Max Bubeck and his Indian Chout

Max Bubeck started his racing career at the age of 15 in 1933, aboard a 1930 Indian 101 Scout.  Over the next 45+ years, he became a dominate force in enduro racing.  Winning events like the Greenhorn Enduro and the Cactus Derby.  In 1939, he purchased an Indian Four and began dabbling in speed trials.  He rode the Four to a top speed of 108.43 mph in 1941.

By 1948, Bubeck had moved to a new bike for running in speed trials.  It was a hybrid Indian nicknamed a "Chout".  The Chout was set up to run on methanol using dual Schebler barrel valve carbs and featured custom ground cams from Fred "Pop" Schunk.  In June of that year, Bubeck set a record of 135.58 mph out on the Rosamond Dry Lake.  This record still stands today, making the Chout the fastest unstreamlined, normally aspirated 80 cubic inch Indian ever raced.

But what is a Chout?  Simply put, it's an Indian Chief motor mounted in a Indian Scout 101 frame.  The more powerful Chief motor, paired with the lighter Scout frame makes for a potent combination.  The only problem is that the Chief motor does not easily fit into a Scout frame.  In the picture below, you can see an Chief motor mounted in a Scout frame.  Notice that the heads have to be removed from the motor for it to fit under the cross bar.

Modifying the cross bar to allow room for the heads leads to another problem.  Now that the cross bar has been moved higher, it interferes with the mounting of the gas tank.  This can be solved by using a set of Scout Junior tanks, which are two piece and can be mounted on either side of the cross bar.  The next picture shows two Scout frames.  The one in the foreground has a modified cross bar and the one in the background is a stock frame.

Once the engine is mounted, you'll still need to move the kicker stud back so it is not too close to the pinion gear and then you can move on to the front end, exhaust, brakes, etc.  Again, parts from various Indian models can be combined to finish off the remaining tasks and in the end you are left with a beautiful custom Indian.

For those of us that don't own an Indian parts warehouse or are not independently wealthy, Kiwi Indian builds a reproduction Chout that you can purchase for a fraction of the price.  This also saves on the incredible amount of time needed to actually find and purchase all the original Indian parts needed to build a Chout from scratch.