Scrambler motorcycles and how they were born.?

Every now and then we come across some of the other manufacturers who have been launching Scramblers. Scrambles up pretty subjective motorcycles and is quite utilitarian. They had only one purpose which was going off the road. When the roads ended. Today let’s go and have a look at how scramblers were made and how their existence came into being.

How Did it Start?

Somewhere in the onset of the 20th century and motorcycles were in quite a rage and almost every household had one. The motorcycles back then, varied in their engine sizes, ranging from 100 cc’s to 400 cc’s. And somewhere upwards of them as well. Most of these were made to go on the road and some of these were made to go very fast. It was then a few of these crazy people thought. What happens when the road ends? What happens when you take them off the road? So this is when a bunch of few English men. Set out to modify the motorcycles so that they can be taken off the road. And thus began a new form of racing. This bunch of blokes preferred to be fast & never paid heed to the Rules.

What makes a bike a scrambler?

Essentially going offroad meant the bikes had to have a couple of compulsory things:

1. High-mounted exhaust for the times when you would be crossing streams of water.
2. Short seats, allowing for to reduction of unnecessary clutter.
3. Needed to have torque instead of high top speed
4. Big tires with knobs to get over sand and other obstacles.

What were they used for?

And this is how scramblers were born. Scramblers were essentially your road-going bikes which were Modified in a way to go off-road. They welded, chopped, and did whatnot to their street bikes which then became something more savage. The stock tires were replaced with knobby tires, the unnecessary parts were taken off. Some installed taller suspensions, some windscreens and the list went on. And this is how the scramblers were born.

Now as time went on, scramblers gained immense popularity in the 1960s, and there were scramble races introduced back then, which became the official offroad racing circuits. Seeing this, a lot of manufacturers jumped in the wagon.

Manufacturers like Honda, Triumph, and a few others began offering scrambler models directly from the showrooms. Then there were a few like Steve Mcqueen who performed some amazing feats over the scramblers, which in turn pushed the popularity even more.! all in an era where dirt bikes were not even born.

What happened to scramblers in recent years?

Scramblers unfortunately were considered old bikes. These bikes were slowly replaced by dirt bikes and motocross bikes. As dirt bikes had longer suspension travel, were lightweight, and had an insane power-to-weight ratio, scramblers eventually started to fade out.

Are scramblers making a comeback?

As seen earlier, Scramblers were existing for quite some time and now recently have made a major comeback. The technology back then limited the modifications to make the bike more off-road compliant. A modern scrambler now has longer suspension travel, and better tires to navigate the broken path. Triumph was one of the first to introduce the scrambler again in 2006 which became an instant hit, and other manufacturers like Ducati followed.

Nowadays scramblers are picking up again, especially with the young generation in the custom bikes scenario.

Let us know in the comments section which scrambler you like.