The Thai Scramble: Ducati Scrambler First Ride Review

The Ducati Scrambler was officially launched in Asia at an event held in Thailand. Bike India was on hand to participate in the proceedings, and here are all the impressions we gleaned when Ducati’s newest offspring was flagged off

Story: Harket Suchde
Photography: Ducati

Cast your mind towards Ducati’s long and illustrious line of products, and chances are you’ll be thinking of straight-laced, performance-oriented, highly technical machines. A little bit like a grand opera — quintessentially Italian, highly focused, technically spot-on, and with a multitude of individual pieces working in perfect harmony to create a symphony that stirs the soul. Someone obviously didn’t deliver this script to the team of Bologna’s boys that developed the Scrambler, because, going by the same analogy, the Scrambler is good old rock ‘n’ roll — a wild child, a paragon for pandemonium while also bringing technique, albeit in a completely different guise, to the table.

I, for one, love me some rock ‘n’ roll, so I was chuffed at the prospect of heading out to Thailand on a mission to explore the world of Scrambler, or, as the marketing boffins at Ducati tagged it, the Land of Joy. Now, Ducati are well aware of how much of a culture shock the Scrambler is in the eyes of your average Ducatisti, and as such they’ve reiterated the fact that the Scrambler is more like a sub-brand rather than a new addition to their portfolio. This isn’t idle marketing spiel either, because Scrambler Ducati, written that way to emphasise the independence of the Scrambler moniker, carries under its umbrella four distinct designs based on the Scrambler frame and powertrain. The base Icon that we rode here in Thailand will be launched alongside an off-road focused Urban Enduro, a throwback styled Classic, and a flat-track purpose-built Full Throttle.