Ryan's 1931 Indian Scout PROJECT

"The style the bike was in could be called a 70s style 'Easy Rider'," Ryan said, referring to the chopper-influenced styling of the bike. Looking at pictures of the bike when it was featured in a 70s Swedish motorcycle magazine, there is certainly a bit of 'Billy Bike' style about it. The heading for the article 'Annorlunda Veteran' (different veteran) was very appropriate, as the Indian certainly had a lot of unusual styling touches on it, including a two-up seat and custom headlight and instrument panel surrounds.

Ryan explained that the previous owner modified the Indian here, took it with him to Sweden, then brought the bike back when he returned to Australia. The chopper styling wasn't to Ryan's taste, so he decided to restore the now very tired modified Indian as close to C1931 factory specification as possible. But that presented its own challenges.

"The hardest part of the build was finding information from people about what was meant to be correct, and if I changed things on the bike, if it was going to work," Ryan said. "While I know of a few Indian 101s in Queensland, there are no 1931 model 101s here that I'm aware of."

"There had been a few changes to the bike from original specification, starting with the engine," Ryan said, going on to explain some of the unusual mechanical alterations made before he got it. "The bike had been stroked using a Harley-Davidson sportster bottom end, but the original 101 pistons were kept."

Another unusual touch is the Amal carburettor, something most of us associate with BSAs and Nortons, not Indians! A quirky feature for sure, but Ryan decided to keep it, along with the mix-n-match engine parts and existing generator, adding new heads, a new set of cloth-wrapped plug leads and new wiring loom.

While the engine was salvageable, the same couldn't be said for the bodywork. The previous custom touches and the ravages of time meant that most of the tinware needed replacing, and Ryan found a great source for new metal in an unusual place.

"Most of the parts for the body work were purchased from 'Reno Indian' in the Czech Republic," Ryan explained. "This may seem an odd choice for reproduction and NOS Indian parts, but I found them to be great and thoroughly recommend anyone wanting to restore an Indian to check them out.

"The new parts I sourced through Reno Indian included: rear guard; chain guard; seat bracket and stays; instrument panel; tank; running boards; handlebars; levers; gear shifter; tail light; battery box; exhaust; and numerous cables."

While waiting for parts to arrive, Ryan stripped the Scout down, then ground off the unusual speedo and oil pressure gauge holder that had been welded to the frame. The frame proved to be solid, as was the front suspension. This leaf spring front suspension had been chromed, but was stripped and painted black for the resto, with the chopper-style 'Z' bars replaced with period correct units. When the replacement exhaust system arrived from Reno Indian, it was ceramic coated in matt black, too, in accordance with factory appearance.


After spending many, many evenings tinkering with the bike while waiting for parts, the arrival of all the tinware presented Ryan with his next challenge - what colour to paint his Scout.

"It was a tough decision," Ryan said. "There were only 3 different factory options in 1931: black and cream; black and red; and blue."

Ultimately selecting black and cream, Ryan had the bike repainted in 2 pac, with the tank transfers and gold pinstriping reproduced by the painter, too. At this point, Ryan deviated a little from his back-to-stock ethos for the project.

"The rims on the bike, as I got it, had been stripped of paint, and polished," Ryan explained. "This obviously wasn't C1931 specification! However, they looked good in their polished state, so I decided to leave them untouched."

Picking up on the headlight trim, hand shifter and a few other chrome touches, the polished rims certainly don't look out of place on the finished bike. Ryan reckons they're a good complement to the black and cream. With everything painted and assembled, Ryan then spent two days just cleaning the bike, and the time and attention to detail paid off.

With the rebuild taking 14 months, Ryan said the time, effort and expense was certainly worth it, although he conceded the finished Indian did take time to learn how to ride properly.

"The left hand throttle and right side hand shift gear change took some getting used to! So, for the first few rides, it was only short runs to the shop and round the block to get my head around the "wrong" position of the controls," Ryan explained.

With the Indian complete, Ryan has now turned his attention to a Suzuki GS1000, which he's converting to a café racer. Ryan's actually had this one for a while, and was inspired by the article on Anthony Wight's 1980 GS1000S Wes Cooley replica (in the August 2012 JUST BIKES) to pull the ol' girl out and start work on her. If it turns out as sweet as the Indian, which we're confident it will, this project is one we'll look forward to seeing.