A few months back I go an invitation from Scott Maddux , Shane Tymon and the gracious crew at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson to come out and ride the Great Smoky Mountains aboard one of their super trick Sportster Scramblers. I immediately made plans to join them as I had been seeing photos of their splendid machines on social media and was chomping at the bit to get behind the bars of one and get loose on some dirt trails.

The wrenching wizards at Smoky Mountain H-D fine tune stock Sportsters into off-road capable fun machines with some well chosen parts and a whole lot of know how and experience. Not only do these machines look the part, they more than
perform the part. I was actually impressed a whole lot how well they ride off-road. I have ridden plenty of stock 1200 Sportsters in my day, I own one in fact, and there is no way I would even take one on some questionable asphalt , let alone some jeep trails.

These machines performed off-road on par with large dual sport bikes . I own a few of these aforementioned dual sport bikes so I am in a good position to compare. Theres even one aspect of the bike where no other could compare, torque!! These Scramblers have an insane amount of pull off the low end that turns any fire road or jeep trail into a throttle twisting, roosting playground. I can honestly say these are some of the most fun motorcycles I have ever ridden period!!

Our 2 day ride throughout the backroads, jeep trails and creeks of Tennessee and North Carolina were nothing short of amazing. This area of the country offers some of the most beautiful scenery as well as some of the best riding terrain, on or off-road, anywhere in the U.S.of A.

Hit up Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson for more Scrambler info, whether it be complete scrambler bikes they offer, parts or riding routes, these folks know what’s up.
Also, I’ll let you in on a little secret, Smoky Mountain H-D will be hitting up the trails for a few days again for a loosely organized scramble in late October, Shhhhhhh. Of course I’ll be out there again, maybe you
can sneak in on the ride too!