No matter your preference, there’s a permutation
Choice is a beautiful thing, and the Scrambler offers it in spades. There are four distinct versions — five if you count that the $9,395 Icon comes in red, or, for $100 more, yellow. The other three — Urban Enduro, Full Throttle, and Classic — are each $10,995. All Scramblers are the same, except for their differences, of course, which are mostly cosmetic.
The oxymoronically named Urban Enduro gains a ribbed brown seat and “wild green” paintwork. Other Enduro attributes include spoked wheels, high front fender, more substantial fork protectors, cross-braced handlebar, headlight grille, and skid plate. It’s not an off-road bike but rather suited to negotiate crumbling inner-city infrastructure.
The Full Throttle is, as you’d suspect, racing-inspired. It has a shorty front fender with yellow racing stripe, faux number plates incorporated onto its seat, a lower, flat-track-inspired handlebar, and twin Termignoni mufflers. Ducati says the Full Throttle is “destined for those who want a bike perfect for everyday use but without compromising on racing style.” Forget style — we want to race one at a Flat Track Canada half-mile.
The Classic is — for lack of a better word — classic. Its brown, vintage-style seat is cross-stitched, and its rims are spoked. It’s the only Scrambler with aluminum fenders, and the rear one is a proper unit at that (the other Scramblers have newfangled tire-huggers, which are functionally superior but cause consternation with the why-the-hell-don’t-motorcycles-come-with-centrestands crowd). The colour is “orange sunshine” but we think it has echoes of honey mustard and root vegetables.
Each Scrambler has distinct badging — but fret not; those aluminum tank accents can easily be swapped (for a price) if you decide that your Full Throttle would look better with carbon fibre tank panels. (There are also chromed tank panels, black tank panels, and camouflaged panels.) And on it goes. There’s a high-slung exhaust system, hard-shell luggage, soft luggage, tank bag, rear bag, heated grips, and an array of seats. Everything is interchangeable, meaning you can take a scoop of Icon, add a dollop of Urban Enduro, and top it off with sprinkles of Classic.