Ducati Scrambler Custom

Custom motorcycles based on the popular Ducati Scrambler, including the classic air-cooled 250, 350 and 450 bikes and the modern-day ‘new’ Scrambler. Discover the parts and performance upgrades that’ll take your own Ducati Scrambler to the next level.

You don’t need to be a regular reader to know that scramblers are hot. Over the last few years, the term has become the go-to marketing moniker for OEMs looking to cash in on the growing moto lifestyle. From a business standpoint it makes complete sense; the carefree attitude exuded by scramblers appeals to millennials and nostalgists alike.

But in their haste to plaster ‘scrambler’ on everything with a high mount exhaust and less than slick rubber, the manufacturers have diluted its meaning.

I’m not taking anything away from the quality of bikes that are laying claim to this category. We’ve ridden and thoroughly enjoyed quite a few of them. But scramblers they are not. At least not in the classic sense.

The Scrambler Ducati team has been as guilty as the rest of them. Nothing from the Land of Joy was designed with actual backcountry in mind. But unlike the competition from BMW, Triumph and Yamaha, the Italians are now attempting to make amends.

The new Desert Sled is Ducati’s peace offering to us purists. So I went to the Tabernas Desert—in the province of Almería, southeastern Spain—to see if we finally have the legit scrambler we’ve all been waiting for.

Design According to Ducati, the Desert Sled is the bike they’ve wanted to create since the inception of the Scrambler sub-brand. They claim it’s the natural evolution of the Urban Enduro, and draws clear inspiration from the 1969 Baja-winning 350 Desmo, piloted by Doug Douglas.

Given recent trends, you might conclude that the Desert Sled is just an accessories package bolted to an unchanged chassis. But it’s not. It’s an all-new motorcycle, re-designed from the ground up, and it delivers its badassery in more than just the looks department. In fact, after riding it, I would argue that this is the bike that should have started it all.