2015 DUCATI SCRAMBLER
FIRST RIDE
P60
ARE YOU
EXPERIENCED?
Times
Ducati
T
he sixties; a time of radical change and
rebellion, of unadulterated freedoms. The
young generation was swimming in an un-
precedented array of indulgences in virtually ev-
ery aspect of life. A young musician by the name
of Jimi Hendrix was gigging his way to guitar
God status, creating the songs that would even-
tually comprise his debut album, Are You Expe-
rienced? If you were a motorcyclist, there was
a burgeoning love affair with motorcycles being
fueled by prodigious offerings of sleek, cool ma-
chines on import from Japan and Europe.
Amidst the various imported foreign metal
came a bike from Italy that managed to antici-
pate and foster the prevailing atmosphere in
America of rebellion and personal freedom: the
Ducati Scrambler. The Scrambler is significant
because the original 1962 machine represented
the first true amalgamation between the styling,
heritage, and mystique of the Italian manufac-
turer with the fierce individualism that was de-
fining America. It was a motorized marriage of
opposites built on the shared love of beautiful
craftsmanship and raw emotion.
Though ardently Italian in terms of design flow
and engineering, Ducati paid respectful homage
to America by invoking the Scrambler moniker.
The marketing materials claim the name came
from "scramble," (mix up, or blend). But it actu-
ally came from "Hare Scrambles," which is what
desert races in Southern California were re-
BY JEFF BUCHANAN
