When BSA NZ announced a late- September arrival for its new Scrambler 650, I put a deposit down in August 2025. I waited and I waited, somewhat impatiently, until mid-January 2026. I had picked the tribute colour, yellow and chrome, because it dates back to the mid- 1960s, being inspired by the BSA B44 Victor. That’ s the reason the colour on this new BSA Scrambler model is named‘ Victor Yellow’. When the call came on a Saturday morning in January, with no time to waste, I was knocking on Boyd’ s Motorcycles’ door as they opened at 9am, the boys hadn’ t even finished their first coffees. Saturday morning, paperwork done and payment made some days beforehand, the bike was ready to go, so we loaded her on the trailer in-between showers. So, the new, unridden bike was well-baptised by the weather gods by the time we got back home to the‘ naki. Arriving home in New Plymouth around 2:30pm, I quickly offloaded the bike, again between showers, and wasted no time donning my riding gear. I put the key in the ignition,