With apologies to those north of the English border, it was perfect riding weather over the weekend. Other commitments meant we only had a few hours to spare on Sunday so we spent them all on a run over to Youles in Manchester to look at the new 400’s that have stopped off there while they’re on tour.
If the picture looks like there’s not much of a fanfare going on around the bikes, that’s because there was no fanfare going on around the bikes. They’d simply been wheeled in, put in a corner and left there with the usual plinth of details and pricing plonked alongside. They had at least wiped off @Dawsy’s fingermarks: 
If it were my dealership I’d have made a weekend of it to draw people in. There were no more than half a dozen people in the place in the time we were there and most of them were looking at the other bikes,
Obviously you can’t ride them, and I didn’t bother asking if they could be fired up as they probably aren’t fuelled while they’re being carted around the dealerships.
I’ve never been a big fan of the grown up Scramblers, mostly just on looks, and the baby one hasn’t changed my mind. Though if you’re a taller rider looking for a smaller bike then it’s probaby the better choice. I’m 5’11" on. good day and it was a nice fit but @Motopulcino found it too tall.
The Speed does feel quite dinky, especially as i’d just hopped off an 848 Streetfighter, which is rather lanky. The Speed 400 brought back memories of my old GP100, such is it’s diminutive stature. It’s not really that small but it would definitely make a great step up from a 125. I’d still like to try one on the road.
Would I buy a Scrambler 400? No, it’s not for me. How about a Speed 400? Maybe, just for fun. If I had a spare £4,995k burning a hole in my pocket. I need a Tiger before that.
There are tons of pictures of the 400s out there so, for a change, I took a bit of video that I’ll upload in the next day or so. In the meantime, here are some other treats from Youles.
