Originally designed for off-road use, these rugged motorcycles have attracted a cult following .

Parked outside a roadside café as its owner pauses to wash the road dust from his throat, a dusty scrambler evokes a level of romanticism few vehicles can emulate. See one with a sleeping bag strapped to its rear fender and it’s difficult not to wonder where it’s been and where it’s heading next.

Originally denoting purely off-road use (designed with competition or trail riding in mind), the term scrambler now covers a lot of bases. Following a golden era of off-road competition in the 1960s, there was an inevitable spike in demand for road-legal versions of race bikes – and it didn’t take long for the factories to deliver. The street scrambler was born.

Of course, it’s the bottomless well of inspiration that is Mr Steve McQueen that strongly influences the current vogue for scramblers, but thankfully he’s not the only source. Mr Ewan McGregor’s round-the-world odyssey, and Mr David Beckham’s recent, Triumph-mounted Amazon rainforest jaunt have both shone a light on motorcycles that can cope when the ribbon of tarmac ends. If you still require convincing, watch Mr Bruce Brown’s 1971 movie, On Any Sunday (you may recognise his directing style – Mr Brown also brought us cult surf movie The Endless Summer five years earlier).

Listed below are a wildly varied group of motorcycles only loosely corralled under the catch-all term of “scramblers”. Some are solely road bikes, without a hope of surviving the Sahara. Others are pure off-road race machinery, more likely to break you in than the other way around. But most can be referred to as “dual-purpose”, willing to try their hand at anything, if you have the desire and the skill set. And you do, right?

Production: 1969 to 1972 Aim to pay: £14,000 Buy: It’s a rare beast, yet a rough but similar WR360 can be had for as little as £2,500 Avoid: Poorly restored, expensive show ponies

This Swedish scrambler gained near mythical status shortly after its introduction thanks to one high-profile fan. Mr McQueen appeared on the cover of the 23 August 1971 edition of Sports Illustrated, wheelie-ing his lightweight two-stroke towards a hungry audience. Mr McQueen chose to ignore common wisdom of wearing gloves or even a shirt, instead giving America an eyeful of his potent power-dad physique and white Sta-Prest trousers.

Mr McQueen was such an accomplished off-road racer that he was chosen to represent the USA in the International Six Days Trial, held in East Germany in 1964. If he endorsed the 400 Cross, you can be sure it was the very best of its time.

The bike itself is a thoroughbred competition machine with no attempt to make it road-legal. Mr McQueen’s original sold at auction in California, in May 2011, for $144,500 (£93,222 at the time) – making even those without comparable history very sought-after. husqvarna.com

Production: 1980 to 1987 Aim to pay: £7,000 Buy: This BMW is bombproof. The Dakar is a special edition Avoid: Any that has done more than three laps of the globe

After decades of having eyes only for high-performance, streamlined superbikes, by the turn of the millenium Britain was filing for divorce and shacking up with its new paramour, the less high-maintenance “adventure” or “ADV” bike – itself a cousin of the scrambler.

There had been a discernible swell of popularity since the mid-1990s for motorcycles that looked as though they could circumnavigate the globe at a canter, but everything changed when Messrs Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman filmed their 20,000-mile midlife crises and Long Way Round hit TV screens in 2004.

The duo were mounted on a pair of BMW R1150GS Adventures, a model that can be traced directly back to the 1980 BMW R80GS – for many, the original adventure bike.

GS is derived from Gelände/ Strasse – German for off-road/ on-road. Every twin-cylinder machine sporting those two letters appears to be an incongruous animal with a heavy, protruding and, therefore, potentially vulnerable, engine. Yet the German bus is incredibly accomplished in the dirt and desert – with a confident and experienced rider, that is. Happily, for the urban commuter, they are thoroughly decent on-road, too.

The GS has grown from 800cc to 1000cc, then to 1150cc and now 1200cc. We have chosen the earliest model for its simplicity and steel-tanked charm. If you are looking for a two-wheeled Labrador – dependable, unfussy, loyal – then look no further. bmw-motorrad.co.uk

Production: From 2014 to current Aim to pay: From £6,995 (brand-new) Buy: The tougher Urban Enduro, at £8,000 Avoid: Any of these if you’re planning serious off-road adventures

Triumph might have been building a scrambler-style version of its retro Bonneville since 2006, but – despite endorsements by Messrs David Beckham and George Clooney (among others) – the British bike (which is actually now assembled in Thailand) has been comprehensively trumped by Ducati’s late entry into the market.

The Bolognese company has treated its range of four, subtly different 803cc V-twin Scramblers as something of a capsule collection, separate from their desirable families of superbikes, cruisers and naked street bikes. The Scrambler’s design team even had its own satellite office in Italy’s industrial north, to ensure it was free from more traditional elements of the management structure. Scrambler HQ looks like a hopeful internet start-up, all AstroTurf and table football, and this is reflected in the playful nature of the bike.

Each Scrambler shares a modern chassis and engine, mixed with styling that echoes the company’s popular original 450 Scrambler, released in 1969.

The Ducati, and Triumph’s counterpart, are the epitome of the street scrambler genre, echoing off-road style but firmly anchored to the blacktop. The Italian represents the easy option among this company. It is new, and available in most major cities with a ready-made catalogue of tasteful accessories and accoutrements: electric start (so no drama of trying to kick-start the recalcitrant machine in front of your favourite pavement café); and decent brakes and handling. Just don’t think about taking it off-road. Ever. ducati.com

Production: 2012 to present Aim to pay: £6,499 (brand-new) Buy: Last year’s model brand-new, to save money Avoid: The electric version if you suffer from range anxiety

Austria’s entry into the list is the other side of the coin to Ducati’s Scrambler. The Freeride can be ridden on-road, and comes with all the legal requirements, but it is made for bog snorkelling and moorland meandering.

KTM makes a bewildering array of chunky-treaded motorcycles, and has dissected the off-road market into sub-niches thinner than a human hair, but the Freeride is something of a game-changer. As the name hopes to suggest, this featherweight is aimed at Sunday adventurers, not experienced racers. It’s a mountain bike without pedals. KTM even produces a smaller 250R (though we’re not entirely sure why), and an electric version, the pricier Freeride 250EXC.

The entire Freeride range is designed to tread lightly and quietly, not tear a filthy scar through the landscape and scare the sheep. It is best used to serve up bite-size chunks of exploration, allowing one to return home in time for a shower and a dinner date. ktm.com

Production: 1987 to present _Aim to pay: $6,599 new in US only. Used from £1,200 _Buy: A new one Avoid: 1980s lime-green-and-purple ones, for obvious aesthetical reasons

It’s difficult to find anything on which to pin the KLR650’s remarkable longevity. In an industry driven, for so long, by biennial model updates and reinvention, the KLR650 has been on Kawasaki’s books since 1987 and has not fundamentally changed in that time. It is the Galapagos tortoise of dual-purpose bikes, and has been described by US motorcycle bible Cycle World as a “two-wheeled pack mule”.

The KLR650 is still sold new in the US, but not in Europe, and is a throwback to the 1980s. The Kawasaki’s Luddism is its strength. Even now, it still eschews fuel-injection for a carburettor. But simplicity is a virtue when you’re on a Bolivian salt flat and your motorcycle won’t start. With a KLR650, there are fewer components to go wrong – and if they do, you’ll have more chance of fixing them (on paper at least), or finding someone who can. kawasaki.com

It’s not hard to find a bar-room “expert” who will tell you a bike like the BMW GS is too heavy and compromised by its road equipment to ride off-road, but an ex-pat Kiwi based in the sodden Black Mountains of south Wales will help you prove them wrong.

Mr Simon Pavey is a multiple Dakar Rally finisher and his world-renowned Off-Road Skills school has taught thousands of riders from around the globe just how versatile their GS can be. Lessons start with every student laying their borrowed BMW on its side on the inevitably damp shale of a Welsh quarry. This act sets the precedent. It says, “You are likely to fall off today. We don’t care. We just want to show you how to pick up 200-plus kilogrammes of Teutonic metal without popping a blood vessel.”

The rest of the two-day school sees students spoon-fed seemingly random handling tests and skills, before the big reveal of riding the kind of terrain a mountain goat would shake its head at. You don’t have to be a BMW owner, or even a motorcycle owner, to attend, but a basic level of motorcycle experience is essential. The school will tailor its lessons and pace to your experience.

The two-day Level One Off-Road Skills course is priced at £495.