THE SLATE-GRAY JULY SKY THREATENS RAIN,

yet Edinburgh’s Old Town is thronged with tourists for the forthcoming Festival Fringe. My black-and-cream Indian Roadmaster is parked outside the überartsy G&V Royal Mile Hotel, where the doorman in his tweed kilt stands bemused. Around me, passersby snap photos of the retro-glamorous bike and beg me to sit on it as I prepare to depart for the Highlands.

The Roadmaster is indeed an attention-grabber—and an oddly deluxe ride on which to tour Scotland’s North Coast 500.