2017 BMW R NINET SCRAMBLER
FIRST RIDE
P70
S
imple is Best. That's an
axiom that motorcycle
manufacturers around the
world are increasingly turning
towards, as a counterpoint to
the electronically driven tech-
nology race us riders currently
find ourselves in. "There are
lots of people who want to get
away from all that technology,"
says BMW Motorrad's Head of
Design, Edgar Heinrich [see
Interview]. "They want a cool
style above all else, in a lower-
performance package. We must
try to provide that."
A 250-mile two-day trip
through the mountains and
valleys of BeeEm's beautiful
Bavarian backyard and neighbor-
ing Austria, amply demonstrated
the new Scrambler's appeal
as a practical but pleasurable
ride with heaps of personality.
Whereas the more performance
focused original R nineT Road-
ster is mainly a bike for Sunday
morning blasts along a racer
road, its Scrambler sister is
something you'll look forward
to riding any time you can on all
kinds of roads—even in cities.
You can also transform it into
a reasonably capable off-road
bike and certainly an ideal mount
for gravel roads or hard-packed
highways with the aid of the
extensive list of aftermarket
BMW'S THE LATEST BIG NAME
BRAND TO JUMP ON THE
SCRAMBLER BANDWAGON. DOES
THE RIDE LIVE UP TO THE HYPE?
BY ALAN CATHCART
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARKUS JAHN, PETER MUSCH,
ARNOLD DEBUS & JÖRG KÜNSTLE
PRACTICAL
P L E A S U R E
