Gear Check
Rider: Harket Suchde Helmet: Shiro R-15 Jacket: Alpinestars Air Gloves: Zeus Highway Rider
predecessor. the Sport, in particular, looks fantastic in its Viper Black paint scheme. the fit-and-finish is up to Ducati quality and the switchgear has a robust feel to it. the all-digital instrument pod has also been tweaked. A fresh design allows for a lot more information, including a fuel indicator for the first time (hallelujah!).
Part of the need for a new console is the inclusion of ride-by-wire and the riding modes that come with it. You can choose from among Active (max power, direct throttle, and reduced traction control), Journey (max power, slightly relaxed throttle, and a greater degree of traction control), and City (75 PS, “extremely fluid” throttle, and maximum traction control). there are also four levels of traction control to choose from manually and you can even turn it off completely if you so desire. All of this is operated by a couple of easy-to-use handlemounted controls positioned near your left thumb. the brake cable, looping over it and across your view, kind of goes against the attractive console, though.
the riding geometry on the Sport, while still upright, is more committed than that on the other members of its larger displacement brethren thanks to those low and tapered bars. the seat is more relaxing to perch in thanks to the additional width and the riding position is quite comfortable overall. With a saddle height of 810 mm, the Scrambler should allow riders of all heights to slip into the saddle with ease.
We started our ride going through a densely populated area, which allowed me to see how the bigger Scrambler fared in stop-start traffic. the L-twin is air-cooled, so you do feel the heat near your knees, but even in chock-a-block traffic, the dissipation didn’t rise to unbearable levels.
the 1100’s engine produces 86 PS at 7,500 rpm and 88 nm of torque at 4,750 rpm in its Scrambler guise; so it has been tweaked from its previous iteration. the torque kicks in nice and early, giving a decent thwack of thrust low down, accompanied by a glorious siren song from those termignoni pipes. the Scrambler has that typical burble and crackle on the overrun and the noises it makes are absolutely delightful. thanks to the bottom-end torque, you can also accelerate with decent urgency and pull to 7,000 rpm before shifting up.
Speaking of shifts, the six-speed gearbox functions well, allowing for clean and precise shifts, and comes with slip assist, too. You can easily cruise at triple-digit speeds, although once you cross the 130-odd km/h threshold, the lack of windscreen in
any form will result in quite a bit of buffeting on the open highway.
that capable performance is matched by the ride quality. While the Öhlins suspension had been set up on the firmer side, it still soaked up the bumps on bad roads adequately. Where it really shone through was when we hit up the corners at the nandi hills. the Sport is surefooted and well-planted in the corners, allowing you to grow in confidence and carry more on more pace through each consecutive corner. Because the bigger Scrambler is still compact and wellbalanced, you can also switch from one corner to the next with ease. Ducati have also equipped the larger Scrambler with cornering ABS, in case you get a little over-confident and overcook your corner, which is welcome. the 320-mm twin discs with Brembo calipers and 245-mm single disc provide ample stopping power, in the corners or on the straights, and you can shed speeds in a hurry without any drama.
thus, the Scrambler 1100 Sport was fun on the hill run and capable in the city, too, but Scramblers traditionally did a little off-road duty also. So, of course, I headed off down a small trail to see if the 1100 Sport lived up to its heritage. While it isn’t an out-and-out off-roader, the Pirelli Mt-60 RS kicks it comes equipped with are dual-purpose, albeit more road-biased. You also have enough leeway in terms of ground clearance to handle a bit of the rough stuff. You can even reach the handlebar easily when standing on the pegs and keep things from getting hairy on the trail without breaking into a sweat.
Price-wise, you’re looking at an outlay of Rs 11.42 lakh for the Sport, with the range starting at Rs 10.91 lakh (both exIndia). the 1100 has taken the charm and versatility of the Scrambler sub-brand’s ethos and dialled it up for this larger variant. the Sport, in particular, is a hootand-half without feeling like too much of a handful. Unlike the more serious line of Ducatis that are like scalpels — purposebuilt, precise, and extremely efficient — the Scrambler 1100 is a bit more like a butterfly knife. It is extremely useful in a variety of situations — you don’t need 10 years worth of bookworming to use it and if you know your way around it, you can pull nifty tricks too. Most of all, it has a retro-chic charm about it and if you’re into that, or want a bike that’s exciting enough but won’t bite your head off if you go a little overboard, then the 1100 may just be the perfect fit for that spot in your garage.