It's a cliche, but the new Ducati is a Scrambler, but not as we know it, captain.

Don't try to put the new 803cc Ducati Scrambler into any pigeonhole, because this bike scrambles your brain anytime you try to classify it.

For example, is it retro? No it's not, despite the historic model name and a tank that could have been moulded from that of the original GT750, circa 1972.

Other suspect marketing terms like trans-generational, classic, and legendary equally don't apply. Then there's the order in which 'Scrambler' and 'Ducati' should be placed. According to its maker, "Scrambler" should come first as this isn't just a new model from the Bologna-based bike maker. It's the debutante of an entirely new brand.

Paul Owen The Scrambler's LED riding lights surrounding the headlight - an inspired piece of design.

Confused? Don't be, because everything becomes much clearer when you fire up the air-cooled V-twin engine and ride the new Ducati, err, sorry, Scrambler. For this bike ushers in an entirely new set of values and riding experiences for its maker, so much so, that I'm tempted here to trot out the old Star Trek-inspired cliché: it's a Ducati, Jim, but not as we presently know them.

The range of Ducati experiences used to be limited to three: uncompromising sports machines like the Panigale; sophisticated all-surface sports tourers like the Multistrada, and funky n' feisty streetbikes like the Diavels, Monsters, and Streetfighters.

Scrambler is something different entirely.

Riding it is therefore like eating Italian cuisine with added chilli. The initial riding flavour is familiar but there's an aftertaste of something else again. It took me awhile to work out what that slightly bitter but not entirely unpleasant aftertaste was, but it eventually dawned that it was dirt and dust.

If I had to name a single riding experience of the past 45 years of motorcycling that most matches that of the Scrambler, it would be a mate's Suzuki TS400 big-bore two-stroke trail-bike of the early 1970s. That bike had similar effortless punch, the same riding position, same suspension travel, and same see-me-go attitude. The only real difference was that the Suzuki stroker's engine went ringa-dinga-ding instead of the Scrambler V-twin's booma-boom-boom.

You feel encouraged to extend an inside leg towards the front wheel and cock an outside elbow at the sky when chucking the Scrambler into a corner, while weighting the outside peg. Then you get on the slightly trigger-happy throttle hard half-expecting some narrow trials-style rear tyre to surrender its grip and drift sideways. Except, that the second bit doesn't happen. For the special Chinese-made Pirelli knobbed tyres for the Thai-made Scrambler are generously endowed with grip and width. Despite the name of the new brand, this bike is as planted to the road as any other Ducati.

That TS400 of distant memory was a bike that could have been tailor-made for the one-wheeled salutes that so amused our teenaged minds back then. Not so the Scrambler, well at least not while it was in my now much more mature hands anyway. Thanks to Ducati's fiddling with the tune of the Scrambler's Monster 796-derived engine, performance feels flatter than that of the engine donor model at the top of the rev range.

You therefore get an impression that the front wheel wants to lift off during the muscular mid-range, but the flat top-end that follows stymies the execution of the stunt. Not that buyers used to the retro-bikes that may be perceived as competitors to the Scrambler will complain. With 75 ponies on tap, the lighter Ducati-made model holds the performance high ground against homage twins like the 65-horse Triumph Bonneville and 48bhp Moto Guzzi V7.

It also delivers that fun-to-flick-it-in riding dynamic, charging into the corners with telepathic ease, then holding the rider's chosen line with the mid-corner poise that is a Ducati signature value. Soft springs, fortunately matched by free-flowing damping oil characteristics, do place speed-related limitations on the chassis performance, but not in any way that will disappoint Scrambler buyers, who are expected to be first-time Ducati owners. Likewise, the ABS-equipped, single-disc-at-each-wheel braking system of the Scrambler delivers perfectly adequate performance for the target market, but it will feel a tad underwhelming to those used to the braking systems of more powerful Ducatis.

This is a feel-good machine aimed at a new generation of riders, and Ducati has worked hard on the details. Wiring and lubrication lines are neatly positioned, the alloy castings look superb, the mirrors give clear legible views, and I felt the circular arrangement of LED riding lights around the central headlight was an inspired touch. Less likable was the way the seat locks the rider into a single riding position, and the handlebars could have been positioned a tad lower for comfort at open road speeds.

The Scrambler is available in four models, this being the $15,990 entry-level Icon version which is $200 more affordable when ordered in red. The other three variants offer cosmetic enhancements based on a variety of themes for an extra $2000. Each offers a riding experience that is totally unique, one that marks the Scrambler as its own machine rather than some slave of corporate history.

Scrambler Ducati Icon

Engine: 803cc air-cooled 90-degree V-twin stoked by electronic fuel injection to develop 55kW (75bhp) at 8250rpm, 68Nm at 5750rpm

Transmission: Six-speed sequential gearbox, chain drive.

Chassis: Chrome-moly steel tube trellis frame with double-sided alloy swingarm, 51mm unadjustable Showa telescopic front forks with 150mm of wheel travel and Sachs rear monoshock adjustable for spring preload with 150mm of wheel travel.

Price: $15,990 (red: $15,790)

Hot: Ducati aims at a new market with a bike that debuts a new brand and a riding dynamic that is reminiscent of its early single-cylinder models, beautifully made in Thailand.

Not: Dedicated Ducati aficionados should buy Monsters instead and enjoy their better engines, brakes, and suspension; one-position seat; I'd be instantly swapping the handlebars.