Indian Scout Vs Indian Scout Sixty on the Dyno!

John Burns
by John Burns

How much difference is there really...?

You’ll remember we, okay I, first rode Indian’s new Scout Sixty last November, where we laid out the differences between it and the regular Scout. Besides a substantial reduction in price to $8,999 and the doing-away with of fifth gear, the Sixty gets, “a simple sleeving down of the bike’s excellent liquid-cooled 60-degree V-Twin, from 1133cc to 999cc (69 to 61 cubic inches)… accomplished with 6mm slimmer bores, down from 99 to 93mm diameter. Stroke remains 73.6mm, meaning this is still an oversquare Twin that doesn’t mind using its 4-valve DOHC heads to rev smack into the 8200-rpm limiter now and then if you so desire. Compression ratio for the smaller engine is a bit higher; up to 11:1 from the 10.7:1 of the 1133cc version.”

Indian claimed 100 crankshaft horsepower for the big Scout; the dyno said 83 at the rear wheel. For the Sixty, Indian said 78 and the dyno reads 69. With cruisers, though, it’s all about the torque. In November I wrote, “the Sixty feels pretty spunky when you give it a big handful. In fact, it doesn’t seem that much slower than the big Scout…” That’s because it only makes a scant 3.1 lb-ft of torque less than the 1133cc engine at low rpm, and runs that close to the bigger engine all the way to almost 6000 rpm. After 6000, the big motor takes off and makes 14 hp more before its 7800-rpm redline.

Hmmm, you’d really expect the bigger engine to make quite a bit more torque via its extra 134cc, but it barely does. Past 6000 rpm, the small engine really tails off, which is another thing you wouldn’t expect given its higher compression and higher redline, and given that both engines inhale through the same 60mm throttle body and the same heads. The Sixty also appears to use the same diameter exhaust headers as the 69-incher.

Can you tell which Scout is which?

Given the nearly identical curves below 6000 rpm, it looks like they even use the same camshafts, which leads us to believe the only difference must be in the ECU tuning: It looks like Indian just dialled back the Sixty’s power output from 6000 revs to its 8200-rpm redline, via giving it less fuel, less ignition advance or a combination of those. Which means it should be pretty easy to modify via a simple reflash. Which, if true, means $8,999 is a better bargain than we thought.

Stay tuned for a comparison of the Scout Sixty vs. Harley-Davidson’s Iron 883 soon.

John Burns
John Burns

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  • Ian Parkes Ian Parkes on May 29, 2016

    If you want an old-fashioned bike I think this does it well and the frame is pretty trick and thoughtful - so that answers the question why not just buy an old bike? It's got American heritage credentials and some scarcity value. Better to be an Indian rider than one of the herd.

  • Johnbutnotforgotten Johnbutnotforgotten on Aug 23, 2016

    I'll always prefer a 69 (and it cums with ABS).
    Seriously though, like many, i don't see the point of two engines that close in size. They have to cost almost the same to produce in non abs form and weigh almost the same so it's an answer to a question i dont think anyone asked (now a real Scout 45 i can see)

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