have stopped here but a Bobber, to be worthy of that name, needs minimal fenders. Indian motorcycle know that very well so they decided to ditch the regular Scout bulky fenders and go for slimmer and minimal ones. Being a bobber enthusiast, I must admit that they did an amazing job. Since changing the overall look of the motorcycle and riding position was not enough, the Spirit Lake base company decided to give us a better looking and more padded seat.
If you are among those who believe that the engine undergone major changes, you could not be more wrong. Indian engineers took this already great engine and simply changed the engine covers with smaller and blacked out ones. The black exhausts just perfectly complete the overall blacked out look. The liquid-cooled V-twin with its 1,133cc rated at a claimed 100 horsepower and 72 lb.-ft. of torque is simply perfect as it is.
It is responsive and the torque curve is extra flat. As for all stock models of every maker, I am not a fan of the exhaust sound but it is ok, it sounds like you would expect from a stock exhaust… It sounds like something I would swap for a pair of blacked out short shots. The Scout Bobber runs super smooth at low rpm, but when you need to move it delivers strong power and torque on demand through all six gears, pulling hard past 70 mph. This is definitely not a sport bike, but you can knee the tank, scrunch down and get some fun out of this motorcycle.
Indian recognized all the limits of the original Scout butter-soft suspensions and swapped them with cartridge-type fork internals and rear shocks with stiffer progressively wound springs. Modifications that allow Scout Bobber to offer a firmer ride and a more planted feel when cornering. Matter of fact, for a cruiser, this motorcycle definitely turns better than most. The biggest impediment to going a little faster in corners on the Scout Bobber is its clearance, I dragged the foot pegs every time I tried pushing the lean angle. Officially, Indian states that this motorcycle maximum lean angle is 29 degrees, which – I can confirm – is not a lot. It is possible to look for a shorter pair of pegs (by about an inch) to improve the Scout Bobber’s cornering clearance, but if you lean it very far you could still drag some other parts. Trust me, it is something you do not want to do.
In conclusion: this motorcycle is amazing. Great look that allows to either leave it as it is or use it as a great base for customizations. The engine is great and allows every kind of rider to have fun, same goes for the suspension. Clearance is not that great but for higher leaning angles one should get a sport bike.
