2018 INDIAN SCOUT BOBBER
FIRST TEST
P94
If It Were
Mine…
…the first thing I'd do—and
probably only thing I'd do if the
2017 Indian Scout Bobber were
mine—is source some shorter,
louder mufflers. Not only do the
standard mufflers give the bike
sound unbefitting to its badass-
ness, they need to be shorter to
work with the chopped look of
the bike.
Other than that, I wouldn't
touch a thing.
The blackness really
does ratchet the badass
factor up substantially.
Chrome simply wouldn't
cut it on a bike such as
the Bobber.
Cool, isn't
it? The bar-
mounted
mirrors and
seat stitching
are a nice
touch.
Small details like the "knobby" front tire, the
bar-mounted mirrors and the stitching on the
single seat make the Indian a real nice piece
of eye candy (the gigantic twin cannon-style
mufflers, a little less so). But I think I like this
Bobber so because I like the bike it comes
from—the standard Scout, a machine I tested
back in 2015 and was genuinely surprised at
how much I enjoyed it.
The Bobber takes things a touch lower—one
inch lower at the rear, to be exact—and gets
pegs mounted 1.5 inches closer to the rider on
a machine weighing a claimed 554 pounds wet,
four pounds heavier than the standard Scout,
which is strange, considering the Bobber has
(much) smaller front and rear fenders, no pas-
senger seat and a smaller/shorter handlebar.
The handlebar takes its hues
from Indian's 1950's dirt trackers
ridden by legends like Bobby Hill
and Bill Turman and combined
with the revised footpeg posi-
tion, gives the Bobber a more
aggressive rider stance than the
standard Scout.
A bobber rider rides alone
and thus so will you on the
Indian. With no provisions for a
passenger, this gives the Bob-
ber a certain coolness about
it; something like a Springfield
certainly does not possess. As
does the color black. And this
bike has black. Deep breath in
and… black wheels, black fork
bottoms, black radiator cover,
black chassis, black exhaust
headers, black mufflers, black
shocks, black springs, black
engine covers, black cylinders
(with chrome accents), black
handlebar, black mirrors, black
headlight surround, black dash,
