LONGTERMERS
DUCATI
SCRAMBLER ICON
CRASH TESTING
M
Y DUCATI SCRAMBLER
was the second one to hit
the road in Australia, after
a bike reserved for one of Ducati
Australia’s brand ambassadors. Of
course I don’t mean that it was the
second one to hit the road as in, you
know, hit the road. Terminate on the
tarmac. Mash the mac
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on. No. I suspect that
a few others did that
before mine. But
mine did it, when
I miscalculated a
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I’ve done many
thousands of
times, on a stretch
of road that I’ve
ridden just about
every weekday for
thirty years.
It was a low speed crash. I bounced
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ODQHVZKLOHÀOWHULQJDQGKLWWKHURDG
indeed. Fortunately I didn’t damage
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on that below. But what about my
bike, and me as we hit the kerb? This
was a top test of the bike’s equipment
and my clothing.
The most important items on the
bike were the Oggy Knobbs whichLWKDVKDGÀWWHGDOPRVWVLQFHLWZDV
shiny and brand new. They had not
been called on for protection before,
but they did their job perfectly. The
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bent gear lever – easily bent back – and
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side Barkbuster hand protector had a
small... well, almost a smudge on it
where it had hit the car; fortunately, its
shiny carbon surface had not scratched
the paint, and the mark it made on