EICMA 2016: Ducati reveals two new Scramblers, Desert Sled and Café Racer

Words by Yash Sunil

The CEO of Ducati, Claudio Domenicali, revealed two new additions to the Scrambler range, the new Café Racer and Desert Sled at the EICMA Motorcycle show held in Milan, Italy.  The Desert Sled is an upgrade to the previous enduro version of the Scrambler which couldn’t fulfil the demands of the off-road fanatics.

The Desert Sled is referred to bikes that are over 500cc which was modified by riders for use in the California deserts and true to its name, the Scrambler Desert Sled comes with a L-twin 803cc air cooled engine producing 75bhp and 69Nm of torque, but what is really impressive is the beefed up Kayaba suspension coupled with 19-inch front and 17-inch rear wheel with long-travel forks and shocks which allow 200mm of travel, making the bike very capable on rough terrains. The bike is provided with a reinforced steel trellis frame to improve off-roading capabilities and a mesh guard for the headlight. The bike also gets increased seat height of 860mm and with an option of an 830mm seat. The Scrambler with all these additions has a tank capacity of 13.5 litres and weighs 207kg.

The Scrambler Café Racer will be powered by the same engine as the current Scrambler but has new cosmetic changes such as the café racer seat unit, aluminium clip-on handlebars, and a black Termignoni exhaust. The Café Racer is painted in a new ‘Black Coffee’ shade which is a mix of black and gold, and has a seat height of 805mm.

Ducati hasn’t announced as to when these bikes will be available in India but when they do arrive they will join the Scrambler range consisting of the Icon, the Full Throttle, the Classic and the Urban Enduro.