Ducati Scrambler Icon: Amore Californiano

“Best way to live in California is to be from somewhere else.” This line, lifted from Cormac McCarthy’s novel No Country for Old Men, fits the new Ducati Scrambler Icon pretty well. Like no other motorcycle, it embodies the California way of life from a European perspective. The lightness and ease, the possibility of riding along an avenue lined with tall palm trees on your way to the beach, with fine sand in your sun-bleached hair and a satisfied smile on your lips. That’s how you imagine it from somewhere else. The somewhere else, in this case, is Italy, Emilia-Romagna, a region that is home to some of the most famous motorcycle and automobile brands. And that’s a pretty good combination in itself, to say the least. In other words, it’s easy to lose your heart to the new Ducati Scrambler Icon.

But let’s start from the beginning, shall we, and ask ourselves exactly what California and Ducati are all about. First introduced in 1962, the Scrambler was the first Ducati initially and specially made for the American market and for California in particular. The idea in Bologna was to build a bike that you could easily ride to the beach, maybe alone, maybe together, maybe with a surfboard or with your dog. That explains the tires, which were designed for light off-roading. But it didn’t take long for the Italians to realize what a great bike it was in general. And so the Scrambler became the first Ducati to find its way not from Italy to the world, but from the world back to Italy and Europe.

So there it stands. In Thrilling Black. Red is for racers. Always has been. The GPS shows its current location in Valencia, Spain, but more on that later. Start engine. The V2 at idle. Two cylinders, ample displacement. And there it is, the Italian way of life! And that means dolce vita, which in turn is defined by simple ingredients in just the right combination. That’s what the Italians do best. According to Ducati, the new Scrambler is made from seventy percent new parts compared to the previous model, but only thirty percent of the engine has been redone. That’s what you call core competence. At the pump, especially in the city, the following holds true: abstinence can only become a virtue where abundance is served on a silver platter. A great exercise!

The morning is young, so I leave the city, head up into the mountains, into the curves. My thoughts drift off into the past. And to a not so simple relationship: In my early years, I was once ( . . . )

→ Read the full story in ramp #61 "Love Is in the Air".