Before the Indians created FTR, the racer-turned-dirtbikers, modified their Indian Scouts to be fast and left-hand. One of the pioneers of that ‘ride what you have’ attitude was the legendary Ed ‘Iron Man’ Kretz. Famous for winning the first Daytona 200 in 1937, Ed was known for riding Indian Scouts Go to the track, strip everything that makes it legal, and race on it.
That’s the spirit. Roland Sands Design let’s start shooting with this custom Indian Scout. The Californian shop has been involved with Indian for centuries, currently racing Indian bikes in the US Super Hooligan and King of the Baggers championships. So when Indian Motorcycle commissioned RSD to build a brand new Indian Sport Scout as part of the brand’s ‘Forged’ custom series, the path forward was clear.
“It was like, okay, what is Ed going to build today?” asked the shop’s founder and namesake, Roland Sands. “A loud racing bike.”
Built on the Indian brand New Scout platform, the Indian Sport Scout adds some West Coast performance styling with 6-inch risers and a nose fairing. RSD wanted to maintain that overall feel, but crank up the performance aspect and turn the visual attitude up to eleven. Or, as RSD head fabricator Aaron Boss puts it, build a “Dyna killer.”
To achieve that, RSD decided to crossbreed the Scout and FTR, and sprinkle some Super Hooligan magic on top of that. The first step was to strip the forks, swingarm, and dual Brembo brakes from an Indian FTR, and massage them to fit the Scout’s stem. Once Aaron had that figured out, he turned his attention to the rear end.
Sharp eyes will notice a sporty aluminum swingarm mounted at the rear. Inspired by RSD’s 2023 Super Hooligan FTR race bike, it ditches the monoshock strut and adds mounting rails to accommodate twin shocks. An aftermarket Indian piggyback shock connects to the Scout’s OEM upper shock mounts.
The Sport Scout normally rolls on 19F/16R wheels, but that’s not beefy enough for what RSD is trying to achieve here. So they swapped the stock rims for coveted RSD x Dymag forged aluminum race rims. They’re shod with sticky Dunlop Sportmax Q5 tires, with FTR Brembo rear calipers also used.
Moving on to the bodywork, Aaron kept the original fairing, but modified it to accommodate the FTR forks. The gas tank is also stock, and the front fender is from the FTR. But the rear is a different story, where Aaron stripped out the stock seat, subframe, and rear fender and started over.
The new tail section is inspired by the Indian Scout race tail section that RSD produced, but the design has been tweaked for this build. This one-piece unit also acts as a separate subframe and rear fender, with an LED taillight embedded just below the trailing edge. The custom seat cushions come from everyone’s go-to flat track racing seat supplier, Saddlemen.
Once installed, RSD tweaked the ergonomics for a sportier riding position. That meant moving the stock foot controls to a more street-friendly position and fitting a set of wide ProTaper handlebars to the cockpit.
With the suspension, brakes, and wheels all upgraded, RSD decided to leave the Indian Sport Scout’s 105-horsepower engine alone. Aaron simply fabricated a gorgeous two-into-one titanium exhaust system, capped off with an aggressive RSD muffler.
RSD’s gnarly Indian Sport Scout street monitoring then finished in matte and gloss black, topped with vibrant yellow accents. Sylvester the Cat peeks out from behind; a nod to the illustration Ed Kretz used on his business cards.
While RSD didn’t know who the car would end up with when the project began, the particular color scheme turned out to be quite fortuitous. That’s because the Sport Scout’s new owner is none other than Josh Dun—the drummer for the dynamic pop duo Twenty One Pilots. And the black and gold color scheme perfectly matches the artwork on the band’s 2018 album Trench.
As an Indian Scout Bobber owner himself, Josh has ridden an FTR before—so he was understandably excited about the direction RSD had taken with the Sport Scout. “The reason I build bikes is to get people excited,” Aaron adds. “And he walked in and his jaw dropped. He paused for a second, speechless. That’s when you know you’ve got him, and he’s excited about it.”
“It’s 100% a bike that I would personally want to own,” Roland added. “How do you design a bike that makes you feel cool? I think that’s the formula there.”
“It’s subtle… but right.”
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