Will this be the new Ducati Scrambler?

You might recall that last July we wrote about the forthcoming much rumoured Ducati Scrambler after MCN published a 'how it might look' pic, and on asking Ducati about the bike's existence or planned existence, we were told 'Are you joking, it's just a Photoshop job?' Well, the pic in MCN might have been, but seems the actual model's development is well under way, according to Moto.It, who have published more blurry, pixelated shots on their website.

Understandably, it doesn't look like much presently, does it? Like one of those sort of 50/125cc moto motard type things they make for teenagers to look cool on. Moto.it reckon the motor is a 696 or 796cc unit from the entry level Monster. Impossible to comment on any styling at present, though hope it's not going to have that awful headlamp, and will favour spoked wheels over cast.

The biggest shame for us is that it's not going to be a single cylinder motor. Maybe you just won't get enough power from an air cooled 600/750cc single cylinder engine or get around Euro pollution restrictions, and to consider water-cooling would be a travesty. It's understandable that Ducati don't want to invest millions in setting up tooling etc. to do this, but with a V twin motor in reality it'll be a Ducati Scrambler inspired by name only. It'll have to look like something special to really distinguish it from the myriad of Ducati Monster models you can buy nowadays.

We've a got Alan Cathcart's full feature and road test on Umberto Borile's Scrambler coming up in Issue 6, so read that, then consider where Ducati should go with the Scrambler.

Issue 6 - still on its way....

Apologies - seems like the printers that are supposed to be printing Issue 6 are either printing it by hand using intricately-cut King Edward potato typefaces and oven chip-pixel photos stamped onto virtually carbon zero paper woven over decades by small trained Chilean cave-dwelling spiders - or they've just f*cked up and it's going to be another week before it arrives here - hopefully, looking as it should.

In the meantime, here's an outtake photo from the above-mentioned Issue 6 of Dave Hamilton's Ducati Cucciolo motor - his article about how his and many other Cucciolos ended up on the other side of the world from Bologna makes fascinating reading. Watch this space for news on Issue 6...

Issue 6 on its way - and Happy Birthday Dave!

At last, finally, amazingly, Issue 6 of ITALIAN MOTOR is off to the printers and we hope to have the magazines back in a week - watch this space.

Cover shot is courtesy of Oldtimer Dave and his wonderful old Ducati Cucciolo complete with vintage Mosca pin-up girl water slide decal. Dave's been a true friend and supporter of ours since the beginning and really gets what we try and do, so - Happy Birthday Dave!

Non-starter for 10

I carried out my usual post-winter routine the other day when the sun came out and I wanted to ride my 750 for the first time since November. I've really got it down to a tee nowadays after 22 years.

1) Drag bike out.
2) Get dressed in full leathers in anticipation of nice ride.
3) Ignition on, fuel on, press starter switch.
4) Bike doesn't start.
5) Try and jump start bike off 2 litre VW van with massive battery.
6) Still doesn't start. Get angry and sweat more.
7) Give up and put bike away.
8) Get changed again and go home.
9) Take battery with me and leave on trickle charge.
10) Try again this weekend.

Apparently some other people charge their batteries up over winter and also put stuff in the fuel tank too. Maybe I should try this one year but old bad habits die hard...