We've recently been on the launch of the new Ducati Scrambler 1100, here's our used option review. If you're a Scrambler owner and have experiences to share add them to the comments below.
Owned a 2015 for 6 months. Short time love affair with the Scrambler. Riders triangle was only tolerable for 40min at best before the cursing started., Shoulders are splayed far apart, seat to peg ratio is very tight and cramped. Together with the odd shaped seat design, it places a fair amount of tail bone pressure making longer trips excruciatingly uncomfortable. Rear cylinder head sits right underneath your crotch and produces a lot of heat adding to discomfort. Rear suspension is jarring on less than perfect road surfaces and transferred jolts are felt through the lower back. Steering lock is tight (you'd expect more lock). Filtering through traffic is difficult with the very wide bars defeating the benefit of what is otherwise a slim bike. Fuelling on low throttle applications is overly snatchy and together with a larger L twin makes it difficult to ride smoothly through heavy traffic creating a necessity to over-use "clutch slip" to smooth things out (possible cause for owners mentioning premature clutch replacements. Do yourself a favour and take a decent ride through heavy traffic if thats where you intend to ride it the most. The dessert sled had some alteration to improve throttle response/smoothness at low rpm and with the upgraded suspension and roomier ergonomics, its probably the one to buy alleviating most of the quibbles of the standard bike. You may also find the DS's higher ride height may clear car mirrors making filtering easier for town use. Good points... Good torque/light bike makes wheeling this bike daily event, sounds good with an aftermarket exhaust, handles well on smooth roads. Tires grip very well. Cons: Many bikes do the same thing and some things much better.
I had a Full Throttle, covered 12,000 Miles. One thing you didn’t mention was the weak clutch. Lots of owners found their clutches burning out early. Mine started to slip around 10k Miles, the clutch adjustment has to be kept perfect otherwise you’ll get this problem. Brake rotor warping is a known issue but you alluded to that. Check for corrosion. If it’s been ridden in all weathers, the bolts around the engine, especially on the front cylinder will have furred up. Most common complaints among owners are rock hard rear suspension and hard seats. Both can be fixed for around £350 each with aftermarket options. Final thing is that finding sporty tyres for the 18” front wheel is difficult. Best you can do is sport touring tyres. HUGE improvement over the MT60. Much nicer handling. The Cafe Racer uses a 17” front which opens up more tyre choices but it comes with decent Rosso II’s which are good and more sports oriented anyway.
Good honest review, and good comments below. I would add that it is a pretty bike, however it lacks a little road presence, on account of its small frame.
I've got 28,000 on my Scrambler, Only thing I've had a problem with is I seem to burn out clutches every 9,000 miles. (Currently on my third clutch) Mostly commuting in Los Angeles.
It must be something like that. Wet clutches should last a long time. I even got at least 30,000 miles out of my dry clutch R1100GS and that included a lot of London work.
I'd buy a bike from the UK and import it to the US, but I don't think I could ride it backwards that well.🤣 Desert Sled is my favorite, but cam belts vs chain... When the old R1 can get to 20k+ without so much headache and easier access to the head.
Glad you mentioned the brakes. I had one as a loaner for a few days and coming off a bike with dual discs and m50s, I was caught by surprise with how much less braking power this had. Be aware of that if you ride one.
Isidoros Mezopoulos 803cc but only 75 hp so it's a good beginner bike. Not too much power, not too little to get bored quickly. New rider can get at least 3 years out of it
had this bike for a couple years, the main issue was that it wouldn't take jumps well. I love going 120mph over speed bumps pretending I'm one of those Redbull stunt riders on the telly and this bike just didn't do it for me. Needless to say, it was great for pulling birds and those chubby cyclists up hills.
If only Honda, Kawasaki, and the rest made a similar sized bike with Japanese reliability. I would buy one immediately. This thing sounds like it costs a lot especially with the valve work and belts and I plan on doing major trips.
''3,200 miles and it's for sale after three years. It should look as fresh as it did on the press launch''. Only 3,200 miles. I want to know what's it's like after 20,000 miles. And that's not many. ''I dare say in five years time it will look and feel as fresh as it does today''. The point is you don't know. This has got nothing to do with assessing a used Ducati Scrambler.
I have had the Scrambler for about 3 months and It needs a new clutch. I brought it second hand from the Ducati dealer and its just hit 3.5k miles. :( I love the bike its great fun, i've taken it touring round Ireland, Sunday rides, off-road and on track. See my videos if you're intersted. The seat look really cool but its way too hard and pushes you balls up against the tank. The clutch is rubbish it has been off or on for me. My main problem with the bike is the false neutrals!! Its also takes me a solid hour to find Neutral. On the plus side it's super light and super fun to ride and simple. The tyre are amazing; I took them on track and they never broke traction - they do however wear very quickly but thats a compromise i'm willing to make for a tyre that can perform on the dirt and then you can hit the track as hard as you dare. I've had 1000cc sports bike and off roaders and everything in-between, but i've learn a few need tricks on this bike purely because of the confidents it inspires. She does love to wheelie which makes for an exciting ride straight off the drive way. Hopefully ill get her back from Ducati soon.
This bike doesn't make sense to me (on cost). For nearly the same $$$ you can pickup a Street Triple RS, loaded with performance parts, and better fit-n-finish. And the latter is a much more thrilling ride. The only scrambler that makes any sense (to me) is the the desert sled.
i love these types of reviews you guys are doing, but can i ask why on earth you think its a good idea to get all your reliability info from the dealership that sells these bikes? how dumb do you have to be to think their staff are going to be honest with you?
Terrible clutch. My 2017 is on it's 3rd clutch at 20,000 km. DUCATI failed to recall, and chose instead to make new Scramblers w hydraulic clutches. Sneaky and greasy..
It still looks just as dreadful as it did when it was launched. It's a hipster based bike, and it looks totally inauthentic. This is a company which gave the world definitive designs like the 1973 750SS. I know that modern designs have more restrictive legislation to adopt, but put a photo of the 73 SS next to this 'scrambler'. The 'scrambler' is nowhere near as coherent. Design transcends through pure function. Ducati have tried to make a 21st century XR750, and it's a toe curling pantomime horse. Designing bikes for hipsters is the kind of dreadful idea which Triumph have. As soon as someone says "It's a cafe racer", it's time to walk away. This type of designer handbag nonsense once would have been way beneath Ducati. Retro bullshit for beard wax wankers.
I actually think the bike takes a lot of it's styling cues from the 70's Ducati scramblers ie the seat, tank panels and overall look, you can easily see the lineage from those bikes to this.
I wonder about all that. To my eyes the 750SS is truly iconic, absolutely "in the pocket" so to speak, and if Ducati still made THAT bike I'd have it by now; but then, that was my generation--who knows how such bikes look to today's buyers (let's face it, a lot of MY generation are, frankly, DEAD)! The XR750 is hot stuff too, but then it's 50 years old, and purpose-built for racing, and if I were trying to design for today's market, some sort of general-use bike with cues from yesteryear (but not TOO many cues!) and modern engineering, what you call "design incoherence" would be absolutely part of the picture, it'd HAVE to be. That the Scrambler is doing so well sales-wise indicates Ducati may have found a sweet spot in the general-use market. side note, about a thousand years ago there was a guy who'd fabricated a frame, fenders, tank and seat with which you could turn your Sportster into the spitting image of a Vincent Black Shadow. I loved the look, but he didn't do so well, apparently people wanted Harleys instead of badge-engineered Vincents, who knew!
