SIZE DOES MATTER

Regular readers of this magazine will know that we're pretty big fans of the Scrambler 800. In fact it appeared on the cover of ARR when we tested the original Icon in 2015 and again when we rode the Mach 2.0 last year. It must be said that our initial, and wholly erroneous, assumption that the bike was little more than a hipster-styling exercise made us love it even more when we discovered what a cracking little motorcycle it actually is, but perhaps the word “little” is partly why the 1100 version exists at all.

Now, there are plenty of naked bikes out there around the one-litre engine size competing for your disposable income and we'll discuss that in a sec, but first let’s compare the 1100 to its smaller sibling and look at what you get for your extra four grand. I say four grand, which is roughly the difference if you're looking at say the mid-priced 800cc Full Throttle and the mid-priced 1100cc Special which we have here. Just so you know, the difference between the most expensive 800 (the Desert Sled) and the cheapest 1100 is a paltry 500 bucks