How Indian Makes 43% More Power than Harley-Davidson

Do you know how to go faster? Think slowly. Think about Harley Davidson. This one displaces 1.2 litres, costs $13,000, and dynos at 58 freedom power. Then think about Indian Scout Bobber. Same, same, same, but 83 horsepower. There's one place Indian can find a 43% gain, one time. It's the turn of the century, and lubrication science is...inexact. Riders are told to grab a crude quart of whatever the five and dime is selling, squirt it into their engines, wait until much of the oil leaks back out, then repeat. Total loss lubrication is the norm until 1936, hence the old truism if it ain't leaking oil, it's out of oil. And hence, engines typically turn slow. Otherwise you risk flinging too much lubricant away and seizing before the next squirt. So how do we get power out of a slow engine? Well horsepower is torque times RPM over 5252, so if we can't raise RPM, we need to raise torque. Consider a fat piston. Our explosion takes a while to exert its force across the piston head, so that hit of torque is spread thin. And for a given displacement, a fat bore means a short stroke, so our weak force is operating on a stubby little lever. Hmm, what a chode. But with a tall, narrow cylinder, our explosion instantly exerts its force across the full piston head, and a longer stroke means a longer crankshaft radius. So more force transmitted through a more effective lever results in more torque. This is why old-fashioned engines tend to be tall. Their long stroke allows for decent power while keeping RPM low. Nowadays, lubrication and machining have significantly advanced. Why chase a few torques when you can just add a few thousand RPM? That's an easier way to find power when we can throw pistons as fast as we want without melting them. Of course, fire only moves as fast as it wants, which is a problem for our tall cylinders. See, the piston in an undersquare motor has to travel further, and therefore faster, per revolution. At high RPM, such a piston will actually start to outrun the expanding fireball, and this is why if you've ever revved up a tall V-twin, it starts to feel like it's running out of legs. The solution, gentlemen? Choose the chode. Even at high RPM, the piston needn't move that fast or far, meaning it's always there near top dead center to feel the force of combustion. And if our oversquare motor can hit higher revolutions per minute while feeling more torque at those speeds, then congratulations, we just found the modern way to make power. Indian knows this. But of course Harley does too. The difference lies between knowing the way forward and being able to move in that direction. See, our oversquare motor spins so fast you need overhead cams to open and close the valves. You can't use pushrod actuators, they're heavy, and heavy things don't like to change direction quickly, so they fail to keep up with engine speed and float their tappets behind the cams. But Harley-Davidson's must have pushrods on the side of their motors. Two extra penises per cylinder. It's iconic. And if you think that's a hard sell, then remember how your engine is hottest here, where combustion happens, and here, where combustion acts. It's the cylinder walls that are comparatively cool. So in an oversquare engine, less gas gets to shed heat, and it takes more time to do it. Meaning we have to compensate with better cooling, liquid cooling. But Harley-Davidson's must have air cooling fins. It's iconic. And there, we've reached the place where nostalgia pushes back on ability. If the branding department says we must have air cooling, then it helps to have a schlong cylinder surface area. And the dick jokes are just that. Jokes. The truth is that we can barely blame Harley for pushing vintage motors. They tried the other way, and few bought it. The Harley-Davidson V-Rod! So when the branding department says we must have push rods, then it is what it is. Which is the turn of the century problem all over again. RPM is capped. So a long crankshaft radius exerting high torque is the next best way to make power. That is why Harleys are undersquare and underpowered. And that is how Indian, by daring to build a motor that looks modern, can have an oversquare overhead cam liquid-cooled engine revved to 8,300 RPM and make 43% more power. It's an addictively satisfying motor. The Scout goes like a V-Rod, has the finish quality of a Dyna, and is priced like a Sportster. I could throw down that Indian succeeds where Harley fails. But I need to think slowly. To think back. Back to the original Scout. How low bikes once were. How front and rear tires were once the same size because no one bothered to manufacture differently. Turning agility and available lean angle weren't the markers of performance back then. Because the board track leaned with you. Of course, now it's rather backwards to put a flat-footed rear tire on the front. Just as it's antiquated to build a bike so low. Yet here we are. Because it's iconic. I find Indian guilty of Harley's crime. I'm sure the motor is pure engineering, but they sacrificed a heritage all around it. Most frustratingly, the transmission. It's geared like a board tracker, so you almost never get out a second. I can hardly benefit from 8,300 RPM if I only hit the rev limiter at 130 kilometers an hour. A purer bruiser cruiser would have a narrower front tire, taller than two inches of rear suspension, and shorter gearing. That ain't a wish list. That bike exists. We're not about history or legacy. Victory is very new and we can take it where we want it to go. It gives us freedom. Well, that bike used to exist anyway. Polaris produced the Victory Octane for all of one year before abandoning the innovative brand. Why? Because it failed to capture the nostalgia buyer that Indian could. We're a fickle customer in North America. We want steps forward, but we want them to move us closer to where we started. Maybe the Scout is as near as we'll get to solving that paradox. It is a compromised bike, but a mostly brilliant one. I mean, even if Indian could go back, how would they sell innovation better? Maybe invest millions developing a dominant machine just for competition use, just to remind everyone of their performance pedigree, just to preface their entry into a sporting market? And that's about the only way I can imagine a classic brand causing a pure revelation while seeming to return to its roots. Now that'd be a bright sleight of hand. Can you hear my heart cry out loud?