Indian Motorcycle has shown off its latest Forged build from Roland Sands Design (RSD) and on its brand new 2025 Scout. In this episode, together with Aaron Boss, they present the bike to its new owner, Joshua Dundrummer for the American band Twenty One Pilots.
This is the first of three builds from renowned manufacturers designing unique custom motorcycles around the new Indian Scout. Indian Scout RSD It’s a testament to what Roland Sands Design does best: taking cruisers and turning them into high-performance motorcycles.
Indian Scout Roland Sands Design (RSD) in detail
“What makes an RSD bike unique is taking a machine and elevating it. We’ve always taken cruisers and turned them into sportbikes. This bike has that RSD silhouette, but the coolest thing was how easy it was to make the new Scout fit the RSD mold.”said Roland Sands.
Each Forged design is inspired by a historical figure, machine or era of inspiration drawn from the Scout model’s 100+ year history. Roland Sands Design quickly selected Ed “Iron Man” Kretz as inspiration for his design. With his never-say-die attitude that earned him his nickname, and as the builder of many of Indian Motorcycle’s high-performance race bikes, the team at Roland Sands Design felt a natural affinity with Kretz.
Bringing the “Iron Man” racing spirit to the 2025 Indian Sport Scout, RSD leveraged its vast experience in preparing Scout and FTR flat track motorcycles to build a high-performance street machine that Kretz would be proud of. To improve ride and handling, the Sport Scout’s front end was adapted and enhanced with FTR front forks and triple clamps.
High performance braking equipment has been achieved with the installation of a double front disc and brake calipers Brembo radially mounted. Similarly, the rear end was modified to accept an FTR swingarm coupled to shock absorbers Indian piggyback and a Brembo rear caliper. On the other hand, the Scout RSD now rests on 17-inch wheels shod with rubber Dunlop Sportmax Q5s more adherent, allowing the full potential of the improvements to be exploited.
Aaron Boss said: “From there, it’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that, like modifying the front fairing to hook up to the new forks and modifying the stock foot controls for a more streetbike-like riding position. With the engine already tuned from the factory, I fabricated a completely custom titanium exhaust, and the base of the tail was RSD’s original flat track tail design for the previous-generation Scouts. But we’ve improved it with new sidewalls and a tire guard under the tail.”
Finished off with a custom Saddlemen seat and black and yellow colour scheme, it was a final touch dedicated to Ed Kretz. From beneath the tail, the image of Sylvester, the cat the crew found in Kretz’s business card archives during the series’ first episode, stares down defiantly. Relatively new to the world of motorcycles, Dun had previously ridden an FTR and had chosen a Scout Bobber for his first bike.
“When I first walked into that motorcycle shop, I felt like I was on a blank canvas. I asked myself what my style was, what I liked. So I looked around and decided on two bobber-style bikes. In the end, I said to myself: it has to be the Indian Scout.” Dun comments.
Upon first seeing the Scout prepared by Roland Sands Design, Josh Dun was immediately impressed.Wow. This thing is perfect. The colors are perfect. This all makes sense. And I think my intuition was right, you know, the brand and the people behind Indian Motorcycle are a great bunch of people.”.
For his part, Boss added: “The reason I build bikes is to get other people excited. And he came in and his jaw dropped. He stopped for a second, speechless. That’s when you know you’ve got it and he’s excited about it.” Sands also comments: “It’s a bike that I would personally own 100%.” How do you design a bike that makes you feel like a tough guy? I think that’s the formula.”
Indian Scout Roland Sands Design (RSD) Specifications
Among other modifications, the Indian Scout that stars in the latest episode of the Forged series is equipped with:
- Modified custom RSD tail section
- Saddlemen’s Seat
- Scout Bobber Body
- Upper fairing modified to fit an FTR fork
- Custom RSD exhaust built in stainless steel with SC Projects muffler
- Front calipers FTR 1200
- Scout 101 rear shock absorber
- Brembo front disc for FTR
- Front calipers FTR 1200
- Scout switches
- Stock Scout Headlight
- Dunlop Q5S Tires
- RSD Graphics Design executed by Air Trix
- Brembo radial mounts for FTR 1200, etc.
The final two episodes of the Forged video series will reveal the finished creations of Brittney Olsen and Ronna Norén. More information on the official Indian Motorcycle YouTube channel.
