One of my most-read blogs is the one I wrote about the "Street Scrambler".So I thought I would do another especially being inspired by the new Triumph scrambler. This is not a road test, I have not even seen this bike yet, other than a picture or two. But I almost wanted to sell my Vulcan when I saw the picture of one with the Arrows exhaust. Although the exhaust is the most striking feature of this scrambler, I was not at all impressed with the original pipes. The heat shield seemed inadequate, and the entire system looked too long. The front of the pipes quickly turn blue (true to the sixties look), and not to mention the sound, which allowed the engine whine to drown it out. Only from the youtube, I'm not sure if the whine is too loud, or the exhaust too quiet.
When I read comments about any bike, on the internet, I get the feeling motorcycle consumers are very fussy. I suspect the only way they would be satisfied is if they were allowed to personally design the bike on a napkin, and have it turned into a perfect machine that required no maintenance. And furthermore, (A) Nobody else on Earth was allowed to buy that bike (B) It cost absolutely nothing. Strangely, the one place motorcycle consumers, in North America anyway, are never fussy, is on gas mileage. If it gets poor mileage, it seems to be a badge of honour, something to be desired as if they were trying to out-do the Hummer consumers. I'm not sure what the Scrambler gets for mileage, but I'll bet it could be better if motorcyclist cared more about efficiency and less about speed.
One comment made a direct hit on one of my pet peeves, as the past (and present) owner of a Honda 175. This comment was "The Triumph Scrambler is not remotely fast". I assume it was a motorcycle consumer expressing this opinion. In my own not-too-humble opinion, any motorcycle over 50cc is fast enough to get an immature rider into a lot of trouble. Even pedal powered bicycles can be involved in fatalities. The Triumph Scrambler is 900 cc, and can go 160 kph. People who like to proclaim their opinion that certain bikes are "slow" should stop and think about what they are saying. Why not be objective, just say "The Triumph scrambler cannot exceed 200 kph", let other people judge for themselves what they think is "remotely" fast.
I may have a warped opinion but I love this bike. 2010 may be the year that I purchase one. Man I cant believe that it's 2010.
ReplyDeleteWhen I bought my Vulcan, the Triumph was my second choice. Yesterday I saw someone with a 1955 Triumph military model, also a very cool looking bike.
ReplyDeleteCall me an old cruiser, but speed doesn't interest me much. 20 - 22 km per litre on my 1100 1994 Virago interests me. Doesn't sound too bad, does it?
ReplyDeleteGAH
No that doesn't sound too bad, especially for an 1100 cc bike. But how does 470 miles per gallon sound? (approx 200 km/l). Think it is impossible? Check out this web page by Craig Vetter about a competition held back in the eighties. (yes, I know there is a lot of bullshit on the internet, but I think this is real.)
ReplyDeleteCraig Vetter
i have a little trouble understanding this bike. scramblers are desert race machines, so a street scrambler is a scrambler with street tires lights etc? Heres what i found on wikipedia 'Scrambler, a kind of low-powered all-terrain motorbike' i guess dual sports bikes have been around for a while! not to sure why the 'low powered' bit is in there, if anything bikes going off road need all the torque they can muster. stupid wikipedia.
ReplyDeleteI wrote an explanation of "street scrambler" in another blog, with the link at the top of this blog.
ReplyDeleteThere is no entry for "scrambler" (the motorcycle) in Wikipedia, it is mentioned only in a "disambiguation" page, to tell you other possible meanings of the word scrambler. This commment was probably not weritten by a motorcyclist.
Wikipedia is only as smart as the contributors, since it is "open source". You are allowed to edit that page and take out the phrase "low-powered". It does sound biased, and does not help much in understanding what a scrambler is.
But there may also be a valid reason for saying a scrambler is low powered. The real powerful bikes tend to be street racers, and the desert racers are probably the most powerful off-road bikes. People have experimented with high power off-road bikes and found them to be slower than lower powered bikes, because the wheels seem to be spinning all the time, and never hook up.