Some impressions of the Scrambler that I rented to drive in Italian/Swiss Alps during the week before ringmeet.
Why the Scrambler? This is the bike I liked before even getting the license. I just like this look. And I like Ducati's detailing, I like the single offset dial, I like the sound. It's also light and not so powerful, which is good for a noob like me. Basically, I thought of this as an extended test-drive. But also the choice for renting in Italy is mostly limited to every possible model of BMW, and I wanted something Italian for the Italian adventure
It was between Moto Guzzi V7 and the Scrambler, and I decided on a more modern one.
First impression was that the bars are quite high, and the seating position is rather upright. Not quite what I expected. It took me a few days to get really used to it, I kept leaning forward instinctively, which made it very awkward. Other ergonomic issues were the clutch and brake levers - both too far. The clutch side is non-adjustable, and the brake is too far even in the closest position. There also seems to be a neutral between every gear, sometimes :lol:
The engine is 800cc and is very torquey, which I appreciated a lot in the hairpins. The high end is not very exciting, and the limiter comes rather abruptly. I stayed under 6krpm most of the time. The throttle response is fantastic, especially coming from my carbed 500cc. It's what I'll be missing the most.
I got to ride it in the most extreme conditions I've faced so far, from the 38C heat to the meanest thunderstorm imaginable. During one of the warmer days I got engine error after standing in traffic for some 15mins :lol: It has a rather tiny radiator and no fan. The error disappeared as the bike cooled down.
The gauge is another point of criticism from me. I really like the look of the single offset dial, but the actual screen layout is a bit messy. The rev counter in particular is unreadable, as it's a thin bar around the circumference of the gauge.
So 1313.6 km later, do I still want one? Yeah
By the end of the week I finally started to "feel" it and got more somewhat braver with my cornering. It seems like a very forgiving and versatile bike to me. I would probably still lower the bars a bit, and change the levers, but overall this is close to the sweet spot of new bikes for my taste. That said, I'm not going to buy a brand new bike any time soon, so this is all hypothetical.
Interestingly enough, the week with Scrambler in the Alps made riding the ER-5 fun again. I was getting rather bored with it, but now I'm enjoying it a lot again. The engine is a bit of a let down, but otherwise it feels so lively and familiar, that I really don't feel like upgrading right now.
