John Lindberg
SMC Huntsville
I’ve been hooked on motorcycles since my Honda Trail 70 in the late 1960’s. I’ve been through several, Harleys, Hondas, BMWs, and one Kawasaki. My interest has gravitated to older, simpler machines. I previously owned a 1939 Harley UL, and a 1956 BMW R50. The Harley was a barn find back in 1987. I stumbled onto it at Motorcycle Classics in Huntsville, AL. Gordon Barbee, the owner, was a wealth of knowledge, and spent many hours answering my questions about the treasures in his shop. I remember being amazed the first time I saw the finely machined linkages and U-joints on an early Indian. That flathead came home with me, accompanied by several spare parts, HD tools, and a police siren. Unfortunately, a layoff forced me to sell her - a decision I still regret. I hope she’s on the road somewhere. The BMW was very refined and a great ride. My son Alex and I enjoyed working on it together, and his dream was to attend community college to become a car mechanic. Alex died at age 16, and I lost my interest in working on the R50. It too has found a new home.
I devoured a copy of Harry Sucher’s “Iron Redskin” many years ago and was always enamored of the 101 Scout. The look, the simplicity, the rarity, and the famous ride quality made it seem like the pinnacle of the Indian lineup in my eyes. I could never afford one back then, but times change. My search for a 101 Scout turned up a lead in Kentucky - only 350 miles away. The ad had only a few dark cellphone photos, but it was enough to show that this was a fairly complete motorcycle. A phone call to the owner revealed that Mr. C was an avid collector with a stable of Indian Fours and other rare examples. His death three years ago left Mrs. C with several shops and buildings full of equipment, parts, and motorcycles to sell. I drove up that weekend with an empty trailer in tow. Mrs. C was a gracious host, allowing me to look the motorcycle over thoroughly and answered my many questions. Mr. C had started on a restoration of the Scout, and it was still on the lift in his garage. A new battery box had been installed, and the generator & brackets, headlight & brackets, muffler, horn, and air cleaner were missing. Mrs. C relayed that the motorcycle had been started and ridden about 5 years ago.
We agreed on (her) price. Mrs. C was deeply involved in the hobby with her husband and knew the value of the Scout. In briefly looking around the garage, we located the headlight & brackets, generator, and Klaxon horn. Mrs. C is having a friend help go through the garage this summer and I’m hoping my muffler, air cleaner, and generator mount & belt guard show up (still hoping as of this date…). Mrs. C also included a copy of the 101 Association’s Shop Manual which has become my new favorite reading material.
The Scout sat in my garage, awaiting my retirement, and a decision about how to proceed. I smiled every time I saw it sitting there. I did a good visual survey of the condition. Everything looked straight and complete. The tank and fenders had obviously been repainted a nice bright red, the sticker on the side of the tank had disintegrated. The tank was solid and had some old oil and gas inside. The hand oil pump leathers were shot and the tube from the pump to the engine had been cut & sealed. Nothing was attached to the compression release. Wires were dangling, etc. Engine number is DGP 3335. The two photos below show the condition of the bike as I purchased it.
When the COVID-19 mess arrived, I found myself working from home with extra time on my hands. I decided it would be a good time to start rebuilding the Scout. I disassembled everything, taking careful notes and photos. I decided to remove the patina - remove the layers of grease and dirt - which turned out to be the right decision. I found a lot of “tractor mechanic” repairs, including stacks of washers to make up for correct spacing, more square nuts than I could count (which I am retaining where possible), and several broken parts and poorly-assembled parts (cotter pins without washers underneath them, too-short/too-long bolts, etc.). A couple of my favorite discoveries included an bolt twisted off in the case - another bolt was passed through the primary cover with no thread engagement - held in place with silicone, and a substantial length of fence wire wrapped around the rear hub.
I took the bike completely apart, stopping when I had a set of cases with rods sticking out of them. In June I took a road trip to Torrington, CT to meet up with Tim Raindle, who took over for George Yarocki - the 101 Scout Guru. Tim and I finished disassembling the lower end, and took inventory of the other motor components. Luckily, most everything was in good enough shape to be re-used. Tim is having the baffles welded back into place - they were removed by some previous owner - and is having one of the magneto mounts re-welded - a victim of an earlier crash that is also evidenced by some frame repairs. While in CT I saw photos of SMC-member Doug Jones on the wall from when he and George rebuild his ‘29 Scout. I also learned that my motor is a ‘28 in a later frame with even later handlebars. No surprises to find that a 90 year-old motorcycle has been modified along the way. I was also able to visit 101 suppliers Randy Walker and Kent Thompson and acquire some of the missing pieces I needed.
Since that trip, I have sent the magneto off to Mark’s in CT to be rebuilt, the Linkert M7 body is currently at “Into the Wilderness” having new throttle shaft bushings pressed into place, the petcock has been rebuilt by Conrad Lytle, and the seat has been recovered by Heather’s Leathers.
I am slowly starting to reassemble the pieces. As you can see from (photos #4 and #5), she’s back on two wheels. A lot of parts are temporarily installed as I make sure everything fits together. I have a list of “puzzles” in my notebook that I’m still working to resolve. Hopefully I will be heading back to CT in the not-too-distant future with my rolling chassis to reinstall the engine and make the adjustments and connections to get her back on the road.
I’ll send out an invitation for a “tech-day” at my place in Huntsville when she’s ready to be started and test-ridden. Hope you can join me for that event.
5/11/22
Time for an update on my (slow) progress. Thanks for the reminder, Erik. I continue to enjoy learning about my Scout and working to get her closer to road-ready. In May ‘21 I trucked her back to Tim’s shop in Torrington, CT. The welding of the cases (replacing baffles and fixing a broken mounting tab) was successful. Peter Talabach at Mohawk Garage did the welding, and my understanding is that the early Indian cases are a real metallurgical challenge. Tim and I spent just short of 2 weeks assembling the motor and transmission. He’s very methodical, and I learned a lot just watching him. I was very pleased with the care he took and the patience he had. Most of the interior components are new - crank, rods, pistons, etc. We re-used some items where they were in good shape, and fabricated a lot of spacers and bits to get everything aligned properly. By that time I had the Splitdorf magneto and Linkert M7 (an aftermarket upgrade for the Schebler) ready to go. By the time I left CT we had the motor running on the test stand. Really sounded good with no exhaust headers in place. We also spent some time verifying the integrity of the frame. Turns out what I thought was accident damage was simply a sloppy job of somebody removing the brazed-on footbrake pedal bracket. Tim and I reinstalled the motor and transmission in the frame, forklifted it out of his second story shop, and I was headed back home.
I made another parts run to visit Kent Thompson in NH. He’s been an outstanding help in sourcing parts, including hard-to-find items like the OEM cams we installed. Kent set me up with the last available (repro) exhaust system and a bunch of nice bits and pieces - most importantly a bolt-on footbrake pedal bracket to replace my missing brazed-on one. I also ran by Jim Garripoli’s house in NJ and picked up the last set of crash guards he made.
Since I’ve had the Scout back home, progress was temporarily interrupted by another project that showed up (1966 BMW R60/2). Some aspects of the Scout have been very easy - installing the crash guards took maybe 30 minutes. Some have been significant challenges. Getting the hand controls to work smoothly took a lot of time. I finally figured out that the spirals and blocks were too worn to be reused. Repro spirals and blocks from Kent solved that problem, referring to photos of Doug Jones’ Scout revealed parts I didn’t know I needed. Lots of small details have slowly come together. I was very pleased to find that my gas tank with internal oil tank was leak-free. Roy Chapman has provided valuable machining expertise, fabricating a bolt for my footbrake pedal, arcing the pads on my brake shoes, and fabricating screws for my carb mount.
Once I got the fuel and oil lines installed, first start was on 20 Nov 2021. Started right up, idled happily, ran right along in 1st gear on the rear stand. No fires, I was happy. First ride was last Thursday, May 5th. Didn’t go far or fast, but I rode around my neighborhood a bit, figuring out the left hand throttle, right hand spark control and shift, and heel-to-go left foot clutch. Managed to make it home with no parts missing. I made some carb adjustments and took her out again this week, managing to run through all the gears and verify that my rear brake still isn’t adjusted properly. Fortunately the front brake works (kind of…). Given the brake situation and the fact that I have no lights, I decided to put her back on the stand for a while. The exhaust system, chainguard, and rear brake are my next challenges. I’m close on the exhaust system (that missing brake bracket was one of the mounting points), and the rear external brake band adjustment is a bit fiddly. I’ve got two chainguards - a 2-piece original from Kent and the 1-piece original from my bike. Not much real estate available between the chainguard and the rear header, so once I’m ready to pull the rear wheel, I’ll play around with that. Next up will be installation of the electrics. I’m going to run lights from a battery and not try to get the Splitdorf generator rebuilt. Then I hope to be test-riding again, getting the carb and oil pump dialed in.
It’s been a great experience over the three years I’ve owned her, and I’m looking forward to bringing her to one of our gatherings for you to see.
