We've been living with the Ducati Scrambler 1100, in glorious 4K

So the Ducati Scrambler is now in its sixth year of production. It's hard to imagine that it wasn't last week that I wasn't riding the original 800 in California, seemingly now all those years ago. I've picked my favourite from the range, remember it's one of the largest ranges that Ducati offer let's come up with a stupid Goldilocks analogy, that whole thing about too little, too big and just right. For me it turns out that too big is just right. The 450, which we had fun on at World Ducati Week last year, I say we had fun, I actually mean I crashed it quite a bit, but we did have some fun doing a little bit of a flat track school. That 800 original, which is the kind of home run bike for Ducati, that's the big hitter, that's the one that sold I think 60 odd thousand units globally in the time between launch and now. It was good fun, but physically for me it was a little bit too small and in terms of power, who doesn't want more power, I thought it could have done with a little bit more. The Desert Sled, a properly cool bike, I really enjoyed bashing my way around London on it and actually when it comes to the Crunch, that's a bike that's got the skills to pay the bills as well, that's why we packed it off for a long and dirty weekend with Chris. But when it comes to the Crunch, for me there's no replacement for displacement, I can't believe I've just managed to work in an old American hot rod tagline. So a year ago when we went on the launch of this bike in Lisbon in Portugal, it was a slightly deflated feeling from me and the other journos on that trip because on paper the bike only makes about 13 horsepower more than the 800. It doesn't sound like a huge increase in power and arguably if you're comparing this Scrambler 1100 to its natural competitors from Triumph, BMW R9T, Kawasaki Z9, all those things, it is probably about 20 horsepower shy of where it needs to be on paper. But as I like to try and remind you guys that the reality out there in the real world, which today is the North Circular not the South Circular at the Ace Café, you should be hard pushed to notice the difference in power, you're not going to miss it. The torque that this thing has got, the drive and the punch that it's got, for me makes it one of the best town bikes that I've ridden in the last couple of years. So if we just segregate Scrambler 1100 and don't bother thinking about the competition, what is it that you're getting? Well you know it is longer, it is wider, I think it's 50mm wider than all of the other Scramblers that you can buy. It's still got a fairly appealing ride height, I don't know what it is off the top of my head, I've decided not to get too hung up on all the numbers that this thing has and just give you my opinion. But I know based on the thousands of other bikes that I've ridden, the seat height is a comfy and easy one to get on. For me at 5'11", I think as long as you're not the wrong side of five foot you're going to be fine getting on and off this thing. It just feels like there's a more substantial and chunkier bike than any of the other Scramblers in the range. There's also something else that this bike does that only Ducati can do and that's the perfect combination of Ducati and Termigoni exhausts. This bike's got a really really raucous set of pipes on it, I absolutely love it. So there's a couple of different flavours of Scrambler 1100 that you can go for. If you're feeling flush you can pay a little bit more money and have the one with fancy Olin suspension and a couple of other trick bits and pieces. But the base model does everything I think you would need if the majority of your riding is like I've been doing for the last few months. Running your kids to school, picking up bits and pieces from the shops, just bopping around on a bike day to day in a big city. I think the reason why it appeals to me as much as it does is the range of ability that it has. If I'm doing the school run for example, I've got one of my daughters on the back, there's stacks of room for both of us. It is such an easy bike to ride, you could stick this thing in riding schools, take the badges off the side and nobody would know how big it is or how scary or dangerous it's supposed to be because it's a big 1100cc bike. Another welcome addition for me was the extra disc at the front over the 800 version. It's a Brembo setup, ignore the names, ignore the fancy bits and just for me all I've been doing is focusing on the feeling and quality of the brake system. You know we've just been through a fairly miserable winter, arguably we haven't had any snow thank god, but there's been a few real kind of pissy slushy days, you know salt everywhere, grit and grime, the kind of stuff that would eat into a brake system if you weren't keeping on top of it and cleaning. I'll be honest, I haven't touched that bike, I haven't cleaned it at all. All I've been doing is putting miles on it and putting fuel in it. The brakes still look and feel incredibly capable and just reliable, I love them. They work well with the suspension as well which is adjustable but as I keep trying to bring this review back to my kind of day-to-day real world living, I live in a city so there's not much point me adjusting the suspension and trying to dial it in for the kind of riding that I'm doing. As it came out of the factory it's perfect for me and I think you know as long as you're not built like a pepperami or or you live on pepperamis there's no need to adjust the suspension, you can just jump on the thing and ride it. So I know after the launch in Lisbon there was a little bit of a feeling that the shock wasn't quite up to the job in terms of offering the same plush feeling that the front end suspension had but consider again much like I've just been banging on about, we're on faster, wider, more open roads and now I'm remembering getting absolutely savaged in the comment section on YouTube for sticking my foot out in the rain going around some of those corners. This is a great chance for me to tell you that those roads were like glass when it rained and I just felt like sticking a foot out. There's a little bit of a weird supermoto vibe going on that day for me and it made me feel cool, that's the reason why I stuck my foot out, sorry guys. So like I said I'm going to try not to get too hung up on chucking numbers at you. I know the exact amount in millimetres difference between the width of bars on Scrambler 800 compared to this 1100 and this isn't me pleasuring two invisible men at the minute, this is me showing you what's going on. It is a wider bar set on the 1100 compared to the 8 and there are occasions when you are trying to cut a bit of a dash across town where you need to do that weird jigging thing where you just push one end of your bars around the mirror of that car and then feed them around that car but on the move I think the leverage that they offer is worth the compromise. There's a couple of occasions a day where you just think bloody hell these bars are a little bit too wide. It might also be something to do with the fact that the mirrors are on the ends of those bars so you just get this impression of the thing being really really wide. It isn't and you can indeed cut a fine shape through the traffic when you need to. So just one on those mirrors the producer's just asked me to remind you because he's just reminded me that the bike that I've been riding has been properly pimped by Ducati. They're all factory accessories but they're all extras that you would need to choose so mine has indicators, pegs, brake and clutch reservoir, the little LED headlights surround. These are all factory fit accessories. If I was in the market to buy a bike like this I think I would try and swallow it at the purchase point and just tick all those boxes and get it done straight away because you'll probably spend three or four years nicking each one of them as you go anyway and then eventually you'd get to the stage where you've got all the bits that you want on your bike. I think Ducati do, they'll chuck accessories into your PCP or whatever you know however you want to do it. Sneak them in at the start, just swallow it and know that you've got the bike looking exactly as you want it from day one. One of the other gripes that we had on the launch was the weight. This bike weighs 200 and I told you I wouldn't stick to numbers. This bike weighs quite a bit, let's say maybe 206 kilograms or something like that. Again this is just an on-paper figure, it's something that I don't think matters when you are riding the thing, moving it around, maneuvering it, spinning it around on the side stand. All of the things that you do day to day, the shape of this bike hides the weight that this bike has very well when you're dragging it around when you're not riding it and when you are riding it, good luck guessing how much it weighs when you're on the move. It's the best looking clock set I think on any of the Scramblers. It's not just round like the Scrambler 8, there's like a little kind of loft conversion that's going on in the top left hand corner. It just gives you more screen to look at, more information to be able to read and I think it suits the style of the bike which is this kind of contemporary retro. It doesn't look like anything from the olden days, it's just a retro bike so it doesn't need to have like a Smith's clock like some old E-type Jag, it's allowed to have digital bits and pieces. I think they suit the nature of this bike perfectly and also in practical terms the information that it's feeding me while I ride is in the perfect place and there's just the right amount of it. Despite me just saying that the clock set is really good and gives me all the information that I need, it doesn't have the provision to tell you what kind of mpg you're getting so I have absolutely no idea what mpg I've been getting. What I do know is it seems to be pretty frugal, I can't remember the last time I put fuel in it and I probably won't need to put fuel in it at least today. What I do know is that tank is bigger physically, I think it has a capacity that might be 15 litres, this is me trying not to just chuck numbers at you but in terms of the dimensions and stature of the bike everything is just a little bit bigger than other scramblers which suits my size physically and also what I'm looking for in a bike. I like the size and shape of the tank on this thing, I love the colour again it's that weird grey that Ducati do. So one of the things that I've been doing with this bike is thinking about what it's lacking or reasons for you not to be interested in it and by all means if you've got one and you've got gripes stick them in the comment section down below but I'm struggling at the minute to find reasons not to buy into it. Again you know there's an assumption that because on paper it doesn't make as much power as its competitors and it doesn't seem to make too much more power than the 800 version so you'd be hard pushed to justify choosing it but I think the kind of power that it makes is exactly right for this bike you know if it had 120 horsepower who knows how good or bad those brakes and suspension might feel, who knows you know whether the chassis would be able to cope with all that power. It's ticking all kinds of boxes for me and again you know reasons not to buy it this is me genuinely struggling to find some. The great thing about these living with reviews is you know the fact the bike is a year old now and there are used examples out there in the market so again if you are at the bottom end of your budget I think you could probably get into one for about seven and a half eight grand it would probably already have all those accessories on it that I was talking about earlier somebody else has already made it their own and you know they might have made the perfect bike for you so don't just consider the new bike price there is also a used approved Ducati system where you can buy secondhand bikes in their showrooms as well have a look you might find one. This is probably one of the longer living with reviews that I've done and I've had absolutely zero issues with it. It started every time I've wanted it to, it hasn't carried on running when I've turned it off which you know when I was a pup I've seen Ducatis doing that with my own eyes but that was you know 20 years ago they're not they're just not like they used to be. The service cycles that Ducati has developed for all of their engines are ginormous you know 10,000 miles before an oil change 15,000 miles before you need to check the valve fluences these are these are you know big chunks of mileage when you think the average biker and I'm lining some of you up to prepare you to type into the comment section the average biker does less than 4,000 miles a year in the UK I'm sure there are lots of you out there that do way more than 4,000 miles and I'm not having a at any group but that's the average mileage so if you could imagine 4,000 miles a year you know you are you're four eight you're nearly four years into ownership before you even need to change the oil in the thing. Scrambler 11 has DTC there's a couple of levels of traction control this bike has I'll be honest again because it only makes 80 whatever it is 85 86 horsepower I've just had it off all the time and when it's off you can you can pop a cheeky wheelie if you like here and there but you know just because bikes have traction control the glory of the systems that they have is you don't think it needs it or you're happy without it just turn it off you know I don't remember test riding bikes that only made 80 or 90 horsepower 15 years ago and going it needs traction control really so just turn it off if you don't want it but when it's raining it's a welcome addition you can whack it on turn it up to its highest setting and still enjoy the bike have some faith in those Pirelli tires and just cut around and do your thing knowing that you've got a little bit of a safety net there just don't be afraid to turn it off on this bike it's not going to chew you up and spit you out the second you get on the throttle with the traction control turned off trust me so I've been ignoring my phone from Ducati UK for the last couple of weeks they've been hounding me for this bike I think they want it back so that they can do other stuff with it I don't really want to have it back it is what it is you know we're going to pack up today and send it back to them begrudgingly I've had a brilliant time on it I don't think I could get from here to my house in South East London quicker on any Panigale V4 R whichever one it is World Superbike Panigale don't think I'd get there any quicker than I could on that bike again don't get too wrapped up in the numbers that you're looking at when you're seeing new bike reviews don't get too tied up in the fact that this isn't the most powerful bike in terms of it and its competitors the real world nature that it has and the way that it delivers the punch that it has means that you are capable of getting yourself into loads of trouble or beating all of the other bikes around you if you like that's a plus point for me that combination of kind of retro cool street scrambler thing plus enough power to have some fun equals almost the perfect motorcycling recipe for me I'm not pretty enough to match this view so I'm gonna put my mugger's face mask on and get out of the way it is beautiful today Sponsored by McCams getting you back on two wheels when it wasn't your fault