Car and Driver: Three Motorbikes of Verona: Ducati Displays Tweaked Scramblers

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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.

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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.

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Of course, before everybody was on the café tip, bobbers were the thing. But for some reason, the Italians just seem to be getting to the party now. Moto Guzzi announced their V9 Bobber—based on the same smallblock bones as the V7 series—at EICMA, and now Officine Mermaid brings this bobbed Sixty62 to Verona. Dubbed “Revolution,” the bobler (scrobber?) wears weathered Bandit Darville colors and makes a big show of the bike’s visual center of mass. It’s as dense as a black hole, with wheels struggling valiantly to keep themselves way away from the dark mechanicals.

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Although flouncing about on a café bike throwing Mike Hailwood gang signs is fun, and tear-assing around on a bobber frightening Electra Glide dentists in brand-new leather cuts is no doubt a hoot ’n’ a holler, our vote goes to David Lopez Studio’s Scrambler Artika. Inspired by Ducati’s Pantah Ice program of the late 1970s, and wearing neon yellow paint with graphics so Seventies that you’d half-expect to find them on an AMF-era Harley, the Artika is the most true to lowercase-scrambler heritage. Plus, it’s got studded tires, so it can, like, rip your face off. And race on ice. Or both.

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Ducati is also bringing along four motorcycles customized with off-the-shelf bits available at your local dealer. Unlike a car, customizing a motorcycle is almost a necessity after purchase, whether it’s to smooth out fueling compromised by emissions standards, to upgrade braking, or simply just to adjust the ergonomics to one’s liking. Ducati is banking on buyers getting hooked on the process. Now, if they’d only offer that Mr. Martini fairing as a kit…

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