![]() Like the new H-D Sportster S, you’re motoring at a reasonably brisk pace when the Rogue feelers signal, but the pegs do of course fold, and gauging how much farther you can lean before something solid contacts the road is up to viewer discretion: I never found out. Like any cruiser, the footpeg feelers will let you know when doom is impending from either side, but lately cruiser manufacturers seem to have been paying a little more attention to the sporting side of things too. ![]() The forwardish footpegs make decent highway ones if your legs are about 30 inches like mine. ![]() Even if you set out with the intention to enjoy the scents of the orange blossoms and wildflowers while trying to get your chakra aligned on a leisurely cruise, that’s all out the window as soon as some punk starts throwing footpeg sparks in your face. I could be wrong in thinking the vast majority of buyers of cruisers don’t much care about how we do it in California, but that didn’t stop us from testing the Rogue like we test every bike. The overall diameter of the new 19-in and the preexisting 16-in tire, we’re told, is the same the only difference is that the new wheel/tire combination takes about 1.5 pounds out of the spinning, unsprung equation (and the fork tube spacing and axle are even the same, which means you can swap 19 for 16 at will). Going into it, the claim was that the new non-fatty tire up front was going to lead to quicker, more nimble handling – and I can’t argue that’s not the case. If somebody introduced a new dump truck on that sinuous piece of pavement art over the coastal mountains, you’d love the dump truck too – especially since the whole road was freshly repaved not long ago. Indian chose to hold the press ride in Ventura, California, which allowed me a nice relaxing Amtrak ride up the coast, and gave all of us a nice blast up and down California’s excellent Highway 33 the next day. The big-engine Rogue carries an $11,499 sticker. Harley’s cheapest new Sportster carries an $11,299 price tag Indian will still fix you up with a Scout Bobber Sixty for $9,499, or the new Sixty Rogue for $500 more. You can actually flip those mirrors side to side, and on top for a better view to the rear. Yes there’s a left side, and on it there’s a nice low-maintenance belt drive. Out back, the 16 x 3.5 in wheel and 150/80-16 tire remain undisturbed. It’s a Rogue because it’s got a lot of blacked-out components, but mostly because a 19 x 3.5-inch front wheel and 130/60-19 Metzeler Cruisetec tire replaces the 16 x 3.5 inch front wheel and 130/90-16 front tire of the other Scouts. Swapping different components on the same motorcycle is a time-honored way to keep things fresh, and so here we arrive at the third or fourth Scout, in the wheeltracks of Scout Sixty, Scout Bobber… behold Scout Rogue. Also, Indian’s success following Victory’s failure might have even caused the Japanese to ponder, what’s in a name? A lot, apparently. We named the all-new Scout our Motorcycle of the Year in 2015, and the pressure that bike put on Harley-Davidson couldn’t have gone unnoticed when it was time for the new Sportsters just now rolling out. But all of us are willing to play along to keep this most excellent ball rolling, and the fact is the modern cruiser is a far more engaging thing to ride than most earlier efforts. You may be shocked to learn that most of us, truth be told, aren’t the biggest cruiser fans either.
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