Ask Indian Motorcycle’s design director, Ola Stenegärd, which part of the new Indian Scout he’s most proud of, and he’ll most likely point to its tubular steel frame. So imagine his delight when Indian gave Ronna Norén at Unique Custom Cycles a brand new Indian Scout?and the first thing he changed was the frame.
That’s not sarcasm, by the way; Ola is genuinely happy that Ronna took an angle grinder to the Scout. For Ola and the entire team at Indian, the potential for customization was baked into the refreshed Scout platform from day one. Yes, the Scout is a modern bike with modern trappings that make it inherently chunky?but Indian wanted to make sure that customizers could work around all the frou-frou with minimal fuss.
Ronna’s take on the new Indian Scout is refreshingly simple and speaks volumes of his relationship with Ola. The two go way back and are both long-standing members of the Swedish bike club, Plebs Choppers. And although Ola draws inspiration from myriad sources when penning new motorcycle designs, there’s a small part of him that wonders what Ronna will think (or, more accurately, what Ronna will give him flak about).
Ola hoped that the Scout’s steel fuel tank and tubular steel frame would prompt Ronna to rework both to his liking?and that’s exactly what happened. Within a week of taking delivery of the Scout, Ronna had cut off and rebuilt more than a third of the frame, bringing the bike’s geome...