VOL. 53 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 20, 2016 P77
see dealers and customizers in
the aftermarket taking the bike
and building scramblers off it
anyway," says Yamaha's U.S.
Product Planning manager,
Derek Brooks. "That was a bit
of a confirmation to us that we
were heading the right direction
with the SCR."
The SCR950 uses the same
powertrain as the Bolt but with
drastically changed
ergonomics, seating
position, aesthetics
and styling. Gone
are the clip-on bars,
single seat, low-slung
exhaust, cast alumi-
num wheels, gold
rear shocks and long rear guard,
replaced by a single piece bar,
flat one-piece seat in the tradi-
tional scrambler style, upswept
exhaust, spoked wheels, silver
shocks and steel fenders. You
also get repositioned footpegs,
chunky block Bridgestone TW
rubber, a neat little digital tacho
that doesn't display much infor-
mation at all and vintage colors
that adorned bikes like the
XT500 from the early '70s.
The motor that's wedged
between the steel frame
rails feels about as heavy
as a boat anchor when you
first take the SCR off the
sidestand and in all truths it
probably is. Thankfully it per-
forms better than this horrifically
overused figure of speech as
there's plenty of torque on offer
between—eesh, I don't know
what rpm, as the tacho won't tell
me!—all I can tell you is it's low
down, right where you want it
from a big V-twin. It's a far-from-
intimidating engine and perfect
for sub-60 mph cruising, using
You might find
you're doing
this more than
intended on a
long ride. The
seat got real hard
after 45 minutes.
