Long-term Scrambler gets its feet wet

Plan A was for spouse Ms M Snr to ride it up to the goldfield region in Victoria for the All British Rally, a mostly classic bike fest run by the BSA club that attracts a monumental 1000-or-so participants.

Now I've always been keen on the Scrambler because it fits tall people like me (approx 190cm) but was curious to see how the 165cm Ms M would get on. We dropped the rear suspension preload to minimum and adjusted the handlevers so they were as close as possible to the handlebars, which was enough to make her a very happy camper. Well, that was until she got drenched in the first decent rain the area has seen in several months, and found herself sharing the bike with a travelling companion whose own machine had gone to lunch.

Still, a fire and a couple of glasses of red seemed to fix any temporary inconvenience.

The Scrambler was picked up with less than four km on the odo, and we've been riding it gently but more or less normally for the near 500km it's since done.

It's all been trouble-free, as you'd expect, and we're getting to like the generally easy-going manners of the machine, which makes it particularly undemanding to ride.

Some poking around revealed the owner's manual, which says we need to take it in for a first service at 800km, and then every 10,000 from there on. That suggests it should be pretty cheap to run, though I reckon we'll be looking for an oil change every 5000km as a precaution.

We did at one stage load it up with two large men and luggage, as a matter of necessity. This took it a little past its recommended 200 kilo payload and it seemed to cope okay. The rear suspension, still on minimum preload, was bottoming out regularly but that was the only sign that we were stretching the limits.

Get it dirty, as we comprehensively did on the last trip, and you soon discover that cleaning requires a little patience, as there is a lot of detail stuff to get into, around and behind – particularly the chrome. That's to be expected, and it was nice to discover the pinstriping on the tank, which is done by hand with a brush, is signed by the person responsible, just under the nose of the seat.

I suspect the bike will be doing city duties for most of the next few hundred kay, until the first service, then there's talk of a run up to Tintaldra on the Murray River, which will give it a decent chance to stretch its proverbial legs.

We'll keep you up to date on how it goes, and if anyone out there has a bright idea on what we should name it, we're all ears.

Guy Allen (Email: Guy.Allen@traderclassifieds.com.au)