Triumph Scrambler grunty and good-looking, too

The Triumph Scrambler will give you that Marlon Brando feel.

Two-wheeled rocketships are impressive. But with our 100km/h speed limits, exploring their potential isn't possible without breaking the law - or heading for the race track.

Real-world roads call for something a bit different, bikes with appeal at real-world speeds.

Which is where this Triumph Scrambler comes in. Based on the modern Bonneville, it's not enormously powerful, but it is stylish, it sounds great, and is at its best at real-world speeds.

It's also designed to cope whatever the road surface. At 205kg it may be too heavy to be a genuine Scrambler; after all, there's a 12-volt battery and electric start, both items a 1960s bike did not have. But that riding geometry and those block-pattern tyres are as happy on gravel as seal. Indeed, though it's not a trail bike, this machine will take even gnarly tracks in its stride.

Like the Bonneville, the Scrambler gets an 865cc parallel twin-cylinder engine with a 90 by 68mm bore and stroke and a 9.2:1 compression ratio. But this unit uses a 270-degree crank firing interval, and it feels different to the Bonneville.

At 40kW and 69Nm it has less power and less torque, but it doesn't feel like it. It pulls out of corners like a rugby lock in a tug-of-war, barking manically as it does so.

The soundtrack on our test bike came courtesy of after-market mufflers that set you back $991, but impart aural muscle to the standard twin-pipes' rather sanitised song.

Channelling Brando and McQueen

They pop and bang, crackle on the overrun, and on the charge the bike's pure 1960s bad-boy - you're Marlon Brando at his dangerous best, Steve McQueen on the run.

This is where the wide bars and the bike's nice balance come into their own. Winter-slick roads are taken in its stride, the riding position allowing easy adjustment to your riding line, while that smooth torque delivery lets you ride on the throttle, engine-braking in, smoothly hauling out, those tyres gripping as well on the slippery stuff as on the dry.

Some will buy this bike purely for its style - and they're ripe for plucking, with an extensive options list available. The $628 luggage rack and single seat look good and work well. Those pipes aren't ideally positioned - there's a heat shield, but shorties will avoid putting their right leg down for long to avoid over-heating.

Still, they're worth the compromise for the soundtrack.

Sure, there are cheaper machines, and more powerful ones. But Triumph's Scrambler offers a decent dollop of visual and aural style, is at its best at well below loss-of-licence speeds, and will prove capable on almost any road surface.