The Cw Library
THE CW LIBRARY
Indian Scout
BRING UP THE WORD "INDIAN" AROUND BIKE NUTS and everyone immediately thinks of the grand skirted-fender Chiefs, those stylish highway cruisers with perhaps the most distinctive silhouette in motorcycling. But to really understand the soul of what was once America's biggest bike-maker, you have to move downstream to the Scout series, nicely detailed in this recent effort by marque historian Jerry Hatfield.
It was the low-slung 101 Scout of 1928-31 that set handling marks still talked about mistily by oldtimers. It was the model 741 and 640B military Scouts that went off to fight in WWII, and afterwards provided bob-job fodder for returning servicemen intent on blowing off a little peacetime steam. And it was the Sport Scout that carried Indian’s banner high on the racetracks of America, notching wins for the likes of Ed “Iron Man” Kretz, Bobby Hill, Ernie Beckman and Floyd Emde, just to name a few. Sport Scouts were still giving the Harleys fits five years after they went out of production!
All of this and more is capably covered by Hatfield, who thankfully has not tried to create a buyer’s guide nor a restoration manual. The majority of the text is carried off in an easy conversational tone, though at times starchy rundowns of year-to-year changes are included-great for scholars of the brand, a little dry for the rest of us. Over the years, Hatfield has trained himself to be a very good photographer, and his color environmental portraits of restored machines are a highlight here.
Overall, a good book about one of America’s most important motorcycles. Long overdue. -David Edwards
Indian Scout, Jerry Hatfield, 128 pages, $23; MBI Publishing,
Galtier Plaza #200, 380 Jackson St., St. Paul, MN 55101; 800/826-6600; www.motorbooks.com
Made in the USA
REMEMBER THE SCENE IN SPIDERMAN WHERE THE newspaper editor is poring through photos saying, "Crap, crap, mega-crap?" He might as well have been reviewing motorcycle videos, because man, there's a lot of crap out there these days.
Case in point, Made in the USA. Produced, directed, written and narrated by Jim Duffner, the video is said to be the story behind why “millions take to the road, to the track and to the air with one thing in common.” What that one thing is, however, is never explained.
Actually, precious little is explained. From start to finish, Made in the USA is simply too unfocused, jumping from one subject to the next before anything substantial can be learned. For example, a brief historical section discusses the birth of Harley-Davidson in 1903, moves onto the release of On Any Sunday in 1971, then abandons the subject altogether. That’s the biblical equivalent of having Genesis followed by the Last Supper and leaving out the Resurrection.
While the videography is occasionally quite good, the
The Eighth Dimension
IN THIS LATEST INSTALLMENT OF THE POPULAR "CRUSTY Demons of Dirt" video series, carry-over cast-member Bubba (as Buddha) ascends to the Eighth Dimension along with Elvis and the dreamy Jeannie. The film opens with this unlikely trio making their getaway after robbing a Las Vegas casino.
Forty-five minutes of insanity ensues with some truly sick streetbike action and lots of gigantic, seemingly impossible jumps on dirtbikes, snowmobiles, in off-road trucks and even on foot. It’s all about human beings pushing past their limits, and catching it all on film. Er, videotape.
The footage gathered from a sacred volcano in New Zealand, ancient stone heads on Easter Island and coastal dunes in Chile is spectacular. The camera work continues to improve and the “Crusty” crew obviously went to great lengths to provide an expanded view of free-riding at its finest. Helicopters, for example, are used in a big way, carrying cameras to vantage points that would otherwise be unattainable. At times, they come harrowingly close to the riders.
Through it all, the sport’s top riders-Mike Metzger, Seth Enslow, Kenny Bartman and Travis Pastrana, among others-flip out to a rocking soundtrack that is entertainment overload even for a generation plagued with Attention Deficit Disorder.
We dare you to remain seated while watching this tape.
-Mark Cernicky
The Eighth Dimension, directed by Jon Freeman, Dana Nicholson and Cami Freeman, 45 minutes, $25; Fleshwound Films, 30375 Morning View Dr., Malibu, CA 90265; 310/457-5868; www.fleshwoundfilms.com
original music by The Fryed Brothers Band is both banal and repetitive, and the narration borrows liberally from the Book of Trite. The most insightful comments, in fact, come during an interview with then-16-year-old dirt-track racer Jennifer Snyder.
On the box cover, Scott Rousseau of Cycle News is quoted as saying, “The thrilling dirt-track footage alone is worth the price of admission.” We know Scott-he served an internship at CW in the 1990s-and appreciate his love for dirt-track racing. But what he perhaps meant to say was that the dirt-track footage is the only thing in this video worth paying for. Because frankly, the rest of it is crap, crap, mega-crap. -Brian Catterson
Made in the USA, directed by Jim Duffner, 83 minutes, $20; Monterey Video, 566 St. Charles Dr., Thousand Oaks, CA 91360; 805/494-7199; www.montereymedia. com
