The team took a stock Scout off the showroom floor to start the build. “We designed and built an Indian flat track bike before the FTR program was even in the works at Indian,” Schopf said. “At the time this bike was built (during the winter of 2015-2016) this idea (building a flat track Indian bike) was ahead of the curve.” And the bike is a true custom piece. All the major changes the stock Scout required to get correct flat track look and performance were done in-house at the shop. One of the first goals was getting the stance and ground clearance correct for flat track racing. The front end of the bike features a set of modified triple trees from a Buell Ulysses. This lowered the front end approximately 3” for a more aggressive stance. The bike rides on 19” wheels from Performance Machine. “The 19” wheel size is what is correct for flat track racing,” Schopf said. “And getting the wheels to work was a huge hill to climb for the build. Everything needed to get the wheels to match up to the chassis had to be hand-fabricated – hubs, brackets, spacers, etc. It was all hand-done.” The rear of the bike is set up with 15” long shocks. This change You will be forgiven for thinking this year’s Indian catalog cover bike is a modified FTR1200. But it is not. This flat track motorcycle work of art actually pre-dates the factory Indian FTR model by a few years. It is the creative work of the team at 2 Boss Performance, an independent motorcycle speed/tuning performance center located at (but separate from) Indian Motorcycle of Metro Milwaukee. The shop was started by Rob Schopf in 2012. Schopf is a master technician and engine builder with more than three decades of award-winning experience working with American V-Twin motorcycles – including winning the AHDRA Wrench of the Year title in 2001 and 2002. The bike was built using a stock 2015 Indian Scout as the starting point. “We had previously built an Indian Scout drag bike,” Schopf said. “And the engine proved to be just bulletproof. We even had a nitrous oxide (NOS) spray in that motor and it just kept running terrific.” Seeing the performance potential in the Scout drag bike engine sparked the idea for this build. “We thought hey, let’s build a true flat track race bike,” Schopf said. ON THE COVER Indian Scout Flat Track Custom
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