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Review of the 1973 Ducati 250 Scrambler:A Great Thumper From a Forgotten Era |
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Author: Clayton Hinman, 2010-03-12, viewed 237 times. | ||||||
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The Ducati 250 Scramble may very well be the most overlooked dual purpose treasure of its era. It was comfortable in town or off on a cow path. While it seamed tame, it was surprisingly comfortable loping up and down steep grades. | ||||||
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Thumpers and Saturdays go together like Jazz and Bourbon Street. From it´s gear driven cams to its melodic straight pipe, the Ducati 250 Scramble is the purist´s example of eloquent. Bawdy, long stroking, and high in torque, it could lug itself up and down steep inclines with a cobbed throttle and a throaty burp. This bike was capable of handling highway speeds, in-town get-abouts, cow pastures, gravel roads, and steep inclines. It was the dual purpose machine most manufacturers were trying to perfect. Typical of Ducati at the time, the key switch was primitive and begged to be picked. The mushy grips helped reduce the vibrations so indicative of single cylinder motorcycles. The cables hung down and invited themselves to get caught on tall brush and tamarack. As melodic as the exhaust pipe sounded, it lacked the spark arrestor that would later be required on most public lands. The air filter was barely adequate yet it did offer the advantage of being washable. At first the gearbox seemed like a handful of straight cut gears. Ten minutes on this bike and shifting gears seemed so natural that I stopped being concerned about it. The drum brakes easily out bested most bikes from this era. From the paint job (which looked as hard as a baked on finish) to the quality chrome and detail on the polished covers, it was more refined than you´d expect from a bike they´d worked so hard to keep clean, simple, and uncluttered. The only downside was that at a time when buyers would have been most receptive to it, dealerships were few and far between. Too bad, too. Its narrow profile, low slung gunslinger seat, mushy grips and general geometry was a hoot. |
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