Country Music Star Nikki Lane Takes Delivery of Custom Indian Scout
The bike is the second in its Forged series of custom Scouts and follows the Roland Sands Design-built machine released earlier this year
Vintage motorcycle racer and builder, Brittney Olsen, has just presented her take on the Forged formula, as her Indian Scout build for country music star Nikki Lane is revealed.
Olsen is a champion of female motorcyclists from the pioneer era of powered two-wheelers, and regularly builds, rides, and races machines inspired by the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Her trademark style of custom is the hard-tail board trackers that roamed the USA like a travelling circus in the early days of the internal combustion engine.
That style of bike is what inspired the latest machine in the Forged series of custom bikes announced by Indian Motorcycle, with her particular machine being built for American country music singer and songwriter, Nikki Lane.
Speaking about the bike, Olsen tells how this particular machine was inspired by Cecilia Adams, a trials and off-road racer from the era who also built and rode a custom-built bike featuring an Indian Scout engine and Royal Enfield Frame.
She said “Nikki's Scout is so on point with Cecilia Adams' bike because her bike was fully custom,” said Olsen. “Nikki's bike is fully custom from the front to the back. There wasn't anything we didn't touch. It is 100% representative of the entire movement, not only Cecilia Adams but all the women Sport Scout riders in the 50s.”
Overseeing the three builds in the series is American motorcycle royalty, Roland Sands, who seemed just as pleased with the bike as Olsen did. “I think something that's really cool about this collaboration between Nicki and Brittney is that they’re both just fiends for vintage, antiques, twenties stuff. I don't think that you could have picked a better person for Brittney to build a bike for than Nikki Lane.” He said.
The bike features a host of custom fabricated parts as well as off-the-shelf accessories from the Indian options catalogue. The most interesting feature of the bike, though, is probably the use of genuine 1946 to 1948 Indian Chief springs, shocks and risers on the girder front end and forks of the motorcycle.
Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
