Is bigger better?
Test rides on BSA motorcycles are clearly like buses round here – none for 54 years, then suddenly there’s two at once. We tested the new BSA Bantam 350 last month, and declared it to be an impressive little machine for the cash, with handsome looks, a peppy engine, and a decent-if-unexciting chassis. And now it’s the turn of the other new 2025 BSA, the Scrambler 650. Can it live up to its smaller sibling (which I liked a lot) on the mean streets of London and Surrey? We’ve got one in for a week to find out…
First though, let’s rewind a little to set the scene. Last month, BSA released the 350 Bantam and 650 Scrambler in a full-on world launch in London. There was a bit of a shortage of bikes though, so we just rode the Bantam, leaving the 650 for some foreign journalists who were only in town for the launch. The week after, BSA dropped the Scrambler off with us for test, so everyone was a winner.
I’d obviously seen the 650 at the launch, and have also seen (but not ridden) its sibling, the Gold Star 650 which relaunched the brand a few years ago. Parked up on my drive, it looks good in a simple, unfussy way, with a much more modern look and feel than the 50s-styled Gold Star. The tank, sidepanels and seat have sleeker lines, and parts like the dash, headlamp, exhaust and mudguards look the part.
Time for a ride! I throw on a jacket and lid, and head out onto some local roads which give a decent initial flavour of a bike. A bit of dual carriageway, a fast stretch of motorway, some twisty back roads and then through a village or two before schlepping back in to the urban sprawl of south London. Familiar roads, but the Scrambler has a rather unfamiliar feel at first. There’s a big 19” front wheel on there, plus some extra-wide bars, and that, together with the semi-dirt style front Pirelli means a slightly weird feel to the steering.
At slower speeds, the bike feels like it’s falling into the bend, and you over-correct constantly, before you adjust. I do get used to it – but it takes a bit of time. It also takes time to adjust to fitting those wide handlebars through traffic jams. They’re just a little too wide, and at the wrong height to easily thread past car and van mirrors, and the bike’s own mirrors also need some care here.
I’m enjoying the engine though. It’s not very fast of course: 45 claimed bhp is a modest amount for a 650, albeit a low-revving single, and the Scrambler is also a fairly chunky beast, weighing in at 218kg wet. But the power delivery from the Rotax-derived thumper is very pleasing, and the fuelling is pretty sorted too. You’re away from a red light sharpish, and while the gearshift feels a little tight on this bike (it’s only done about 50 miles from new at this point), it’s a positive shift, with an easy clutch action.
A six speed transmission might have added a bit of a performance boost though (and would have stopped me constantly trying to change up to a non-existent sixth cog).
As ever with a low-powered bike, you can be as aggressive as you like with the throttle, and it won’t bite back, which is actually a good laugh. Wringing the neck off a 45bhp bike can be as much fun as tip-toeing around a 200bhp machine at times (but not all the time of course). Top end I saw on the clocks was around 90mph, with a bit to go, but this is not a bike for that sort of work really. Kept in its natural environs of around town, twisty back roads, and sunny cruises, it feels far happier – and so will you.
Plus, if you’ve managed to collect a few penalty points on your licence of late, then the chances of being caught speeding again are far lower on this sort of bike than with something a bit peppier. The claimed 45bhp output from the engine was revealed as around 40.8bhp when I took it for a dyno run at Big CC Racing in Wokingham, but that’s a natural drop when you go to a chassis dyno – spec sheets will always claim a crankshaft power figure, which ignores the losses in a transmission, drivetrain and wheel. The dyno exhaust gas analyser did reveal near-perfect fuelling though, according to Sean at Big CC, which is good to see.
The chassis is a less cheery tale. We’ve spoken about the front end and the curious steering from the 19” wheel and wide bars. But the suspension raises an eyebrow too: it’s quite harsh and feels like it’s bottoming out over speed humps and potholes.
Whether that’s down to a lack of damping, or soft springs, the back end in particular lets things down. It also confirms what I’d suspected already, which is that this Scrambler will not do at all well away from the Tarmac. During a photo shoot later in the week I have a quick run along a very smooth, flat section of green lane, and didn’t really feel very comfortable. The weight also counts against the bike here.
There is some good news on the chassis front though: the brakes are decent, with solid performance from the neat Brembo-badged twin-piston front caliper and 320mm disc. And BSA also deserves praise for fitting ‘proper’ tyres in the form of the Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR. It’s a good road-going dirt-style tyre, and while we’d be tempted to swap to a ‘proper’ road tyre for this bike, they do add a certain dash to the styling.
The ABS is the only electronic riding aid, and provides a useful safety net – but it’s a fairly low-tech setup, which feels like it cycles a little slowly, rather like systems from a few years ago. If you provoke it enough to release pressure to prevent the wheel locking, there’s a perceptible pause before the braking effort returns.
While I’m having a moan, the LCD dash sits at exactly the wrong angle for me: the glass face on the display reflects the sky right into my eyes, and it’s hard to read the (quite pleasant) display when the sun’s out. The mirrors also suffer some nasty vibration on the move, making it hard to see what’s behind you. Finally, the lack of self-cancelling indicators, and a slightly unobtrusive idiot light means I regularly find myself riding along with a blinker flashing away merrily below.
I’m also not sure quite how I’d use this bike: there’s no wind protection so it’s limited as a distance tool (it would also be a slow distance tool). There’s no standard rack for adding luggage, though BSA is working on accessories like that as we speak. Fuel consumption from the single-cylinder motor is good – I had around 52mpg on my test ride, despite some high-consumption riding for photos, so expect nearer 60mpg on a steady run.
But the fuel tank is a bit skimpy at just 12 litres, so you’re going to need to start looking for a fuel stop after 110 miles, pretty much. And as we said, it’s not going to shine even on the lightest of off-road duties either, despite those Pirelli tyres and wire-spoked rims.
Kept as a stylish urban traveller though, I can see the appeal, with sunny Sunday cruises to the seaside as a charming add-on. Someone will no doubt ride one to India and back and declare themselves beguiled, but as with Boris Johnson’s father Stanley, who tried to ride a BSA to China in the 1950s, I’ll be questioning their state of mind…
As I write this, it seems like I’m giving the Scrambler a bit of a hard time. But it’s fair to say that it grew on me a lot over the course of the week I had it. Once I adapted to the wide bars and 19” front wheel, the front end felt much better, and while the suspension reminded me of its harsh unsophisticated nature every time I hit a classic London pothole, the rest of the chassis does its job well enough. Outside the dynamic experience though, the Scrambler is a winner.
I think it looks pretty sharp, much better to my 54-year-old eyes than the elderly Gold Star for example, and closer to the modern look of the firm’s Bantam 350. It sounds like a journalist cliché, but people genuinely like the looks of the BSA, and literally come up to you to chat about it. I was accosted in a busy petrol station by a man who was desperate to hear what I thought about it, because his mate was buying one, and he was tempted himself. The brand might have been (effectively) dead since 1971, but it still resonates with a wide chunk of the biking public, and beyond.
A final tick goes to the Scrambler’s pricing: it launches at a pound under £6k, which is good value for a brand new middleweight machine in 2025. That’s a chunky £750 less than its closest rival, the Royal Enfield Bear 650. The Enfield is a better bike, with a slightly stronger twin-cylinder engine, superior suspension and nicer finish, though it’s a similar weight. That’s a chunky price gap though – and you’ll be able to work out if it makes enough of a difference to affect your choices.
The nice man from BSA is here though, and he’s taking the Scrambler away again. I’m a little bit sad – it’s been an interesting week, and I’ve grown fond of the big single, despite its flaws. What I would recommend is that if you take a test ride, try and go for a decent run, and see if you can borrow it for a slightly longer period. It might just grow on you the way it did for me.
2025 BSA Scrambler 650 tech highlights
Engine
A modernised version of an old chum: the Rotax single-cylinder unit first seen in the Aprilia Pegaso 650 (with five valves) and the BMW F650 Funduro (with four valves). Dates back to the early 1990s, but has been updated to meet Euro 5+ emissions regs, and has also had an external revamp to look a bit more ‘retro’ and air-cooled, with fake fins, and disguised water cooling.
Thirty years ago, it made a claimed 48bhp, now the claim is 45bhp, though our press bike made around 40.8bhp on the Big CC Racing dynamometer when tested.
It keeps the twin spark plugs, which should help efficiency and cut emissions inside the big 100mm-wide combustion chamber, and the gearbox is a five-speed unit.
Frame
Simple, basic steel tube cradle design, which should be tough enough to take whatever you throw at it, at the cost of weight: the Scrambler is a chunky boi at 218kg wet. Twin-shock swingarm is also steel.
Suspension
Little to write home about here: unadjustable RWU 41mm forks and preload-adjust twin rear shocks.
Brakes
Proper Brembo twin-piston front caliper and 320mm disc is good spec for the performance, though the weight does give it a job to do.
Equipment
Neat LCD dash with clock and fuel gauge, standard USB-A and -C charging socket on the bars, dual channel ABS, and that’s pretty much your lot.
2025 BSA Scrambler 650 specifications
Price: £5,999
ENGINE
Engine Type: DOHC four-stroke, four-valve single, liquid cooled, twin spark plugs
Capacity: 652cc
Bore x stroke 100x83mm
Compression ratio: 11.5:1
Max Power: 45bhp@6,500rpm
Max Torque: 55Nm@4,000rpm
Transmission: five-speed
BRAKES
Front: 320mm disc, Brembo twin-piston sliding caliper , ABS
Rear: 250mm disc, single-piston sliding caliper , ABS
Frame: Steel tube double cradle
SUSPENSION
Front: 41mm telescopic hydraulic RWU fork
Rear: Twin shock absorber, five-way preload adjustable
WHEELS/TYRES
Front wheel: wire-spoked, 110/80 19 Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR
Rear wheel: wire-spoked, 150/70 17 Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR
DIMENSIONS
Wet weight: 218kg (wet)
Fuel capacity: 12 litres
Wheelbase: 1,463mm
Seat height: 820mm
Rake: 28°
Colours Thunder Grey, Carbon Anthem, Victor Yellow