Triumph Street Scrambler - Scrambling Versatility

While at Seville in southern Spain, we also took the newTriumph Street Scrambler out for a first ride.

- Roland Brown

MORE THAN A decade later, my cold hands bring the memories rushing back. Right now I’m riding Triumph’s new Street Scrambler on a broad, undulating road in southern Spain; numb fingers gripping a wide, one-piece handlebar, looking out over a single speedometer and shapely petrol tank as the parallel-twin burble of the high-level exhaust is lost in the crisp morning air. And I’m thinking back to January 2006, when I borrowed Triumph’s first Scrambler model from the Hinckley factory, and tried desperately (and not very successfully) to imagine that I was riding a Bonneville-based desert sled through sunny California in the swinging 1960s, while ploughing through the English Midlands in mid-winter.

Plenty has changed since then, not least the Scrambler’s reputation. That first model initially made little impact, barely selling 1,000 units most years despite its stylish looks and resemblance to legendary Meriden-built “desert sleds” (Triumphs inspired that phrase decades before Ducatis) such as the TR6 and T120TT — hot, stripped-down 650-cc twins that were among the fastest and coolest bikes on America’s West Coast in the 1950s and ’60s.

Despite barely being tweaked apart from the adoption of fuel-injection, the Scrambler gradually gained in popularity until it had become a cult classic. Over the years its image has been enhanced by loose association with icons from Steve McQueen to David Beckham, it has starred in numerous movies plus Doctor Who, and inspired countless shed-built specials.