Recently, I had a conversation with a friend of mine who is interested in buying a motorcycle before riding season starts. He’s really into scramblers, which I think are awesome as well. We texted each other Craigslist ads of scramblers and photos of scramblers that I have taken over the years. After our exchange, a question crossed my mind. Scramblers look really cool, but are they nearly useless?
If you don’t know what a scrambler is, I’ll try to briefly describe one. If you take a street motorcycle and put some knobby tires on it along with stripping excess weight from it (bobbing the fenders, removing unnecessary electrical components, mirrors, etc) you’d essentially have a scrambler. You see, in the past there was no such thing as dirt bikes, so people would change their motorcycles into scramblers to ride off-road. Then, factories picked up on the trend and created their own scramblers. That went away for a while, but in recent years scramblers have become incredibly popular again. You can buy one straight from a dealership or buy a kit to convert your bike.
Now, back to my question. Nowadays, there are a huge variety of off road motorcycles to buy. Motocross bikes, enduros, dual sports, and adventure tourers will outperform a scrambler in the dirt without question. So, what would be the point of owning a scrambler? Well...they look cool!
I wouldn’t recommend a scrambler for someone’s only bike if they planned on doing some serious riding, but if you’re going to ride once a week or so, or need a daily commute motorcycle, go for it! I do have to say that buying a brand new one might be a little excessive cost wise, but if you have the money to spend and will enjoy riding, then more power to you!
“Back in the day, there were no "dirt bikes"; you had to build your own out of a regular road bike, and that's how the scrambler genre was born.” - Aaron Cortez
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