It’s back to the future with this bike and it’s funny how the wackiest of concept bikes can lead to a production model that makes perfect sense!
I was recently invited to Munich to test ride the latest bike to come out of the German factory, the R nineT Scrambler, but let me digress a bit first. Last year, BMW unveiled an R nineT based custom boxer called Concept Path22 at the Wheels & Waves Festival in Biarritz. It was named after, and theoretically built for, a dirt track leading to the local beach. It featured longer-travel suspension, a 19-inch front wheel, single seat, high-level pipes and a huge great surf-board strapped to its side, not much fuss was made about it as it mainly looked like a customised R nineT, but.....
Fast-forward a year, and a two-day blast in Germany and Austria aboard the R nineT Scrambler has just confirmed that the thinking behind Path22 was sound. The new model’s name lacks the imagination of the concept bike’s, and the surf-board is thankfully missing, but the Scrambler manages to combine its hipster vibe with very decent all-round performance and a lower price than the R nineT’s. The bike is rather underwhelming at first glance but, on closer inspection, it’s exactly what BMW actually want from the purchasers of this bike, to feel the need to change, enhance and personalise your ride.
Standing alongside the Path22, it’s actually very obvious that decisions in BMW boardrooms are made long before we catch on, the resemblance is uncanny and it’s almost as if they just tested the water first but, I suppose, that’s exactly what prototypes are intended for!
So, the Scrambler costs less than the R nineT but what has been sacrificed you might ask? For starters it has cast wheels instead of spokes, non-radial Brembo front callipers, and simpler suspension combining gaitered, right-way-up forks with a simple shock that has no hand-operated preload adjuster. The fuel tank still looks exactly the same but it’s steel instead of aluminium. The Scrambler has a single seat with no rear passenger footrests, hangers or the twin speed and rev dials but instead just has a single speedo dial.
What is good is that even though the motor is now Euro 4 compliant the heart of the bike is still the air cooled DOHC 1170cc Boxer motor which feels as if it will have a place in the world of motorcycling for millenniums to come. With bikes like these it makes retro cool and in this ever-increasing technological war of lighter, faster, bigger, it’s quite comforting to just go back to basics, and that’s what we all have in common. We love being on a simple, no frills, easy-to-ride motorcycle which simply brings back the freedom of what two wheeled motion is supposed to be.
The motor’s output with its 110hp max is unchanged, despite the new high-level Akrapovic system that helps it get through Euro4. It typically pulled from idle, punched hard in the mid-range, and even managed to feel respectably strong up top, with enough flat-twin vibration to add some character but not so much that it became annoying. This is the typical BMW Boxer motor feel and it oozes character.
BMW are driving this hipster cool image all the way. On arrival in Munich we were taken to a green house venue where everything was dressed up to look like an old garage with wooden pallet furniture and many cool niceties to look at, very retro in every way. Our route from there was over the Alpine mountains, crossing in and out of Austria and ending up at the venue where the BMW annual Festival is hosted. All bikes were fitted with GPS units so all we had to do was follow directions. Everyone, in our about 40 strong group, left at their own pace and I actually love this way of riding at a launch as opposed to being ducklings in a row which is how we normally ride. Look, the bike has zero wind protection but on these roads, seldom travelling at over 160 km/h, I felt very involved with the riding of the motorcycle and, I must tell you, although I’m the biggest fan of riding bikes with wind protection, there is something quite pure that happens while you are riding something as basic as this.
Ergonomically you sit a little more upright on this bike than on the R nineT, mainly because the handlebars are on risers. The seat, although über cool looking, did start showing off it’s rather designed for coolness than practicality or comfort character. Because I am quite tall my knees were also more bent than what I’d have liked but that is easily remedied with the slightly taller seat option. At lower speeds it was impressively manoeuvrable, helped by a generous steering lock and the fact that by scrambler standards the slim seat is a restrained 820mm off the ground. At 220kg, with a full tank of fuel, the BMW is respectably light. That tank’s 17-litre capacity is a litre down on the nineT’s but still good for over 250km. Direction changes were slightly more lethargic than the normal R nineT due to the 19-inch front wheel and a new steel-tube frame that kicks the forks out by a few degrees. But the Scrambler still steered with a neutral feel, and cornered with ease because of its well-damped suspension, whose travel of 125mm front and 140mm rear is longer than the nineT’s but well down on the likes of the R 1200 GS LC. 
Braking is taken care of by twin 320mm front discs with Brembo four-piston callipers and a single 265mm rear disc with twin-piston calliper and ABS is standard. Stopping power was well up to the job too, though two-finger brakers will require a fair bit of force on the lever. The ABS can be switched off as can the TC, which will be offered as an optional extra. OE fitted Metzeler’s road-biased Tourance Next tyres gripped well but some of the bikes were fitted with the optional spoke wheels with knobblies and, to me, that just suited the Scrambler’s image to the tee. Another optional extra are the heated handlebar grips but my thinking will be that, as per normal, BMW SA will bring in full spec units only.
Inevitably with a bike like this, there are a vast range of other accessories, from cylinder head covers to a titanium Akrapovic silencer. You can add practicality with a flyscreen and luggage, or off-road toughness with a headlamp grille, bash-plate and, as mentioned before, spoke wheels. As with the previous R nineT, the rear sub-frame unbolts to aid customisation.
Any cynics wondering about BMW’s decision to follow the fashion for retro-styled dual-purpose bikes can rest easy. The Scrambler is slightly more laid-back than the R nineT but its blend of torquey Boxer motor, sound chassis and pleasingly raw, air-cooled charm is very much intact.
