SPIED! New 2017 Triumph Scrambler Spy Photos

While Triumph wasn't ready to launch a new water-cooled Bonneville Scrambler at the same time as it unveiled the T120, Street Twin, and Thruxton last autumn, new spy shots show Triumph Motorcycle s has been working on exactly that.

As a stop-gap measure, Triumph's old air-cooled, 865cc Scrambler (which originally debuted around a decade ago) remains in production and the new Street Twin 900 is available with a Scrambler Inspiration Kit that adds a high-level Vance and Hines exhaust and a flat seat to the cheapest of the new Bonneville models. However, the Inspiration Kit exhaust has no catalytic converter and is, strictly speaking, for off-road-use only—hence being offered as a bolt-on conversion rather than a standalone model.

The real new Scrambler will not only be fully road-legal, with a catalyzed exhaust, but it will be a more convincing take on the retro off-road theme than the Inspiration Kit. This prototype is by no means the finished product but it already shows the key elements of the new bike. Not least of which are the wheels; although this bike is based around the Street Twin, which has alloys as standard, it’s fitted with wire wheels and chunky Metzeler Tourance rubber.

The high-level exhaust, ending in twin, stacked pipes on the righthand side, is fully catalyzed to meet the latest emissions rules in all Triumph’s major markets. The cat itself isn’t quite as cleverly hidden as on the Bonnie T120, Street Twin and Thruxton, which have it tucked under the front of the engine and hidden by header pipes that give the illusion of running straight past it, but it’s still neatly positioned up by the side of the engine. An extensive heat shield keeps it out of view as well as stopping it from singing the rider’s lower leg, and a new bash plate under the front of the frame helps disguise the empty space where the normal Bonneville’s cat is usually housed.

There are plenty of clues that the bike still needs more development. The headlight, tank and fenders are all stock Street Twin parts, and are likely to change before the Scrambler reaches production. A smaller headlight is expected, along with a completely new seat. At the moment, the seat pad is a cut-down version of the new T120’s. The exhausts also feature long extensions at the back of the end cans. These are used during indoor tests, where they allow extractor hoses to be clipped on easily. The production bike’s pipes will end at the rear edge of the mufflers, giving a much neater appearance.

Checking the test bike’s registration against official licensing records shows that it’s been on test since August of last year, and the fact that there’s no datalogging equipment fitted suggests that Triumph is now at the stage where it’s simply racking up miles and looking for subjective feedback from test riders.

The registration wrongly lists the bike as being 865cc, the same capacity as the old-model Scrambler. In fact this is Triumph’s new water-cooled motor, probably in 900cc Street Twin form given that the bike is only fitted with a single front disc. In future it’s likely that the firm will offer the Scrambler in both 900cc and 1200cc forms, with the larger version using the engine from the Bonneville T120. Both motors are externally identical, so creating a 1200cc Scrambler would be a simple job.

Given that the existing Scrambler, along with the rest of the bikes based around the old air-cooled engine, will fall foul of new European type approval laws at the start of 2017, it’s virtually certain that this new water-cooled Scrambler will be ready to go on sale to replace it before then.