What if I told you there is a girl I know who could whoop your arse around a corner? What if I told you it was entirely possible to take an American cruiser, and tune it to produce a 1:1 power to weight ratio?
Don’t believe me? The mad geniuses at Swiss custom shop Young Guns Speed Shop did it to a 2016 Indian Scout cruiser. More telling, German ex-250 GP racer Katja Poensgens rode the Scout – dubbed “Miracle Mike” – to a top place finish at the Punk’s Peak race, held during Wheels and Waves in Biarritz, France.
Young Guns is the brainchild of Fabian Witzig and Nik Heer of Switzerland, who took the 100 hp and 97.7 Nm torque, 1,130 cc, liquid-cooled V-twin from an Indian Scout and tuned it to run in Punk’s Peak. The engine was removed from the Scout, and sent to tuning house Swissauto, with the brief being that the engine should keep up with modern 200 hp superbikes.
Adding nitrous into the mix, the mill was then modded to produce 185 hp at the back wheel, or an estimated 200 hp at the crank. With the engine work taken care of, Miracle Mike was then put on a severe weight loss regime, ending up 50 kg lighter, for an all-up weight of 198 kg.
The standard Indian Scout fuel tank was gutted, and replaced with a narrower custom alloy clone to house the electronics and wiring loom, while the fuel tank was relocated to below the seat and nearer the back wheel, to lower the bike’s centre of gravity. The rear sub-frame was replaced with a custom fabricated piece designed after a KTM dirt bike.
A custom exhaust system was fabricated, and mated to an Akrapovic exhaust end-can to make the proper sounds. Ohlins suspension front and rear was also installed, all the better to go round corners with reports pipeburn.com.
Unsprung weight at the back end was reduced with the stock Indian Scout rear hub laced to a lightweight Excel Supermoto rim. Up top, the Ohlins front forks were fitted to a modified LSL upper triple tree, with LSL handlebars fitted.
Since the Indian parts catalogue is not exactly designed with an eye to racing, Young Guns fabricated their own rear-sets, which drives an electronic quickshifter. Metzeler Racetec rubber was also fitted, with the front wheel taken off a BMW Motorrad R NineT.
So, who says American cruisers can’t race? With the demise of Victory Motorcycles, and sadly never getting the chance to turn a wheel in anger on the Victory Octane, we hope someone in Polaris headquarters is reading this, because a balls-out, 200 hp, flat-track style American motorcycle that can blitz proper sportsbikes would be, simply put, amazing.
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Holy cow 200hp!