#Ducati cafe racer full#

Riding it feels a bit like sitting on a missile, Dr. You’ll buy one of these with your heart, not your head. Still in the middle of the right-hander, Matt prepares to straighten out the Scrambler Cafe Racer. I didn’t play with the pre-load adjuster, which may have helped, but there’s only 150 mm (5.9 in) of wheel travel to work with. Over rougher patches of road, the rear suspension felt a tad harsh. That’s the price you pay for having a very-pretty retro bike, I guess. On the move you don’t feel it, but stop and you sure do. It happened once to me, only when I’d given the shifter a lazy nudge into sixth.Īs has been well documented, the air-cooled 803 cc L-twin Scrambler motor can get hot. A few riders reported hitting a false neutral. The six-speed gearbox was, for the most part, crisp and easy to use. They do remove to sit above the bars if preferred. Loved by some, not so much by others, the bar-end mirrors were always a talking point.

Again, it didn’t bother me, but if you stall it you will have to hunt for neutral. The veteran CMG riders also complained about the fact the Scrambler needs to be in neutral to start. They can be remounted above the bars, anyway. Some testers didn’t like the underslung mirrors I liked them on those open country roads, but riding in the city you probably wouldn’t want to be looking so far down all the time. I’m 5-feet-11 but with a lanky top half, and the 805 mm (31.7 in) seat height made it easy to plant both feet on the ground. The pegs aren’t in your typical rear-set café racer position they’re neutrally positioned and didn’t cause any strain. After an hour or so, parts of me I hoped would never go numb were numb. Matt’s fathering days may be over now, thanks to that lovely blue seat. The 150 km indicated range of the tank gives you a good excuse to rest periodically, anyway.

#Ducati cafe racer full#

Exposed to the full force of 120 km/h wind on the highway, the forward lean actually helps. The good news is that the riding position with those clip-on handlebars isn’t as torturous as feared. Flat trackers are totally the new Café Racers in case you haven’t checked Bikeexif in a while - or are they the new Scramblers? Trends are moving fast. The second is pure vanity the Full Throttle is cooler.

This, I figured, would make it more comfortable on the two-hour ride out to Sir Sam’s Inn. The first is that the flat-track-style bike with its higher, swept-back bars is more upright. The original plan was to ride the Scrambler Full Throttle. What’s that? Oh – Matt’s already in the middle of the right-hander… What’s it like? Matt sets up for the coming right-hander. Since the current Scrambler website is almost useless, here’s the full 2019 Canadian price list: The prettiest Scrambler does come at a pretty steep price, however. That licence plate holder looks like it’ll relocate pretty easily, too. The cover over the rear seat is a plastic cowl that comes off easily, if Matt could find anyone brave enough to ride pillion with him. Even as a new rider, it was easy to find the bite point. The pull on the clutch is nice and juicy, more befitting a bike in this price bracket than the old cable setup. The updated bike gets the same quality-of-life improvements as other 2019 Scramblers: a hydraulic clutch, and lean-sensitive ABS. It’s a more convincing factory custom than the old black-and-gold model. They kept the nonsensical name, but added a blue frame, silver bodywork and spoked 17-inch rims. What’s new?įor 2019, Ducati made the Scrambler Café Racer even prettier. See all the specs for the 2019 Ducati Scrambler Cafe Racer here The number 54 is a tip-of-the-helmet to legendary racer Bruno Spaggiari, who raced the Mototemporada Romagnola in 1968 on a Ducati with an engine derived from the original Scrambler’s single-cylinder 350 cc unit. The Italian bike has universal appeal it grabbed everyone’s attention. It was like this everywhere we rode on CMG’s Days of Summer tour.

He too wanted only to hear about the Ducati. Later, some brave soul with a 500cc two-stroke dirtbike in the back of his truck pulled up to a gas station. “What’s that one?” he asked, pointing at the silver and blue Ducati. Here, a young man climbed down from his super-duty behemoth and came over to check out a lineup of sparkly new 2019 motorcycles.