Scrambler café racer: the Jab Launcher is an elegant and gritty special

This refined Scramblercomes from far away, more precisely from Taiwan,a place not exactly around the corner. Don’t worry if you can’t remember on the fly where to put Taiwan on the globe (we help you: it’s an island, and a nation, which is off the coast of China) and not even if you don’t know the name of the company, namely Rough Crafts,which, starting from a simple Scrambler Icon,created this beautiful café racer,black and bad.

A brand that perhaps does not tell you much, even if it is a famous trainer, because until now he has worked exclusively in the Harley world; but know that they are really good, as evidenced by the many awards they have won in the contests dedicated to custom motorcycles that are held around the world.

So trust me if we tell you that Winston Yeh,the owner of Rough Crafts, is very well known in the environment and that his bikes are endowed with remarkable taste and elegance, skills that it is not always easy to find in Harley-Davidson specials.

But how is it that a specialist from that world has devoted himself to the elaborationof the little Scrambler? We owe the answer to a dear friend of Winston, who, despite being a fervent ducatista and passionate about the sporting soul of our bikes, never considered himself a potential user of the Panigale,both for his short stature, or for a talk of needs and skills, or because he had no way of bringing it to the track.

The talk completely changes when the Scrambler arrives on the market,immediately considered the ideal bike for our Taiwanese ducatista. Of course, after the purchase he turned to Winston, to realize his specific and personal café racer version of the Scrambler.

Thus, when the latter arrived in the workshop, the objectives had already been outlined: to make this bike, already compact in itself, even lighter, more elegant and gritty.

After all, Winston has very clear ideas about personalization. Hear his words about it: “My theory of customization is very simple and comes into one word: harmony. I don’t want there to be one aspect that outsos others, or something that gets noticed right away. I don’t want people to look at the bike and say, ‘Nice painting!’, or, ‘Look at that drain like it’s cool!’. For me, that would be a failure. Everything on the bike must add something to the final result, so that it is appreciated in its entirety. After this first pleasant impression, then, people can admire the attention with which the various details are created, the small tricks of the trade. At that point, they will love the bike even more“.

That’s nice, right? Looking back, how many times the opposite happens, when of a preparation we admire only an extravagant detail, or, even worse, we consider it as a set of many details, not as the result of a thought that precedes its realization.

This Scrambler,in fact, fully respects its philosophy: tough but elegant, with many valuable details that fit perfectly into the context.

What winston’s scrambler café racer mounts

Thus, the beautiful carbon rims of the BST, inaddition to contributing greatly to the lightening and handling of the bike, add a sporty touch that is further enhanced by the presence of a swingarm coming from a Monster 1100,which is 4 cm longer than the original one.

As in a puzzle where all pieces must necessarily go to the right place, this modification required the use of a mono, specially made by Gears Racing,in order to maintain its correct position and inclination.

Remaining in the suspension compartment, in front we find a fork that comes directly from a Panigale 1199 complete with dedicated steering plates from CNC Racing! Maybe too much for what was originally a Scrambler Icon?

If you think so, then take a look at thebraking system that, at the front, consists of pumps and pliers from Beringer (the usual supplier of Rough Crafts) working in combination with Brembo Superbike discs:our Taiwanese friend will have his good commitment not to overturn with such a plant!

Seriously, a nice revolution compared to the single disc mounted on the standard bike!

Given that Winston really likes to keep the driving area as clean as possible, there was a plan to replace the large instrument that occupies the Scrambler’s control zone. The fact is that today replacing the instrumentation of a modern motorcycle represents a real puzzle, given all the connections that interface between this and the electronic motorcycle management system.

Since at Rough Crafts they had no desire to get a nice headache, they solved the problem brilliantly by inserting the circular element that houses the speedometerand all the other functions at the top of the tank : as a result, a special space has been obtained at its top: certainly a nice idea, although we do not know when it is convenient for those who drive!

Apart from these practical considerations, the preparationof the tank is completed by the special bezel surrounding the instrument, the new fuel cap and the two cheeks customized with the brand name of the Taiwanese trainer.

The overall line of the tank was instead maintained, because it was considered classic and linear, while for the saddle it was decidedly decided to turn the page: instead of the standard mounted one, considered too heavy from a stylistic point of view and also with a slightly too vintage appearance, a narrow and sharp tail made of carbon was chosen on which there is a classic single-seater seat in café racer style; in this way, the result was to make the rear of the bike much more sleeling without any radical intervention on the frame, which in fact was neither cut nor modified, so much so that even the rear light was kept as it was, as it was perfectly in style with the new tail line!

Having arrived at this level of preparation it was obvious that the old exhaust system was not able to be in line with a bike that had changed soul and personality so decisively; Thus, when it was already halfway through the work, Winston took advantage of the fact that HP Corse had just presented the new GP07 exhaust on the market to equip its Jab Launcher (by the way, this is the official name of this Scrambler) with a more aggressive and sly solution.

A few minor modifications were necessary for its installation, given the presence of the Sato’s backward platforms, but the final result was judged by Winston himself to be extremely sexy! In the same way, we believe, he will have judged the Ducabike’s carter which, on the same side of the bike, allows you to admire the clutch thanks to its transparent porthole.

All-Italian components for this Scrambler special

In short, you have understood it: even thousands of kilometers from us, the best trainers use Italian components for their realizations!

This is also demonstrated by the beautiful AEM crown kit that can certainly be defined as the icing on the cake of a preparation rich in important technical contents, so much so that Winston is very keen to emphasize that his Jab Launcher is a fun and enjoyable bike on the road; Moreover, if we look at all the changes made to the bike and the braking system, we can certainly have no doubt about that! On the engine preparation front, on the other hand, no hint, except for the installation of an air filter of the Spint Filter considered indispensable for the correct breathing of the engine.

All that remains is to judge the aesthetic quality of this Scrambler in café racer version; we like it very much, precisely because it fully reflects the goals that the friends of Rough Crafts had set themselves before getting to work: a clean and harmonious bike, in which all the details are in perfect balance to obtain a final result that is, at the same time, elegant and gritty.