Indian Motorcycle has announced the winner of its Custom Scout Bobber
contest, which it opened to both amateur and professional builders in
the Benelux region of Europe. Dutch designer Luuc Muis earned first place by turning the Scout Bobber into a one-of-a-kind model that bridges the 1910s and the 2010s.
Muis
called his build Hasty Flaming Buffalo, a name that almost makes it
sound deliciously edible. It's not, sadly. Drawing inspiration from the
Indian-made bikes that dominated board track racing in the United States
during the early 1900s, he stripped the new Scout Bobber that Indian
sent him for the project down to the basics. He removed the front and
rear fenders, designed a new frame, and commissioned a Norwegian firm to
make it out of aluminum. The airbox and the various electrical
components are integrated into the custom-made fuel tank to achieve a
clean, period-correct look.
Old Dutch Leatherworks provided the leather-upholstered seat, and JSR
Service contributed the rims. Muis had only 20 weeks to finish the
build, which makes it even more impressive.
"I wanted to explore the idea that, if over 100 years of motorcycling, materials and techniques had developed but visual design hadn’t, what would that look like," he summed up.
There
are no major mechanical modifications, so the Hasty Flaming Buffalo
uses a Scout Bobber-sourced, 1.3-liter V-twin engine that delivers 100
horsepower and 72 pound-feet of torque. The two-cylinder exhales through
a gorgeous exhaust system created for the project by Akrapovič.
The
Hasty Flaming Buffalo made its public debut at the Bigtwin Bikeshow and
Expo held in the Netherlands. It will also appear at Custombike in
Germany, Autosalon in Belgium, and Motorbeurs Utrecht in the Netherlands
before being reunited with its builder in February 2020. Indian is not
planning to turn it into a production model, so you'll need to persuade
its owner to build you a replica if you want it in your collection.
