21 Nov 2015
Sean MacDonald - Indian's New Scout Sixty Is About To Go Flat Track Racing
Just read this great piece on Lanespitter from Sean MacDonald and I asked him permission to repost it here to share it with you guys. Thanks Sean!
"Roland Sands took five of the new Indian Scout
Sixtys and gave them the flat tracker treatment, which were unveiled
last night at an insane warehouse event in Long Beach, California last
night.
In addition to the EICMA show
in Italy this week, where all the bikes are announced, it’s also the
IMS show in Long Beach, the biggest west coast motorcycle show. IMS
always falls after EICMA, and takes place near every motorcycle
manufacturer’s headquarters, so there are always a ton of events as the
U.S. industry gathers together. When the invite came to go to an Indian
party, I figured it was likely just a dinner or chance to schmooze. Boy, was I wrong. As I neared the address, I realized I was going to some massive warehouse instead of restaurant, and I saw waaaaay more cars and bikes than normally attend these things. Inside, there was a band, some food, and, more importantly, an oval track cordoned off by highway barriers. Tonight was going to be good.
The other thing happening this week is Superprestigio, one of the most bad ass races of the year. Superprestigio takes place after the flat track finals of the year, and pits racers and riders from all disciplines against each other in America’s oldest form of racing. This year, guys like Roland Sands, stunt rider Aaron Colton, MotoAmerica wonderkid Joe Roberts, the guys from Suicide Machine Co, Superbike champion Josh Hayes, Roger Hayden, RC cup winner Gage McAllister, Jake Gagne, and a ton of others are riding (full list here).
It’s like what UFC started out as and is one of the coolest events in all motorcycling, and you can watch the whole thing here.
Anyways, Indian paired up with Roland Sands to customize five of their bikes to race in Superprestigio, and tonight we were going to get a taste of them. As the band played, we started to hear the roar of bikes from some distant corner of the room.
To make matters worse (better), the cops showed up - but not to shut the party down. With five guys sliding brand new Scouts around the track, two police motorcops joined the fray. One guys was on a fairly normal police touring bike, but the other was on a terrifying looking BMW S 1000 RR that I hope to never see in my rear view mirror.
Fortunately, no one crashed, and the party continued with Roland saying lots of nice things about Indians that I wasn’t listening to - because Instagramming is more important.
Definitely make sure you watch the races this weekend, I know I will be.
Photos: Indian
Contact the author at sean.macdonald@jalopnik.com. Follow Lanesplitter onFacebook and Twitter."
Damn! The amount of cool bikes Roland Sands has been dropping in the market this year is insane! He's writing motorcycle history give the guy some applause!. :)
