FANTIC CABALLERO 500 SCRAMBLER (2019 - on) Review

Feelgood bikes don’t come much more heart-warming than the Fantic Caballero 500 Scrambler. Its Chinese motor may not have the power or kudos of its big gun retro rivals and it lacks their electronic wizardry, too, but it’s all the better for it.

• Latest news: 2021 Fantic Caballero range
• Related: Fantic Caballero Scrambler 500 Deluxe revealed
• Related: This bike appears in our best soft roaders article

A simple joy to ride, it’s packed with meaty, real world punch, charm and a generous level of equipment. Light, smooth and accurate it’s happy to burble serenely through town, flow through B roads and even get its tyres muddy.

When it comes to dirt bike-inspired retros the Caballero 500 Scrambler is a surprising gem and as easy on the wallet as it is on the eye. Put simply, the Fantic is the light, simple, affordable, cheeky Scrambler Ducati should have built…but never could.

It also comes in a variety of different flavours to broaden its appeal, from the restyled Flat Track, to the Rally which has 50mm longer travel suspension, adjustable forks and shock, Michelin off-road tyres, cross-braced bars and sump/radiator/headlight guards.

2020 also saw the introduction of the Scrambler 500 Deluxe with tweaked engine mapping, fork re-valve and retro finishes including brown seat, grips and crossbar pad, new side pods graphics and grey paint.

Absolutely adore these things - a proper feel good bike. Handsome, nicely finished, punchy, poppy and a hunger for wheelies to rival a 500cc two-stroke MX’er. This is the Fantic Caballero Scramber 500 with some nice goodies and extra brown (not sure about siliconed tyres, though. pic.twitter.com/1Kyo7NXleU

— Michael Neeves (@Neevesy33) August 18, 2020

The Caballero Scrambler 500 is, as the name suggests, a larger version of the Scrambler 250. It's more road-biased than its off-road-spec sibling, the Rally.

Once you've read this review and our owners' reviews, you may want to join an online community to get talking to likeminded people. We'd suggest the Fantic Caballero Owners Group on Facebook.

⏱️ Join @Neevesy33 for #60secondswith the Fantic Caballero 500. He really loves these Fantic 500s, find out why. pic.twitter.com/G7TbycoU6C

— Motor Cycle News (@MCNnews) December 25, 2019

Inspired by the Italian firm’s '70s scramblers, this bright red retro is light, simple, punchy and so well rounded, you’d swear it had been around for years.

It’s so much fun and easy to get on with that you can’t help but smile when you’re near it and offers the perfect antidote to everything that’s too serious in biking, like zillion mph race replicas, pretentious adventurers and stuffy tourers.

Arriving hot on the heels of the 125 and 250cc Caballero Scramblers launched last year, we also rode the prototype 500 on the mountain roads near Fantic’s Treviso factory and came away more than impressed. Its single cylinder engine packed a delightful punch and it was all wrapped up in a taught, classy chassis.

Polished, refined and given the Euro4 stamp of approval, this full production version offers a refreshingly pure and thrilling ride.

Set plush with a touch of firmness for control, the suspension won’t jar your wobbly bits and with its beefy forks, yokes and sticky Pirelli dual purpose Scorpion Rally STR tyres, the capable Caballero carves neat lines and doesn’t flop about alarmingly in the corners.

Its refined, modern, 39bhp, 449cc liquid-cooled single-cylinder motor is built in…China, by Zongshen. But don’t get too hung up on where it comes from, because when you dig deep you’ll find that even the most premium of bikes for sale now have a smattering of Asia about them.

Built to Fantic’s spec, once it knocks at their factory door, it’s slotted into an Italian-built steel chrome moly tubular frame and garnished with lashings of tasty cycle parts.

Don’t expect demonic performance when you turn on the taps – the Fantic is calmer than that and doesn’t take itself so seriously. Think of the Scrambler’s motor more like a thrappy enduro engine with all the rough edges smoothed off.

Long-legged, with a seamless spread of power and emitting just the right amount of single cylinder ripples, the fuelling is perfect, the clutch light and gearbox accurate. If all Chinese engines can be this refined, bring it on.

Acceleration is delivered in crisp, meaty dollops and with such little weight to push along (just 150kg dry) there’s enough oomph to keep you grinning as you blast out of sleepy villages and into B-road heaven. Arrow pipes and a deep airbox roar provide the perfect scrambled soundtrack, but removing the baffles as soon as you get the Fantic home will surely be too great a temptation to resist?

There are no electronic rider aids to spoil your fun, except for ABS, which you can switch off where, free from silicone sorcery, the Fantic will handle gentle green lanes and stunt like a field bike.

Tried and tested Italian chassis parts should cause any major problems and despite their reputation, Chinese engines are usually reliable – it’s usually the bikes that disintegrate first.

Our Fantic Caballero Scrambler 500 owners' reviews show owners are happy with their bikes. If you're buying secondhand, watch out for early versions that need revised maps and tappet settings .

We've also heard of a few reliability issues on the electrical side. An owner reports a non-cancelling indicator switch, while our own experience on the MCN250 test threw up a few gremlins too. Read the next section of this review for details...

Ducati Scrambler vs Fantic Caballero 500 Scrambler: Few machines can match the Fantic for price, but of course Ducati’s Scrambler comes close in terms of spirit, albeit for nearly two-grand more.

The Bolognese retro’s bigger V-twin motor has more power, advanced electronics and wears a more famous badge, but it’s a massive 39kg heavier, less agile and not as much of a hoot to ride.

MCN250: Fantic Caballero 500 Scrambler vs SWM Ace of Spades

As I prepared to tackle the MCN250 on a pair of single-cylinder scramblers built by non-mainstream brands, I feared the worst. I assumed that the MCN250 would be an MCN100 at best with at least one bike returning in the back of a van. I  shouldn’t have these prejudices, but I can’t be alone in thinking the chances of an SWM and Fantic making it all the way around a very tough, 250-mile test route in torrential rain, were pretty slim.

And when I was greeted in the MCN office by "the Fantic’s headlight has a fault and when the fuel warning light comes on find fuel… fast" my confidence took another dip. But while both are relatively cheap, in this modern world a low price shouldn’t equate to unreliability. And SWM and Fantic aren’t exactly new to making bikes, especially off-roaders.

Fantic are an Italian motorcycle manufacturer who started life in 1968 but built a solid reputation in the UK in the 1970s when, alongside their off-roaders, they released some very quick 50cc learner bikes. Up against the likes of the Yamaha FS1-E and Suzuki AP50, the Fantic was fast and exotic, but also fragile and a bit temperamental.

The company are still based in Italy, but now use engines built by Chinese giant Zongshen for their road bikes. Speedy Working Motors (SWM) are also Italian and have been going on and off since 1971. They went into liquidation in 1984 only to reemerge in 2014 with the backing of Chinese manufacturer Shineray Group’s owner Daxing Gong, which is where it gets a bit weird. When BMW sold Husqvarna to KTM, SWM took over the Italian Husky factory and in that deal gained the company’s engine designs and tooling, which they use to build their motors. So yes, both companies can lay claim to proper off-road heritage and both are still Italian manufacturers. But history is one thing, reliability is something completely different.

The MCN verdict

I’m all for historic brands being revived to create fashioninspired bikes like scramblers – but only if the final product is worth buying. On this score the Fantic really delivers. The Caballero is a thoroughly charming machine that is a pleasure to ride. As well as a name that evokes memories of yesteryear, its styling doesn’t compromise ride quality – a sign of a company that understands how to build a motorcycle. The water-cooled single is refined enough without irritating, the chassis is adept and its price the right side of acceptable. It’s a fun, middleweight scrambler that looks the part and has a good dose of heritage behind it.

In contrast, the SWM feels cheap with its lack of refinement counting against it rather than giving character. The misfire was unfortunate but doesn’t excuse it being, well, basic. Where the Fantic feels like it has been crafted, the SWM gives the impression of being an older model given a new lease of life through a re-style, which doesn’t really cut it for me.

Just standing still the Fantic gets off to a good start. The styling is bang on and there’s something about a ‘500’ with yellow number plates. It conjures images of gnarly 80s 500cc road racing and motocross weapons, making makes riders of a certain age go weak at the knees.

You get a lot of classy kit for your money: LED front and rear lights, billet ali footrest hangers and yokes, wavy brake discs, Bybre calipers, Brembo master cylinder Tommasselli bars, Domino grips, Arrow cans, spoked wheels and a digital clock. Fit, finish and paintwork are superb.

Accessories include an aftermarket Arrow exhaust system with freer-flowing downpipes and carbon cans, claimed to add 8% more power.