Last year at Ducati’s annual World Premier event, the Bologna firm teased renders of a pair of Scrambler-based concept bikes: the Motard and the DesertX. More recently, Ducati has unveiled images of tangible prototypes, suggesting the two could be destined for dealerships.
As its name suggests, the Motard is a supermoto rendition of Ducati’s 803cc Scrambler platform and sports MX-inspired front fender, front number plate headlight cover, side number boards, handguards, and exhaust. The DesertX is a rally raid-style machine based on the larger 1,079cc L-Twin Scrambler and pays homage to Italian rally racer Edi Orioli and the Ducati (technically a Ducati-powered Cagiva Elefant) he piloted to victory at 1990 Dakar Rally. Wearing the same red and white pinstriped livery, as Orioli’s bike, the DesertX has a dual LED headlight arrangement set in a navigation tower, along with large capacity gas tanks front and back, a carbon fiber skid-plate, and a luggage rack in place of a pillion. With the Scrambler lineup comprising over a quarter of Ducati’s sales, there’s a decent chance one of these prototype bikes will see production, especially the Desert X, considering how popular other recent Dakar-flavored models are like Moto Guzzi’s V85 TT and Yamaha’s Tenere T7.
