Have the pump back on and ran the scout around a 5 mile loop a few times this weekend to dial it in. Have it pretty close but will probably need a few more rides in the 20 or so mile range to get it closer.

Unfortunately I did not completely stop the leak. Slowed it way down but it is still there. I may take it back off and attempt the seal again. I was very easy with the sealant that I used. I think I just need to be a bit more liberal and I can get it there.

Also noticed that I am getting some oil running down from the generator pulley tower. I have seen other 101 scout owners complain about that area leaking so I know it’s a finicky place to seal up. After loosening all the bolts and screws and re tightening in the logical order it slowed down some but is still weeping some oil.

It’s good enough for now but I will have to dive into this a bit at some point. I would like to have it tightened up as much as possible before taking her to Laconia this June.

I unfortunately have not had lots of free time to ride the scout much this summer. Life has a way of getting in the way of things. Over the last few rides I am having to remove more and more oil from the crank case. I thought I had the oil pump dialed in closer than this. On one of my rides I was with Tim Raindle, President of the 101 association, and he reminded me of the break in period and how it effects the oil consumption. Just another thing confirming that this is not a hobby for someone who does not want to tinker.

This past weekend was the Simsbury Fly In and car show. It was an incredible turnout with over 700 cars/motorcycles, lots of planes and a crowd estimated at nearly 20,000! There were model t’s to modern corvettes. Austin-Healys to 69 Camaros. Even a group of jeeps that were done up just like the Jurassic park vehicles! It was an amazing show and I highly recommend it for anyone who likes cars and or planes. The scout was popular with a crowd gathered around it the entire day! It even won again! So far she is two for two in wins to shows. Unfortunately the rain came in just before 2 and there was a mass exodus from the airport.

We rode in early that day and the air was crisp and cool. The scout loved it and ran wonderfully. My girlfriend rode, and showed, her Indian Chieftain. It was fun having something Old original Indian sitting right next to the modern version of the brand. Lots of people liked seeing that. Unfortunately I was busy talking about the scout with viewers and enjoying looking at all the vehicles I did not take nearly enough pictures. Here are a few I did take. The T-6 Texan was giving rides. That plane sounded incredible when it ran up to full power. You could feel it in your gut!

I know that these pictures are way down at the bottom of this blog but I just wanted to put the before and after side by side.

The Hilltop farm in Suffield had their 2nd annual car and motorcycle show a few weekends ago. This farm is special to Indian motorcycles as this farm was once owned by Indian motorcycle founder George Hendee. It was an absolute beautiful day for the show. There was pretty good turnout for both cars and motorcycles. Fellow 101 association member Rockwell Rookey was there with his 1929 101 scout (beautiful bike Rock!) and there was also a 1913 Indian single that was all original. Not sure who that one belonged to. Other than those there was a modern Indian Chieftain dark horse. All in all Indian had an ok showing. There were some beautifully restored cars also in attendance. If anyone is in the area next year I recommend stopping by. There is also a nice creamery on sight with some pretty tasty ice cream. 🙂

This would be the first time showing the bike at an event. I knew I was going to want to have a popup, chairs and a cooler there with me so unfortunately I was going to have to trailer the bike. Due to a few last min weekend plan changes, my girlfriend ended up free that morning to drive the suv with those things and I was able to ride the bike to the event! It was a gorgeous ride through Suffield to the farm. When I rode up on the bike I turned some heads and more than a few people expressed surprise that I rode it there instead of trailering it. I did this to have a bike I would ride. I never wanted a trailer queen. Lots of people stoped by to see the bike and it was allot of fun talking about it and the restoration process. Here are a few pictures from the event. Oh, I almost forgot. My bike won best of show for the motorcycles!

Got the last few things done on the Scout. Kickstand, generator, tool box and final touches on the electrical. Here are some pictures of it during that time. The clutch feels really good now. Good positive controlled engagement. After all my playing with springs and adjustments at the control arm I ended up at almost exactly the setup I stated with. I think the new clutch plates just needed a little break-in. It is sooooo much fun to ride. It is amazing how well it handles. The breaks are very weak in comparison to a modern motorcycle but they are very predictable so leave a little distance and all is well. I have some new break pads from Walker Machine. I am tempted to try them but there is quite a bit of life on the original ones. I think I will use them up a bit before removing them. They are riveted in place so changing them out is a bit of a process. All in all it came together better than I could have hoped. My grandfather past in 1990 and my dad in 2017. Restoring this bike has made me feel closer to them than I have in a very long time. I hope they would be proud of the outcome. Though my grandfather was all about getting them running and riding and not so much about the shiny bits. I may have to find a ratty mid 40’s chief and get it running like a top but keep it “aged” for him. Maybe the next project. 🙂

I have someone in the family that is big into genealogy. She has automated searches on a bunch of sights that looks for any of the family names. A little wile ago she texted me saying that Greski popped up on e-bay and she though this book was from my grandfather. His name was Leon Greski and he owned an Indian motorcycle dealership in Enfield CT in the 40’s. I jumped on e-bay as soon as she texted me to find a 1941 Indian motorcycle brochure stamped with my grandfathers dealership! Of course I had to have it and purchased it immediately. Now I have to get it framed so it can sit on the shelf next to my other Indian stuff. It came from a collector in Wisconsin. I can’t help to imagine my grandfather handing it to someone back in 41 and how it made its way to Wisconsin. Here are a few pictures of my grandfather, some of his bikes and the brochure. And yes I am the little blond kid riding in the sidecar.

I had a few setbacks wile running the scout in. I learned through the 101 association that it is best practice to snug down the head bolts at 1 min, 1 mile, 5 miles and 20 miles. At that point the heads should be pretty much snugged into the gasket and are usually good to go with minimal fuss after that. Well for some reason two of the head bolts in the front cylinder seized up and they were giving me a false sense of snugness. They felt like they were tightened down because they were stuck. all the others snugged down the tiniest bit with each heat cycle and check. Wouldn’t you know it one of the first longer rides I start hearing a strange sound that turned out to be gasses leaking out due to a blown head gasket.

You can see a little scorched area on the nickel oil line in the first picture. It took some heat and a little persuasion to get this last head bolt out. Once out you can see exactly where it burned through the gasket. It is my thoughts that the freshly nickel plated head bolts were the problem. I chased out the threads in the cylinder with a tap. They were fine. I then ran a die down each head bolt. The amount of metal that was removed was surprising. This was all nickel plating. Unfortunately I did not snap a picture of that. Everything threaded nice a smooth so I cleaned off all of the old gasket misted the new gasket with some permatex and snugged down the head. Ran through the heat cycles and snug down procedure and everything is right and tight.

Not nearly as critical but I was not happy with how the clutch was feeling (new plates) and I also had an oil leak where the worm shaft comes out to the clutch engagement arm. This is a common area of oil leaking but also very easy to fix with a little yamabond. So I did dig back into the primary. The 101 scout has a gear drive primary instead of the more standard chan primary. This is one of the reasons this motor is so strong and where the saying “You can’t wear out and Indian scout” comes from. I tried the clutch with a few less springs but in the end I went back to a full set. The new plates just needed to break in a bit. This is not a hobby for anyone who is averse to grabbing a wrench and getting dirty.

After a bunch of heat cycles to snug down the cylinder heads, checking to make sure nothing was coming loose and dialing in the carb a bit more it was time for the first ride. I learned how to ride on old Indians but it had been 35 or more years sense I last rode foot clutch left hand throttle. 35 years of modern forward controls stood between me and the distant memories of riding those old Indians. I have to admit I was a little nervous.

Danny at Laughing Indian likes to promise a one kick motor on his rebuilds. That seems like a pretty big boast but he still rides these old scouts on the wall of death every summer so who am I to argue? 🙂

I got the motor back from Danny on April 5th of 2021. It was not until a full year later on April 16th 2022 that I had the bike all together enough to kick her over. At this point the carb was only cursory dialed in and I had changed the intake manifold with a spacer to keep the carb a little further away from the cylinders. Long story short, it was not exactly the same way it left Danny down in Florida. There was no way it was going to kick over with just one kick!

Wow! I was blown away.

What did not get recorded in the video were my 2 priming kicks with the carb closed. Those don’t count as that’s just part of getting it ready for the starting kick.