Chapter 621

7/10/2022

2015 Indian Scout

history in the making

Finally completed the deal with the guy in Keene, New Hampshire. Seven years old but less than 1000 miles. Pristine. How could owners have such a nice bike and NOT put miles on it. It happens. So pleased. The Vance & Hines $500 after market performance straight thru mufflers were obnoxiously loud, caused the bike to backfire, run hot, too lean and generally undesirable. Rode it home 100 miles on this 90 degree day. This was Surry Mountain Lake created by my Corps of Engineers. NH has tremendous natural environmental attractions.

We avoided the normally beautiful Rte 9 highway as there was 15 miles of construction, slow downs, gravel, & mud by going cross country thru the back roads of Vermont. Colleen led with my trucks GPS. Would have been very difficult without that. Covered bridges, windy small roads up and down hills. Wonderful ride.

Replaced mufflers immediately to the stock ones that he had. So much more pleasing. Quiet, smooth, cooler running . Did drop from 60 mpg to 50 mpg now but well worth it. Called the Indian dealer in Manchester and they had recently changed oil and flashed the ECM electronic control module. I believe they were required to reset to factory specs to pass emissions standards whilst a richer gas mixture would have allowed for smoother running with the aftermarket pipes. Oil change not required for 10,000 miles. Wahoo, that could be a lifetime, although I've already put 500 miles on it in a week.

Best 2015 Indian Scout review I found, although I test drove dozens of scouts and all the other models at the factory demo ride events during the last decade. It was the test rides that convinced me. That's when I met Indian Motorcycle President Steve Menneto. Steve grew up in this area and his brother Mike runs the local Wildhorse shop where I got introduced the the Polaris line which had produced the Victory a solid product which gave me a great ride for 5 years. In 2013 American Picker joined the team. Steve now oversees all the offroad vehicles for Polaris. After Indian's debut at Daytona Bike week I had a conversation with their company rep who sat next to me on the plane ride back from Florida. Am trying to find out if I was on Uncle Sonny's Indian back in the 50's to develop my pedigree.

Polaris bought Swiss Auto for the FTR flat track racing motor development and is partnered with the Zero electric motorcycle development and E- bikes.

Stopped at Brattleboro, VT to fly up river on this West River here just as it flows downstream meeting the Connecticut River far left forming the boundary with NH. Was not able to explore the area with a 5 hour round trip, dog awaiting, on this busy holiday weekend.

Had some great riding days so far. Did a spin around the Tomhannock Reservoir for some country roads.

I'm standing there waiting for the clouds to pass over when I notice several deer wading through the lilly pads. Thought they were merely crossing but turns out they were foraging on the vegetation. Did not know they loved lilly pads. Were out there quite a while.

You can even go swimming with an Indian. Short ride this week to Grafton Lakes State Park. Free mid week for seniors over 62, ha ha. Old Minister friend with Harley served with the Big Red One in the Army.

Visited 102 year old mother in law, she's feeling pretty down with health issues, but she looked good. A very weak voice. Got into a classic car show in Fonda. Mentioned to the lady at the historical tent that my wife went to highschool at Fonda-Fultonville. Turns out she [Beverley (Wood) Giuffre] was in the class with Kathy and her brother David.

Droned my crossing of the Mohawk at Tribes Hill into Fort Hunter, Schoharie Crossing. Let the drone idle stationary shooting video while I drove across, then screen capture.

This is an historic place. The Schoharie Creek enters from the right (south). The fort was originally built as a protection from indian tribes during frontier days. Saint Kateria Tekakwitha lived in that village. Iroquois village mound and long house people lived to the north.

I'd like to explore many indian related areas with my future trip explorations. It was the 1980 Honda motorcycle restoration project that really spurred me to consider owning this medium size cruiser that is easier to handle.

So far the P.C. police have not succeeded in erasing the history of the Indian Motorcycle. Let's hope they do not. One of the first factory authorized dealerships in the country is in  Wisconsin and proudly Indian (native american if you are not offended by that) owned.