Hi all,
Sorry for long first post...
I recently sold my last motorcycle and thought I may hang it up for a while but the itch to ride is still there. While looking at what bike to purchase next, I knew I wanted to step away from supersport bikes that I had in the past to something with a more upright seating position. I stumbled upon the Ducati Scrambler, the bike looks great and has that wow factor, take it anywhere you want to go. I had been watching countless YouTube videos and reading tons of forum post, telling my friends about it, I was sure that this was the bike for me.
Well, I had a chance to demo it on a 45 min ride recently and it was not the smile inducing bike I was hoping for. Right from the start I was trying to find the clutch engagement point, it's so far out that the lever is almost fully disengaged, for the first 10 minutes I was in traffic and wondering if I was going to stall and drop the bike, eventually I got used to it and could start from a stop light with the flow of traffic and not look like a newb riding for the first time and holding up traffic. Now that I could get it moving, the low end torque is quite nice but the gears run out really quick and I was bouncing off the limiter, I think I would prefer a taller gear but I guess I would lose out on that torque to compromise for it. I've also experience the twitchy throttle I read about in low RPMs, I was in a traffic circle in first gear and just a little twist had it surging forward, I would normally be able to feather this with the clutch but with it grabbing at the end, it feels as if the clutch is on or off and could not control the power so I pretty much let it slowly roll through and didn't throttle until the bike was upright after I completed the turn. I had to come to a sudden stop on my ride, I've heard so much praise about the brakes and that it only being 400lbs, single disc was plenty but I found it to be mushy and did not stop very well, perhaps I should have grabbed it harder and let the ABS kick in if it needed to.
Overall, I was not overly thrilled with my experience from the bike that I had been spending hours watching videos and reading about, this may be because I'm so used to sport bikes, I want similar performance but in a Scrambler form factor. Maybe I just need to take it out longer to get a better feel of the bike. Question for owners though, does your clutch engage at the end? I assume this can be changed, I mentioned it to the sale person but he did not comment about it. Do you find that you want a taller gear when riding? Do you find your throttle twitchy, how do you manage it? I didn't notice any issues with the suspension on my ride but are most owners happy with the stock suspension? Last thing, I know a lot of people pre-ordered without test riding it so if you had it back, would you buy it again?
Thanks
Sorry for long first post...
I recently sold my last motorcycle and thought I may hang it up for a while but the itch to ride is still there. While looking at what bike to purchase next, I knew I wanted to step away from supersport bikes that I had in the past to something with a more upright seating position. I stumbled upon the Ducati Scrambler, the bike looks great and has that wow factor, take it anywhere you want to go. I had been watching countless YouTube videos and reading tons of forum post, telling my friends about it, I was sure that this was the bike for me.
Well, I had a chance to demo it on a 45 min ride recently and it was not the smile inducing bike I was hoping for. Right from the start I was trying to find the clutch engagement point, it's so far out that the lever is almost fully disengaged, for the first 10 minutes I was in traffic and wondering if I was going to stall and drop the bike, eventually I got used to it and could start from a stop light with the flow of traffic and not look like a newb riding for the first time and holding up traffic. Now that I could get it moving, the low end torque is quite nice but the gears run out really quick and I was bouncing off the limiter, I think I would prefer a taller gear but I guess I would lose out on that torque to compromise for it. I've also experience the twitchy throttle I read about in low RPMs, I was in a traffic circle in first gear and just a little twist had it surging forward, I would normally be able to feather this with the clutch but with it grabbing at the end, it feels as if the clutch is on or off and could not control the power so I pretty much let it slowly roll through and didn't throttle until the bike was upright after I completed the turn. I had to come to a sudden stop on my ride, I've heard so much praise about the brakes and that it only being 400lbs, single disc was plenty but I found it to be mushy and did not stop very well, perhaps I should have grabbed it harder and let the ABS kick in if it needed to.
Overall, I was not overly thrilled with my experience from the bike that I had been spending hours watching videos and reading about, this may be because I'm so used to sport bikes, I want similar performance but in a Scrambler form factor. Maybe I just need to take it out longer to get a better feel of the bike. Question for owners though, does your clutch engage at the end? I assume this can be changed, I mentioned it to the sale person but he did not comment about it. Do you find that you want a taller gear when riding? Do you find your throttle twitchy, how do you manage it? I didn't notice any issues with the suspension on my ride but are most owners happy with the stock suspension? Last thing, I know a lot of people pre-ordered without test riding it so if you had it back, would you buy it again?
Thanks