Welcome to the party, pal! When Harley-Davidson launched the new Sportster lineup back in 2021, it brought a big engine and lots of power to the mid-size cruiser game. The Sportster pushes out between 90 and 121 horsepower, while the prior-generation Indian Scout managed just 78 ponies with its inexpensive Sixty line and 100 horses for the full-fat models. With impressive competition from the Bar and Shield, Indian went with a clean sheet design for its new Scout, giving it a fresh chassis, a fresh engine, and fresh styling. Was it worth it? In two words: hell yeah.

Full disclosure: Indian flew me to San Francisco to ride the 2025 Scout lineup. The ride was split into two days with the sport-focused models on one day and the cruiser crowd on the other day. I ate lots of great food and slept in two different hotels with a view of the ocean. I had a great time.

While Harley is still producing just two bikes on the Sportster platform, Indian launched the Scout with five distinct models in two categories. The Bobber, Classic, and Super are style-forward cruisers packed with goodies, and the Sport and 101 are stripped-back machines with a dedication to speed. All five models are based around a new tubular steel frame with alloy subframes and the new SpeedPlus 1250-cc watercooled V-twin engine. The Bobber, Classic, Super, and Sport all get the same 105-hp output, while the 101 is given a slight bump to 111 ponies. Technically, because they’re all built on the same platform, these Scout models are all modular. You can mix and match pretty much any of the parts to make your bike your own. If you want a 101 with a big windshield and bags, you can do that. If you want a full-chrome Classic with mid-controls and bar-end mirrors, you can do that, too.

On the first day of the ride event, which took us from the Golden Gate Bridge to the beach in Santa Cruz, I swapped between Scouts Bobber, Classic, and Super. They’re all variations on a common cruiser theme, and I’ve covered them in a separate piece. The second day was a twist-and-turn blast through the mountain roads inland heading back north to San Francisco. While I had a little bit of time on the Sport, I spent most of my day on the 101, which was totally fine by me.

As good as the Scout Sport is, I was very impressed by the top-of-the-line 101. I’m not sure I really noticed the extra six horsepower of the 101, but there were a ton of other parts that made its $17,000 price tag make sense. You can immediately tell what this bike is about when you look at it. It’s got a techy four-inch round touchscreen digital dash, gold inverted forks and piggyback rear shocks, dual-front Brembo brake components, blacked-out everything, 6-inch bar risers, and a quarter fairing. There’s a lot of throwback SoCal scene going on here, mixed with some quality components. It’s a peg-scraping good time.

At around 550 pounds the 101 Scout isn’t exactly a lightweight, but it’s a full 10 pounds lighter than the outgoing Scout models. The engineers at Indian must have been really keeping track of the ounces and pounds, because the new steel-frame bike is lighter than the old all-aluminum bike. Astounding. All that said, it’s about 10 percent heavier than Harley’s more-powerful Sportster S, which is exactly the same price as the 101 Scout.

After just over 101 miles on the 101 Scout, I was a bit fatigued at the end of the ride, largely due to traffic in the city and fighting the wind on the freeway, but it was the kind of tired you get after having fun all day. The roads were a good mix of tight, technical, flowing and smooth, though a few were a bit less than smooth. With fully-adjustable suspension, the 101’s ride wasn’t bad even on the worst roads California could throw at us. The Scout sits low to the ground with a 26.8-inch seat height and 3 inches of suspension travel. Add in the forward control layout and my big-and-tall frame, and you’ve got a recipe for days of back pain after a few hours in the saddle, but Indian managed to find the right mix of suspension and seat to keep my spine happy.

For me, the biggest upgrade from the Sport to the 101 was found in the braking. The single front rotor on the Sport is adequate, but the sporty-ish Metzeler Cruisetec 19-inch front tires can overwhelm the brakes into the tightest corners. Adding a second front rotor and caliper and upgrading to Brembo hardware really made a noticeable difference in braking character.

When Indian put us on the roads around Alice’s Restaurant, I knew it had to be pretty confident in the Scout’s abilities. They are, without doubt, among the best driving roads in the world. Luckily the bike handled it with aplomb, delivering way more grip than the wide forward control pegs would allow lean angle. I spent most of the day dragging the pegs from corner to corner. Grip is good, braking is good, power is good. It’s a pretty solid package.

Would I buy a 101 Scout over a Harley Sportster S? They’re both 9,500-rpm big-bore V-twins making serious power. The Harley is lighter, but makes do with just one front caliper. The Indian looks cooler with a narrower radiator and low-slung exhaust. The Harley gets better fuel mileage, but the ride is a little abnormal with cartoonish balloon tires, while the 101 Scout has better (and adjustable) suspension. There’s a lot of positives to either, but the Indian is the safe bet.

Indian wasn’t exactly beating around the bush when it launched the new Scout. For decades the mid-size cruiser market has been dominated by Harley’s Sportster, though Indian has grown from just two percent of the segment to 18 percent in the last decade. With the new H-D pushing into a sportier and speedier realm, Indian is aiming for the section of market that Harley recently vacated. It’s a smart move, and the new Scout fits right in.

This will be a successful bike for the brand, I think. The Scout has always been Indian’s sales leader, moving several thousand units annually. It’s instantly obvious to me that the new Scout is miles better than the old Scout, and as a result it should continue Indian’s upward trajectory in the market. If you’re the kind of person who wants a mid-size cruiser with throwback-cool visuals and a sport-focused ride, the 101 is probably the bike you want. If you can’t swing the price tag of the 101, a Sport would probably suffice.