Triumph is serious about the offroad capability of its Scrambler 1200 XE. So serious, in fact, that it sent one down to the NORRA Mexican 1000 rally this spring, with Ernie Vigil behind the bars, just to prove what it could do. Now, it’s released a short video to give us an idea of what happened (see below).

Some background: The Triumph 1200 Scrambler XE might not be everyone’s idea of a dune-bashing dirt bike, but when Triumph built this machine, the designers built it with an eye towards offroad performance. The Showa forks and Ohlins rear shocks have 250 mm of wheel travel. The bike still has retro lines, but it’s made to actually handle dirt riding, and not just play a poser role.

As for the NORRA Mexican 1000, it’s a five-day rally raid event that covered 1,347 miles of the Baja Peninsula this year, both on-road and off-road.

Stunt rider/off-roader Ernie Vigil was an obvious choice for the ride, as he’s long had strong ties to Triumph, and he certainly proved he and the bike had what it took, as he finished fifth in the Open class, as the only non-dirtbike entry. Vigil and the Triumph finished 17th overall.

Supposedly, Vigil did very little modification to the motorcycle and finished the event with no major difficulties except for a tire mousse failing. Aside from that, Triumph put a bigger bash plate on the bike, with softer grips and more aggressive Metzeler tires. Triumph also disabled ABS and traction control.

What’s next? Vigil wanted to race the SCORE Baja 1000 race on the Triumph last fall, but was injured and unable to do so. He hopes to tackle that race aboard the Triumph this year.

Featured image credit: Triumph

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