Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WORTH SHELLING OUT ON, NO YOLK!
I plan to sue Ducati under the Trade Descriptions Act, since this bike is completely useless for scrambling.
For a start, the only place to put the eggs is on top of the seat, and when you start the engine to warm it up, the vibration of the V-twin makes them slide off.
Then when the engine does get hot, there’s not enough room between it and the tank to put the saucepan, and the only alternative is to pour the mixture directly onto the exhaust. Result – a complete mess. Anyway, by the time I’d cleaned all that off, I went riding on it, and it’s flipping brilliant for that.
I really liked its 803cc predecessor, which weirdly looked dull in photos but lovely in the flesh. I liked it all, right down to the stylish single circular speedo.
The bad news is Ducati has dumped that lovely speedo and the replacement looks as if the two folks job-sharing the speedo section couldn’t decide between a round one and a rectangular one, so have gone for both, with speed and gears in the letterbox, and all the other info in the circle.
The result, frankly, just looks weird. But that’s all the bad news, since when you ride off it’s one of those bikes you feel instantly at home on, with the narrow but comfortable seat allowing you to shift your weight around so easily that before long you’re soaring around bends solely by instinct rather than effort. Acceleration, with the power up from 75hp to 85bhp and torque rising from 50lb ft to 65lb ft, was entirely satisfactory on the 803cc bike, but it now packs a much bigger punch, especially since the bike’s a relatively lightweight 211kg.
Even better, since both power peaks are reached at lower revs, you don’t have to thrash it to death to get the best out of it, so progress is swift and seamless, aided and abetted by a slick six-speed gearbox.
The front brake set-up, with Brembo calipers and two 320mm discs rather than the one of the 803cc Scrambler, is so effective that I never had to go near the rear stopper.
Is it as good as its obvious rival, the new Triumph Scrambler 1200? Well, I prefer the Triumph’s looks, especially the dash, but the Ducati sounds better and the performance and handling is so similar on both bikes it’s not worth fighting about.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to buy some more eggs and make an omelette. In the kitchen at home. Ducati Scrambler 1100
Price: from £10,695
Engine: 1079cc air-cooled V-twin
Power: 85bhp@ 7,500rpm
Torque: 65 lb ft@ 4,750rpm
Colours: Black, grey, yellow