2018 Indian Scout Bobber

20th July 2017

1,133cc | 69 cubic inch | Liquid cooled V-twin  

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Truncating the mudguards, lowering the ride an inch or two, fitting fat tyres and calling a motorcycle "a bobber" doesn't actually make it a bobber. But you can't tell that to Indian Motorcycles (or Triumph for that matter). Bobbers are still very much in fashion, and there's a lot of money to be had out of the B-word.

For 2018, Indian has put a (slightly) new twist on its existing 1,133cc/69 cubic inch liquid-cooled V-twin Scout platform with this new offering that, we hear, will be in UK dealerships before the end of 2017. At 561lbs (255kg), this steamroller is trying desperately to look "the part", except that "the part" has been so diluted that bobberism is now almost meaningless. In short, it's not actually much of a street hotrod (which is what a bobber is supposed to be), not with all that lard to tote around.

▲ Indian's "bold, sinister" blacked-out slotted exhaust pipes are ideal for terrorising the neighbourhood. "Be afraid", and all that stuff.

But still, it's not a bad looking bike, and we'd happily find a warm/dry corner in the Sump garage for it. Features include "tracker 'bars" (whatever those are), 25mm lower rear suspension, repositioned rider pegs, a cartridge front fork, black cast alloy wheels, LED indicators, a two-tone real leather saddle, five colours, and enough overall blackness to suck in a small galaxy. Indian is boasting 94bhp which gives this bike a power-to-weight ratio of 0.16bhp/lb—which compares to, say, 0.45bhp/lb for a 2017 Yamaha R1, or 0.32bhp/lb for a 2017 Ducati Diavel.

What it means is that the Indian Bobber is more bluster than ballistic, hence the hackneyed "aggressive styling" and similar hype (the word "aggressive" is mentioned no less than six times on the Indian UK Scout Bobber page). But as we said, it's not a bad looking motorcycle if you can live with the marketing pretensions.

Meanwhile, the new Indian badge on the tank looks pretty bold, and our first impressions are positive. The price is posted on the Indian UK website at £11,299 which compares to the current 1,133cc Scout which costs £10,799 for a single colour.

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