Is motorcycling's past morphing into its future? We scramble to find out.
By
Photographer : Jeff Allen
Photographer : Jeff Allen
One of the motorcycle’s best qualities is its ability to trigger your mind to build a pleasing image around the machine. For this pair of Scramblers, one from Ducati and one from Triumph, the image is idyllically rustic, backlit with hazy-warm golden light complete with lens flares. Much like the cozy cross-generational visions you’re looking at on these pages now. These are images evocative of times and feelings that may or may not have actually existed, though if you ask a riding enthusiast who lived and loved through the scrambler heyday of the ’60s and ’70s, there’s no doubt it was real.
And there is no doubt it is real right now, on the highways and dirt roads of America. Good times, accessible motorcycles, and decent pricing are what fueled the boom times first time around, and both of these Scramblers offer a lot of bike for the money.
Step one to good times was sending our pair of pro-racer photo models for a real scramble in the California desert near Pioneer Town, not far from Joshua Tree National Park in California. Ryan Dudek’s skills are well documented in these pages, and he was joined by AMA Pro SuperSport East champ Hayden Gillim. That’s Hayden on the Ducati (above photo), dragging a footpeg while dirt-tracking on a dry lake bed. It was totally impractical and all about fun, but if you happen to be a pro-level rider and want to slide one of these bikes on dirt, both of our guys picked the agile, light, and quick Ducati.
But back to reality.
Triumph came to this retro-scrambler land first, way back in 2005 (if you don’t count pre-unit and unit-construction scramblers it made during the company’s first life). If you missed it, the Scrambler is based on the love-object Bonneville, which I first rode on its introduction in England in 2001, when the weather forecast was so bad that the lady on the telly said, “Don’t leave your homes!” Could have used the Scramblers’ Bridgestone Trail Wings on that ride back then.
| UPS | DOWNS | |
|---|---|---|
| Triumph Scrambler |
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We didn’t have any such weather troubles even though it was “winter” out here in Southern California. Sunny and warm, just like the personalities of these great bikes.
That said, the Triumph has that almost exclusively English property of being stylish and elegant while also getting its frump on a bit. This latter point comes mostly from the basic “thickness” of the bike, both in its width from the high-mount pipes and from the shape of the fuel tank and engine. Its weight and power output also give it some of that staid character. If you haven’t picked up 106 pounds in a while, give it a go and ask yourself if you’d like to not have to lift it. Better yet, try running with that load. One hundred and six pounds is how much more the Triumph weighs than Ducati’s exceptionally light Scrambler Icon, and you feel that difference in every movement of these bikes.
“The Triumph has that almost exclusively English property of being stylish…while also getting its frump on a bit.
The power situation is also decidedly skewed: The Triumph’s 51.6 hp from its 865cc parallel twin is delivered in measured fashion, thanks to the abundant flywheel inertia and bottom-end-centric power delivery. Its 46.2 pound-foot torque peak is essentially equal to that of the 803cc V-twin Ducati, but it’s delivered at 2,800 rpm, where the Duc’s peak is at 5,570. That’s it in a nutshell, but I’d be remiss not to point out the Ducati revs to 9K, 1,000 rpm higher, and belts out 69.7 vigorous horsepower along the way. It’s a completely different tuning ethic at work.
To the Triumph’s credit, it is exceptionally easy to launch, thanks to its torque character, smooth throttle response, and lighter-pull clutch.
But there will be no power wheelies.
This helps make the bike a friendly commuter, and its time-travel nature is accentuated by a pair of “carburetors” that house the fuel injectors. There is even a manual fast-idle pull-knob down on those carb-like things. It’s quaint and way cleaner than tickling an Amal Concentric. If you’ve never done that and want to experience it, every time you start your bike cold, go dip your finger in gasoline and pour some on the back of the engine so it drips onto the ground. Then pull the plug wires off and push the starter button until the battery dies, reconnect the plug wires, then push-start the bike. If you’re lucky. Breathe more gasoline fumes. That’s a roughly accurate approximation.
