Off-road Ranger gets even tougher
More off-road focused Taller suspension 19in front rim and high fender Sump guard and braced bars
Joining the Nomad is the taller and more aggressive looking Ranger. It shares its chassis, engine, tank, seat, switchgear and clocks with the Nomad, but the jacked-up suspension provides more ground clearance (200mm), and it gets beefier braced bars, a small screen, bash plate, raised front fender, a 19in front rim and more off-road focused Avon Trekrider rubber. “I always focus on making genuine motorcycles, and we haven’t called it a scrambler, because it isn’t one,” says Skinner. “It’s competent as an off-road bike, but it’s not a motocross bike. If I fancy having a bit of fun on the way home and nipping down a green lane, that’s what this bike is all about. It isn’t a bike designed by a marketing department, it’s been designed to work.
“While the seat height is 875mm, it’s slim so won’t be intimidating. The tank is nice and flat and a really traditional Norton shape, too. If you’re standing up and need to lean over the bars, you want to be able to get forward without having a great big tank in the way. We designed it to be better off-road than Ducati’s Desert Sled. A compact parallel-twin means that the engine is shorter front to rear, which allows us to use a longer swingarm for better chassis geometry and stability. We’ve used a steel trellis frame with an aluminium swingarm, and a separate subframe so that if you do have a fall off-road, it won’t write the frame off.”