What Makes The Indian Scout Sixty A Good Middleweight Cruiser?

To the best of our knowledge, cruisers came into being in the 1930s as easy riders, a motorcycle such as a jockey shift motorcycle that was typically slung-low with a feet-forward and hands-up kind of feel. The bikes like gear shifter dirt bikes are full of torque but not vast amounts of horsepower and it was Harley-Davidson, Indian, and other companies like Excelsior and even Henderson that shouldered the mantle of making these till the 1960s.

Soon after, Japanese cruisers were filled with the market and when the 1990s came around, cruisers with special cruiser motorcycle tires amounted to more than half of the market share in motorcycles. This is a real turning point. For the advanced and experienced rider, there’s the power cruiser, but for anyone looking for a way into the motorcycling world, a middleweight cruiser just like an automatic motorcycle cruiser is often the best bet.

Certainly, there are plenty of such motorcycles in this market such as Harley-Davidson 740 and Honda Rebel 500 which are dubbed as perfect beginner's cruisers, and even the Yamaha Bolt. Right in the middle of the fray is the Indian Scout Sixty that takes the legacy of the pre-war Indian Scout into more niche terms. We should see how the Indian Scout Sixty makes for a good middleweight cruiser.

The Indian Scout first came into existence in 1920 and carried on all the way till 1949. While some people regard the Chief as Indian’s most important motorcycle, while for the others, it’s the Scout. As a matter of fact, the 101 Scout that existed from 1928 to 1931 has often been hailed as the best motorcycle with the best motorcycle wheel chock ever made by the Indian Motorcycle Company.

After a long hiatus, and a parent company change as well with Polaris buying Indian in 2011, Indian Motorcycle released the 2015 Scout that came with a 1,133-cc liquid-cooled overhead camshaft V-twin motorcycle engine, along with braided arashi brakes lines and a belt to decrease upkeep costs.

In 2016, a lower middleweight cruiser was also introduced, dubbed the Scout Sixty. While most of the framework and suspension are identical to the Scout, the engine is smaller and stands at 999cc. With lesser power, this makes the Scout Sixty a more easy-to-handle motorcycle such as a high-rise handlebars motorcycle for anyone looking to get a cruiser but not very confident about their riding skills.

As opposed to the 1,133-cc V-twin engine of the Scout, the Scout Sixty bears a mire downsized 999-cc V-Twin mill. This move not only makes the price of Scout Sixty motorcycle dropping but also helps the US customers have one more motorcycle such as rocker cover motorcycles to contend with in the mid-size cruiser market.

The Scout Sixty uses fuel injection and water cooling for its smaller motorcycle engine and looks mostly like the Scout. The 65 ft-lb torque and 78 horsepower numbers are manageable just like sunline clutch levers, exactly what you want from a prominent middleweight cruiser, especially since the motorcycle weighs around 550 pounds.

Basically, the Scout Sixty bridges the gap between the Scouts of the old, and perhaps the Scouts of the future as well, under the aegis of Polaris. It makes for a comfortable ride with chopper motorcycle seats. Though it is not really a daily driver, you can make it so for the sheer pleasure of riding a double-seat motorcycle that has a legacy and a bright future.