When the Volkswagen Group?s Ducati unit announced the Scrambler in late 2014, the motorcycling populace went bonkers. The naked Monsters had become more monstrous and less entry-level. The sportbikes had become ludicrously fast machines. The Hypermotard and Multistrada cost real dollars, and the Diavel has a jillion horsepower, looks strange, and now comes with forward controls if you so desire. But the Scrambler was a basic thing, a stylish Italian bike for now people that started well under 10,000 bucks. Naturally, custom motorcycle builders immediately set to work bending the Ducling to their whims, and at this weekend?s Verona Motor Bike Expo, they?re showing off three heavily reworked Scramblers to tease the masses.
Verona?s Mr. Martini arrived with a racy thing called the Peace Sixty2. Based on the lower-spec Scrambler Sixty2 announced at last year?s EICMA show in Milan, the Peace Sixt72 wears ’60s-fab bodywork, with the headlight shining through the front fairing?s windscreen. It?s a neat piece, this bike. Its shamelessly retro bits blend well with the bike?s modern elements, something the stock Scramblers don?t quite manage to convincingly pull off. Plus, who cares if café bikes are played and everybody?s building street trackers now" Café bikes were cool before they were trendy and they?ll be cool even while they?re considered totally played out.
Of course, before everybody was on the café tip, bobbers were the thing. But for some reason, the Italia...