Ducati Scrambler concepts tout bike's customization potential
Ducati flew into London for the Bike Shed MotoShow with two second-generation Scrambler-based concepts, one of them an English special. As with previous concepts based on the trail-hound bike, Ducati Centro Stile designers used these to showcase how much personalization is possible with the Scrambler, repeating the phrase “post-heritage” to stress being free of tradition’s shackles. The first concept, the RR24I, emphasizes the bike’s basic nature. Cued off the “aesthetic of recent post-apocalyptic cinema and TV sagas,” this is the one you hop on with your go-bag and your Louisville Slugger. Almost anything that isn’t necessary to get to the next town — undoubtedly named something like Haven or New Eden — got left on the garage floor.
What’s left has been burnished to highlight materials, metal, leather, glass, and rubber. To help a rider reach the next town, a jug mounted at the back on the left is made from recycled jerry cans, the pillion seat can be removed to install a luggage rack, and a tank bag hangs off the frame where the Scrambler’s tank-side panels normally reside. The Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR 50/50 tires on cross-spoke wheels will get an Apocalypse raider through most of what’s left after civilization, the high and minimal mud guard won’t keep the rider from wearing the terrain, though.
The other concept, the CR24I, was inspired by much more informal London bike shows of many years ago, the kind held outside cafes and full of cafe racers gunning it from one coffee spot to another. You can smell the leather and Lavazza just taking a gander at the bikini fairing, clip-on bars with underslung bar-end mirrors, tank fairing, and slender seat with a fairing over the passenger’s quarters. Ducati designers didn’t change any performance aspects of either concept, however, they did shrink the front wheel on the CR24I by one inch to 17 inches, matching the rear.
The Italians gave no indication either of these would make production, which is no surprise. If the question were considered, we’d be fine with the CR24I as is, whereas instead of the RR24I, we’d prefer Ducati gave Alex Earle a call about an after-Earth bike. His Desert Sled concept, built on the first-gen Scrambler and introduced at Villa d’Este in 2018, was something we could enjoy outrunning zombies on.
