Super Scout

SUPER SCOUT

American FLYERS

Engineered Indian

TO SAY THAT BOB-JOBS of the 1940s were pathfinders and style-setters for the current chopper movement is only about half-right. Fact is, bobber pilots were the hotshot street riders of the day, apex artists and performance nuts who put function way ahead of form. Today, you’d find them aboard streetfighters and supermotos, not cruisers and customs.

Have a look at this 1940 Sport Scout, done up in typical California bobber regalia by John Bivens of Indian Engineering Restoration & Repair (714/826-9225). By design it looks very similar to the strippeddown Class C racebikes of the era, but running a headlight instead of a numberplate. Bivens also built a “cheater” motor, stroked from the stock 45 cubic inches to a healthier-sounding 57 cubes, or 934cc. Some hard-charging bob-job riders went as far as fitting a four-speed, foot-change gearbox from a BSA or some other Britbike, but this one retains the more usual “suicide” foot clutch (lose your balance at a stoplight, shoot out into traffic) and three-speed, hand-shift tranny.

Bivens’ usual fare is restoration of high-point Chiefs that usually cop Best-o f-Showhardwa re at various concours d’elegance, but he loves the chance to ad lib, so when long-time customer Steve Clearman called to commission a bob-job, Biv was ready.

“The nice thing about a bob-job is that you don’t have to stick to the factory’s script,” he says. “It's left to your interpretation; you have artistic license -like jazz or free-verse poetry or improvisational theater.”

And the circus paint scheme topped by a skulland-crossed-wrenches design as seen by artist Edvard Munch perhaps?

“No, it’s actually taken from a ‘Munsters’TV episode,” says Bivens, a child of the Sixties. “Herman joined the Punk Rods M/C and that was the logo on the back of his jacket.”

Definitely not a factory option. David Edwards

David Edwards