Scouting For Boys

Yesterday I tried something a little bit different on the bike front.  I took an Indian Scout 60 for a test ride. At this point I must admit that I had pretty much decided that unless I really didn’t like it that I was probably going to buy one.

First thing you notice is that it’s quite small, well, everything is small when you step down from a Caponord, so that was to be expected. It’s also a no-frills sort of machine with its single saddle, single clock with LED inserts for everything but the speedo, and no capacity for carrying much more than a tool roll. The ‘bars are wide and the riding position different to what I’m accustomed to.

Initially, however, I really enjoyed flicking it around on the back roads. It was when I took it onto the motorway that things changed. The wide bars and no fairing mean that maintaining something like 70 mph is really hard work. I now know why I keep coming across cruiser types riding along at about 60mph, it’s just much more manageable.

After an hour or so I became aware that the seat was getting increasingly uncomfortable. Combined with the extremely hard suspension, another half an hour saw me need to get off and walk about a bit.

So, in the end I decided against getting one. It seemed rather silly to contemplate getting rid of the Aprilia, a big comfortable touring machine and replace it with something that would need a lot spent on it to do the same job half as well. If I had the money and the space I would probably have one for bimbling about on, but as a main bike it just wouldn’t hack it for the type of riding I mostly do.