Arrived at Whiteways Saturday (31st) in lovely sunshine.
I got up early and went for a little bimble around before rocking up to the car park café and getting a morning coffee before making myself known to the Ducati team.
All the guys and girls there were great- both those from P&H motorcycles in Crawley and those who worked on the Roadshow itself.
There was the full range of current bikes there and I was booked on a Scrambler Full Throttle, 11:00am arrived and off we went for our ride.
They took us on a good little route (about 45 minutes riding) I know rather well as during the nice spell of weather we've been having I've been getting up early and going for a ride before work so it was a good comparison between the Scrambler and my 1997 900 Monster.
So how was it?
Well, alright actually but only alright. I was hoping it would blow my socks off and make me want one to go along side the Monster but it didn't.
I can't quite put my finger on why- it felt a bit more civilised than my Monster which I put down to the fuel injection and generally a little softer although it did kick off bumps a little at speed but took the deliberately aimed for pot holes with a little less of a jolt.
Gunning it some after the chap in front of me on the Diavel I felt it was lacking a bit of go compared to my 900 which I thought surprising given the years difference between the two bikes despite the Scrambler giving away 100cc's they make similar power but that may just be the way my 900 is a little less subtle in fuelling coupled with the dry clutch .
I'm not a particularly big bloke but it did feel quite small even to me, I found the displayed information in the clock rather difficult to read other than the speed itself and the gear indicator which I felt unnecessary and the rev counter in the bottom arc seemed pointless ... basically an analogue speedo would have suited the retro image better I think. It also has a ridiculously small tank which could make actually going decent distances a bit of a pain having to fill up so often.
So to conclude, it looked well put together although personally I prefer the looks of the Classic or Desert Sled variants, it rode very nicely and with some tweaking I'm sure it could be a lot better but I won't be rushing out to get one.