Compare the scrambler

[Deano]

Hey other scrambler riders. I am wondering how you other people compare the scrambler with other rides you have / had. Both the performance and handling. Just been out for a blat with a group of other bikes, have to ride fairly hard to keep up with others at 120-130kms hr through the twisties. Suspension is definetly a problem, bouncing, wallowing around. Then at 120, open up the throttle, lots of roar with the TOR's, but not too much surge ahead, just a slow steady climb in speed. The trailwings feel very lumpy on the lean, do other tyres improve the ride.
Do you ride with other groups and how does it go? Genuine enquiry, would really like to know, appreciate help here. Wondering if all these aspects can be improved, or do I have the wrong bike?????
Deano

 

[trustme]

G'day mate, since we are from the same neck of the woods my opinions may be of some relevance.
I ride with a group of mates whose bikes range from cruisers through the likes of Tigers old & new, Beemers including an R12RS, Hornets , ST 1300, Dukes,Bonnies, pretty much everything but full on sports bikes, as we are all too old & broken arsed to fit on them.
I can keep up with all of them until the speeds get over 130kph, however I had to change my riding style, as a generalisation guys on faster bikes tend to point & squirt relying on horsepower to make progress, I now try to carry lots of corner speed, I don't go much over 120 but there is bugger all hard braking & I usually shortshift & try to carry momentum as much as possible. The tighter & windier the road the better. Takaka Hill , The Rimutukas, The Forgotten Hiway & I am in my element, not huge speeds but pretty quick & a clean license. As an aside, on a ride through the Forgotten Hiway the mate on the ST1300 decided to really turn it on & I tucked in behind. It took me a while to work that all the banging, scraping noises were his undercarraige dragging on the ground, that thing was surpisingly quick, for my part, I sraped the pegs a couple of times, any short straights & he would pull ahead , corners & I would reel him in. Heaps of fun , on more open roads he would be gone.
Suspension :- Racetech kitted front , Ohlins rear , YSS appears to be pretty good as well . Makes a huge difference, they are still a little loose when pushed, they will never be a Duke but mine is way better than stock
Tyres :- I like the Pirelli Scorpions & The Avon Distanzias, others like the Tourance or the Annakee, all are better than stock on tarseal wet or dry & at least it's equal off seal.
Power :- Only fixed by applying lashings of money.
Brakes:- Upgrade front disc pads for more bite
Unsealed roads :- Way more fun & far better than you might expect, The suspension work pays off big time.

Summary, no way would I go back to the Sprint, I enjoy the Scram, it requires a little more technique to get the most out of it compared to your average sport tourer, suits me down to the ground, & I would not think twice about having a crack at The Molesworth, Rainbow Road, Danseys Pass or the Black Forest road in fact I would go looking for them.

As an aside the Scram & I don't suit a lot of group rides, On the last Rat ride I attended I was comfortably quicker than the Bonnies & Cruisers, unable to match the quick guys which was fine but the mid pace riders often passed me at the end of the straights & the dribbled through the corners which was most frustrating, I'm not bagging Rat, there are some seriously good riders amongst them, just the way I ride I guess
Sorry if this is long winded & a touch location specific for most but Deano will know the places I am talking about.

Good luck

 

[trustme]

Apologies , double post

 

[KingBear]

Hey trustme, you know you can actually delete a post rather then leaving it hanging out there. Go to edit, then delete, then delete message, twice to be sure. Just a friendly hint.

 

[Deano]

G'day mate, since we are from the same neck of the woods my opinions may be of some relevance.
I ride with a group of mates whose bikes range from cruisers through the likes of Tigers old & new, Beemers including an R12RS, Hornets , ST 1300, Dukes,Bonnies, pretty much everything but full on sports bikes, as we are all too old & broken arsed to fit on them.
I can keep up with all of them until the speeds get over 130kph, however I had to change my riding style, as a generalisation guys on faster bikes tend to point & squirt relying on horsepower to make progress, I now try to carry lots of corner speed, I don't go much over 120 but there is bugger all hard braking & I usually shortshift & try to carry momentum as much as possible. The tighter & windier the road the better. Takaka Hill , The Rimutukas, The Forgotten Hiway & I am in my element, not huge speeds but pretty quick & a clean license. As an aside, on a ride through the Forgotten Hiway the mate on the ST1300 decided to really turn it on & I tucked in behind. It took me a while to work that all the banging, scraping noises were his undercarraige dragging on the ground, that thing was surpisingly quick, for my part, I sraped the pegs a couple of times, any short straights & he would pull ahead , corners & I would reel him in. Heaps of fun , on more open roads he would be gone.
Suspension :- Racetech kitted front , Ohlins rear , YSS appears to be pretty good as well . Makes a huge difference, they are still a little loose when pushed, they will never be a Duke but mine is way better than stock
Tyres :- I like the Pirelli Scorpions & The Avon Distanzias, others like the Tourance or the Annakee, all are better than stock on tarseal wet or dry & at least it's equal off seal.
Power :- Only fixed by applying lashings of money.
Brakes:- Upgrade front disc pads for more bite
Unsealed roads :- Way more fun & far better than you might expect, The suspension work pays off big time.

Summary, no way would I go back to the Sprint, I enjoy the Scram, it requires a little more technique to get the most out of it compared to your average sport tourer, suits me down to the ground, & I would not think twice about having a crack at The Molesworth, Rainbow Road, Danseys Pass or the Black Forest road in fact I would go looking for them.

As an aside the Scram & I don't suit a lot of group rides, On the last Rat ride I attended I was comfortably quicker than the Bonnies & Cruisers, unable to match the quick guys which was fine but the mid pace riders often passed me at the end of the straights & the dribbled through the corners which was most frustrating, I'm not bagging Rat, there are some seriously good riders amongst them, just the way I ride I guess
Sorry if this is long winded & a touch location specific for most but Deano will know the places I am talking about.

Good luck

Cheers trust me, thank you sooooo damn much. that was just the answer I was looking for.
I will use either of the first two tyre recommendations you have suggested. I only have 5,000km on the scram (from new) but the trailwing at the back is shagged, while the front one is fine. I dont know if that is normal for one of these???? but dosen't seem like high KM's to me. 80% of my riding is twisties. I live in the Buller Gorge (if you ever been through here you will understand)
I do really like the scram, like the look, the sound, and your'e right about the fun to be had, riding like that. It seems to all be in choosing that line, and keeping the hammer down, momentum up, as you said. I guess it is a different riding style, and I need to accept it for what it is eh. Thanks man.
Deano

 

[trustme]

Cheers trust me, thank you sooooo damn much. that was just the answer I was looking for.
I will use either of the first two tyre recommendations you have suggested. I only have 5,000km on the scram (from new) but the trailwing at the back is shagged, while the front one is fine. I dont know if that is normal for one of these???? but dosen't seem like high KM's to me. 80% of my riding is twisties. I live in the Buller Gorge (if you ever been through here you will understand)
I do really like the scram, like the look, the sound, and your'e right about the fun to be had, riding like that. It seems to all be in choosing that line, and keeping the hammer down, momentum up, as you said. I guess it is a different riding style, and I need to accept it for what it is eh. Thanks man.
Deano

Glad to help, I got 4500km out of the B'stones, 5500 out of Anakees but there was a lot of unsealed roads along the way. Pirellis were almost 10000, Avons a little more again & currently a lot of my riding is done in the company of my wife who rides at nana pace. I'd rate the Pirellis marginally ahead of the Avons but there is little in it , the Avons last better & I think are slightly cheaper, up my way the Tourances are way dearer so I have not tried them.
Buller Gorge, yum yum , bikers heaven for those who have never been there & just up the road from ' The Blackball Hilton ' , my kind of pub.

 

[tribear]

Hey Deano.
You can tap a BUNCH more power with a dual entry airbox mod and it's cheap. Only purchase is a K&N filter and some new main jets (assuming you already own an electric dremel tool. This would be in addition to pulling the snorkel, opening up the size of the intake hole on the left side and pullling the restrictor plate from inside the airbox. Pretty damned big gains. To give you an idea I went from 120 main jets to 135's with this mod at 6,000 ft. above sea level. Lots more air, lots more fuel, lots more power. Fuel economy was not affected once tuned/jetted properly.

 

[GuyM]

Deano - time to time I ride in some pretty fast company, but the Scram hangs in there unless we get to riding really silly for the street.

Yes, it's SLOW in comparison to the sport bikes. I'm not as impressed with the power unleashed by airbox, carb and exhaust mods as others. Seems to need even more to me, like a set of high compression pistons and cams at a minimum, or maybe even a big bore kit - but... That starts adding up to quite a bit of money - so I just crank on the power in the turn, and hope to hold onto enough speed to keep up with the sport bikes.

Anytime they really want to leave me behind, they can. But... they've got to get pretty darned illegal to do it.

Also ride with a guy on a KTM 990 - that is FUN! He's got acceleration all over the Scram, but it really doesn't seem to handle the rough stuff a lot better despite all that suspension travel. Perhaps it's because the Scram carries the weight so low? Beats me.

Regards, Guy

 

[Aussiebikerdave]

Deano, Spent a week in the South Island and a week in the North Island last year riding the B-in-L's Rocket 3 (he lives in Wgtn). Happened to ride the Buller Gorge three times, Arthurs Pass and Lewis Pass once, the Rumatukas three times, the back road from Masterton to Dannevirke once, the Piheatua Track once and the Akataroa to Wiakanae Road (not good on the Rocket!) once so we had some fun. I reckon any of these roads would be great on the Scram. Mine has been tweaked in the engine with a set of cams from Thunderbike in Nelson, port and polish, shaved one mm off the head, air box removed and Arrow pipe. When ridden like Trustme rides, this little Scram is as quick as any and faster than most because the 72hp that it now pumps out is ALL useable!
It's even quicker now its been converted to street bike specs! Hey, they tell me you've got to watch out for cops doing u turns on blind corners in the Gorge!

Here's the same bike...

Three bikes on one, its almost religious! Cafe racer, trail bike and adventure tourer.

 

[Deano]

Wow Aussie Dave, that is f....n inspiring. Love the bike setup for trail, with the brake calipers up out of the road, the suspension, barkbusters,screen, light changes, the list goes on, but then the amount of changes to make her into the road version. F....n wow!!!!!!I can see some serious money there, just in cycle parts without the engine mods. I have been considering the Thunderbike cam's, and seeing that you have 70hp on tap, to my 51hp, I could definetly live with that. It would make all the difference, especially with the suspension changes, so it's all going to ground. by the way my back tyre is wearing, I can see its spending heaps of time slipping and not powering, can feel it on the rough, like the engine is trying, but the power isnt getting to the ground.
That has given me the inspiration to carry on with this little good looking bike.
Deano

Deano, Spent a week in the South Island and a week in the North Island last year riding the B-in-L's Rocket 3 (he lives in Wgtn). Happened to ride the Buller Gorge three times, Arthurs Pass and Lewis Pass once, the Rumatukas three times, the back road from Masterton to Dannevirke once, the Piheatua Track once and the Akataroa to Wiakanae Road (not good on the Rocket!) once so we had some fun. I reckon any of these roads would be great on the Scram. Mine has been tweaked in the engine with a set of cams from Thunderbike in Nelson, port and polish, shaved one mm off the head, air box removed and Arrow pipe. When ridden like Trustme rides, this little Scram is as quick as any and faster than most because the 72hp that it now pumps out is ALL useable!
It's even quicker now its been converted to street bike specs! Hey, they tell me you've got to watch out for cops doing u turns on blind corners in the Gorge!

Three bikes on one, its almost religious! Cafe racer, trail bike and adventure tourer.

 

[thesomberlain]

IMO Step 1; before air box removal, rejet, anything : Get new tires! All the cornering difference in the world. (And the corners are where it counts.)

 

[jewel]

Hey other scrambler riders. I am wondering how you other people compare the scrambler with other rides you have / had. Both the performance and handling. Just been out for a blat with a group of other bikes, have to ride fairly hard to keep up with others at 120-130kms hr through the twisties. Suspension is definetly a problem, bouncing, wallowing around. Then at 120, open up the throttle, lots of roar with the TOR's, but not too much surge ahead, just a slow steady climb in speed. The trailwings feel very lumpy on the lean, do other tyres improve the ride.
Do you ride with other groups and how does it go? Genuine enquiry, would really like to know, appreciate help here. Wondering if all these aspects can be improved, or do I have the wrong bike?????
Deano

Hi from Oz,
In todays Courier Mail Newspaper there is an article on suspension for the Scrambler.
Quote: We fitted the base model $585 Gazi Sport-X to a Triumph Scrambler and found the initial feel was much plusher in the early part of the stroke with a tougher end of the stroke to prevent hitting the bump stops on big hits. Triumph suspension can be a little harsh, choppy and crass.
Visit: www.gazisuspension.com

Jewel

 

[bonnxton]

Good advice everyone.
What's the best front end suspension fix?
(I'm in the USA)

Dave