2019 Ducati Scrambler Desert Sled (Owner Review)

wait a minute wait a minute wait it's back this up how the hell did we get here not too long ago I was yeah me new purveyor of the Daytona spreading the good word of the naked torque monster up co9 champion in the r3 and now I'm some retro dirtbike guy there's a good reason for all of this I swear at the end of the day I'll always be a Daytona squid who loves doing some track days but the Ducati scrambler desert sled is a very special motorcycle I picked this thing up about a month ago I've put on about 1,400 miles on it and it's the most fun motorcycle I've ever owned let me explain why in 2015 Ducati made a critical pivot in their branding and spawned a sub brand known as scrambler Ducati they launched this standard motorcycle with their famous and well-loved air-cooled l twin engine not a v-twin and it was an instant hit with several models to choose from an accessible price point and all the accessories you could throw at it the scrambler sold to people who didn't even know they wanted a motorcycle the original scrambler debuted with an 803 CC l twin making about 65 horsepower and it came at the very low end of Ducatis lineup poised for success not too much power but also not too little it's a bike that got a whole lot right and the proof is in the pudding fast forward a few years in Ducati posted their 2017 sales about 55,000 motorcycles of which 14,000 or scramblers the scrambler is basically the Porsche Cayenne of the motorcycling world for Ducati they sell gobs and gobs of scramblers so they can build cool limited-edition runs of the v4 and all kinds of other interesting and special edition motorcycles so how did the scrambler and I cross paths back in 2016 I got the opportunity to ride a 2016 Ducati scrambler icon that's the standard road going bike that most folks are familiar with here's some footage of me riding it in my original test of the scrambler I was shocked at how much fun the bike was the air-cooled engine fitted with the terming Nonis pipes made a lovely sound he could Rev the thing pretty hard and I wouldn't care much it just looked so cool I will get back to the look shortly it was torquey it looked great it was comfortable into overall made all kinds of sense for someone who wanted a stylish motorcycle that hearkened back to the old days of motorcycling but came with the factory warranty this is exactly what got the scrambler brand in trouble over the years scrambler Ducati went absolutely overboard with the lifestyle brand I truly believe this is the genesis of the Ducati Piscotty memes they sold t-shirts made scrambler radio a thing at EICMA 2018 and overall the brand was just pigeon-holed into a motorcycles for hipsters type of thing the scrambler as a motorcycle was cast off by serious enthusiasts whatever that means who figured that anyone who would pay nearly ten thousand dollars for a motorcycle at sixty-five horsepower and an air-cooled engine was simply being taken for a ride and not the good kind only a putz would put down that much money and get so little but is that really what motorcycling is all about is it about getting the most bang for buck filling out some spreadsheet and getting all your numbers in a row or is it about actually having fun and just enjoying your bike let's assume you're in the latter camp you are watching a desert sled review after all all of a sudden in 2016 17 18 even up to now scrambler craze catches the entire industry everyone is rushing to make some sort of neo retro scrambler put higher bars on it semi knobby tires get some LEDs on the headlights and everyone wants one let's sell it but truth be told it was Ducati scrambler that really revitalized the scrambler craze so years go by after I wrote that original scrambler I go through sport bike after sport bike but the scrambler is always in the back of my mind something about that lovable little bike never really left me I was genuinely intoxicated by and it reminded me why I loved riding in the first place oh and speaking of looks I said I'd get back to it and here I go when I first became interested in motorcycles nearly ten years ago the first bike that caught my attention was a Triumph T 110 custom cafe racer I thought it was the coolest thing I've ever seen the retro looks the carburetors everything about it was interesting to me however I browse the triumph website and found the Daytona and the rest is history as we all know but I have a serious soft spot for a great looking neo retro bike which is what I guess what we're calling them nowadays time passes and one day I see it Ducati releases a more off-road focused scrambler with some key modifications of which we will discuss in great detail and they call it the desert sled and I would be lying to you if I said I wasn't instantly sold on this bike based on the black retro paint scheme alone from the first rendering I saw of it I was absolutely hooked and here's why if you've seen my video explaining what exactly makes a scrambler you can skip this part but a scrambler is meant to be a road-going motorcycle from the 60s or 70s that has be converted to partake in some let's say light off-roading duty a couple fire roads and gravel some small jumps maybe a river crossing or two you get the gist and the one complaint that people had from these new-age scramblers is that there was an L way you could tackle anything more than a hard packed dirt road on one of these things the ground clearance just wasn't there the suspension would bottom out on the smallest of bumps there was just no way you could truly take on some trails with the scrambler until the deserts led so what exactly makes this motorcycle different from the normal scrambler is it just one of those spoked wheels and a high fender kind of accessories catalog bike not even close the desert sled has several key modifications that make it much more capable than its scramble ebro's on the showroom floor let's walk through each of them the frame is all-new from the original scrambler it's reinforced and changed to resist more impacts and rigors of off-road riding this change makes the seat height now 34 inches and adds ground clearance all-important for off-roading the desert sled comes with an admirable nine point four inches of ground clearance which we're gonna discuss later in this video as well with that kind of ground clearance you also get a skid plate as standard on the bike which hey it's not the toughest thing in the world but the skid plate the skid plate the desert sled also comes with much beefier front suspension that is fully adjustable Kayaba forty six millimeter upside down units at the front compared to forty one millimetre forks for the standard scrambler and non adjustable the forks deliver 7.9 inches of travel and the swing arm has been extended to adjust for these changes as well you get Pirelli rally scorpion tires is standard on this bike the dual sport tire that can actually hang pretty well on the trails the desert sled also has a Euro 4 compliant fueling an exhaust system but this had the added benefit of making the throttle extremely well-suited for off-roading especially when you're hustling a 430 pound bike with 75 horsepower through the dirt you want a bit more of a forget throttle the sled also has 19's the front giving you some interesting tire options as well the handlebars are different as well to give you a proper stance when standing on the pegs which you should be doing a lot of when you're riding this bike so the desert sled isn't merely an accessories exercise from Ducati it's an honest attempt at making the neo retro scrambler thing that can hang on the trails so once you start looking at these stats kind of putting them all together it kind of begs the question what the hell is this bike is it a dual sport I'm not quiet it's too heavy and it has tires that are way too fat to cut through deep ruts like a dirt bike anyways is it an adventure bike not really either it's about a hundred and twenty pounds lighter than a BMW GS 1200 and the Africa coin weighs about 556 pounds and it doesn't have all those fancy spaceship gizmos either is it a sport bike come on I've owned the desert sled for a little over a month and after taking it down some single tracks hooting it on gravel roads and getting the rear end squirrely jumping curbs in my town and just enjoying the ever-loving out of this thing it finally dawned on me the Ducati desert sled is actually a middleweight naked ATV bike let's take something like Yamahas new tenner a 780 v bike that everyone is losing their minds over it's time for specs again my dudes the ténéré 700 has a 43 millimeter fork up front offering 8.25 inches of travel sled has 46 millimeter beefier units and slightly less travel it has a 21 and 18 inch front rear wheel sizes 21 inch tires are a great option for this bike but the sleds 19's are gonna do ok has Pirelli scorpion rally STR tires which is the same tire as the desert sled it has an aluminum skid plate and 9.4 4 inches of ground clearance sound familiar no real rider aids are advanced electronics which is the same as the sled and most importantly 450 pounds full of fuel which is virtually identical to the sled if a bit heavier depending on if you get an exhaust for the Scrambler do this exercise with any of the latest crop of middleweight adventure bikes and the story becomes very clear the scrambler is a secret adventure motorcycle so why is it that we see the tenner a 700 on rugged mountainous terrains and their own scoff at those who choose a bike that doesn't actually look like a 90s transformer toy it's simple the cachet the Ducati scrambler brand has accumulated is dense and it's difficult to sift through but if you do catch a test ride on that sled you'll really start to understand it to put it in the simplest of terms this bike is just a hundred percent fun I haven't laughed out loud all riding a bike this much since I first started out around town those beefy off-road components means that any pothole any speed bump any kerb it's nothing to you I've launched this thing off sidewalk grants pretended it was a supermoto around town at the v-twin smashed into potholes because I knew I could it's an absolute hooligan on the street with a full pipe singing those lovely L twin sounds you'd be hard-pressed to find a more fun package taking the desert sled onto a back road is surprisingly well joyful God am I really gonna use their branding to in this video the bike flicks in and lightens up so much as you ride it it really doesn't feel like a four hundred and thirty pound bike the tall bar is an overall commanding seat gives you an incredibly fun way to flick it through corners and then the fun doesn't stop when the pavement runs out you can rip this thing off Road - now I don't have much experience offroad read I literally have none but I've been having a blast learning how to manage the sled in mixed conditions taking it off small jumps river crossings doing rolling burnouts on gravel roads because well it's basically a huge dirt bike with a 75 horsepower engine and if I ever felt out of my element I just remember that I'm on a bike that has almost exactly the same on paper stats as a Yamaha Tenere 700 so I'm gonna spot my exit for this rocky hill give it the full Sun and power it up baby which is not gonna be a problem with that torquey engine is it a dirt bike no of course not it's not pretending to be some lightweight single cylinder dirt bike that's flying through a single track or a hard enduro even a bone stock drz 400 would wipe the floor with the sled and would be easier through some of the gnarlier stuff but the drz cannot give you the breadth of experiences that the scrambler can and now I'd like to talk about the way it looks I'm gonna be completely honest with you guys this is how my purchase of the desert sled went I had been eyeing the bike for literally I think a year maybe months I finally scheduled the test-drive at the dealership I said wouldn't buy it I said that I'd weigh my options and see what I'd like to get but as soon as I saw the thing in real life I fell in love and I bought it the same day when you know you know and the feeling I get every time I jump off the scrambler and look back at it is something that every motorcyclist chases this bike rules if you're thinking of one definitely go test ride it because it is tall it is pretty big and it can be intimidating for shorter riders but I don't regret it for one second now some of the bad I've noticed in my time of the sled neutral is insanely difficult to find when this bike is turned off I have no idea why that is it just is and I have to deal with it apparently it's something that Ducatis kind of all suffer from I didn't realize this there's no way of slicing it it's an expensive motorcycle - right around $13,000 which we will discuss soon in relation to its competition namely one from England because it's such a new platform there's not that much aftermarket support which is a shame since I'm looking for an upgraded skid plate but besides that god I love this thing I regret nothing this bike rules if thinking of getting one just do it there's so much fun so what about the elephant in the room why didn't I get the triumph scrambler 1200 X II aren't I a die-hard triumph guy honestly I didn't really want a 1200 cc engine for my off-roading fun the triumph scrambler feels absolutely enormous and it has a very lazy and laggy throttle for some reason even though the Ducati weighs about the same the triumph when I rode one in London it felt huge it felt dense unflinching also considering the fact that it's 15 for MSRP and you're looking at 16,000 at the door that's a bit hard to swallow for what's effectively going to be for me just a cool-looking toy well the scrambler XE does have more suspension travel it's just not a bike I fell in love with and when you're looking at again getting a toy that's over ten thousand dollars you better make sure you love it for an everyday bike you can't do much better than the desert sled honest to god I have gotten more comments and questions about this motorcycle than any other I've ever owned older folks like to ask what it is because it reminds them of their bike younger folks like to talk specs price and tell me how cool they think it is I even had a guy come up to me while I was out on some trails and mentioned how was impressed I was taking such a bike down those trails I made it through the other end a far better rider but quite tired the scrambler has been my introduction to dual sporting unfortunate them in a position to get such a bike bang it around and learn some stuff with it and hopefully continue down this rabbit hole of off-roading because dual sporting is truly the best thing you can do to improve your riding overall learning how the rear end skids around in low grip situations climbing steep hills picking lines and keeping your visions up those are all skills that translate extremely well to pretty much all facets of riding so do the answer the original question how did I get here to be honest I don't even care all that matters isn't having fun on a motorcycle that I love thanks for watching this video guys if you're new around here hit subscribe we post up new videos nearly every day for your viewing pleasure we're also giving away some bikes which is pretty sweet click the links below to learn about that and again if you're here for the sled I'll be posting up new videos about it pretty much every week something like that thanks again I'll catch you next time see you later [Music]

Channel: Yammie Noob

Views: 246,955

Rating: 4.832696 out of 5

Keywords: ducati, 2019, scrambler, yammie noob, yammienoob, ducati scrambler, desert sled, review, triumph, motorcycle review, adv bike review, off road, dual sport motorcycle, beginner dual sport, beginner motorcycle, motorcycle compilation, motorcycle vlog, motovlog, motovlogger, funny, comedy

Id: hm44uac02J8

Length: 14min 54sec (894 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 21 2019