So we’ve just finished driving the brand new Ducati Multistrada V4 Pikes Peak. This is the top-of-the-line, brand new model for this Multistrada line. And we were able to drive it on all sorts of conditions, including highway, tight, twisty roads, and deserted two lanes to learn everything you need to know about what this bile’s capabilities are: comfort performance and style.
And I think it’s important to hit the key points of this bike, which are really the multi faceted capabilities that it’s got and how they combine things like superbike technology with adventure bike technology. It looks like an adventure bike but it’s really capable of doing so much more than that. And they used some key technologies to get there. Probably the most amazing part of this bike is it’s easy turn-in and generally nimble feel given that it is an adventure bike. It looks pretty big and heavy and it has a substantial curb weight, but they’ve cut weight in areas that make it feel much lighter than it is or than it looks.
One of the key things is the rotational mass and the wheels, they’re now 17-inch wheels that are smaller wheels than the other models. That reduces the rotational mass. But then they’ve done a counter-rotating crankshaft in the engine, which further counters the weight of the wheels. That takes all that mass that would normally make the bike want to stand up and make it hard to change its angle, and counteracts those, between the crankshaft and the wheels.
What you’re left with is a bike that will lean over very easily, much more easily than it looks like it will. It takes some time to get used to. You’re riding it, you’re a little maybe nervous, you know this is a big bike. It looks kind of top-heavy. What’s gonna happen if I leave it over? Is it going fall on me? And none of that happens. All that happens is, it dives in when you want it to and it transitions left to right super easy without any serious effort. It’s so easy to make this bike transition left and right. And I think what probably surprised me the most was the level of confidence you that can develop in a very short amount of time on a bike like this.
That’s probably the most impressive thing about this bike, but they’re other things they’ve done too. They’ve got radar cruise control like a lot of high in cars have now, so it will actually maintain the speed and match the speed of cars around it. It’s got a very advanced digital gauge cluster that you can do all sorts of crazy things on. You can set all the different driver modes or you can go into each driver mode and set like 10 different settings within each mode and then memorize it so you can recall it whenever you want.
It’s got valve train adjustments at 36,000 miles. I’m a long time Ducati owner and fan and I know that that was one of the things that a lot of people would yell about and scream about “Ah, they need too much maintenance.” Well, my old Ducatis never were very maintenance heavy so I always knew that that really wasn’t true. But now that they’ve changed the valve adjustments it’s really become a non-issue. I mean the kind of maintenance you’d have done on a vehicle would be far more common for other elements than just the vale’s after 36,000 miles. So it’s something I think most Ducati people aren’t even going to have to think about anymore.
The other thing that’s really great is when you’re going at higher speeds the design of this bike essentially keeps all the wind off of you. It’s so easy to cruise at higher speeds, higher speeds maybe than you even should be cruising at because the design of the windscreen and the tank and how it basically directs the air around you.
Plus this particular bike has specific venting to keep you cool. It works to keep the engine heat from hitting the rider and directs it away from you. So it’s very easy to get on a freeway and cruise at high speeds for extended periods with no heat pouring on you and minimal wind buffeting you, for both the driver and the passenger if you want to bring one along.
You’ve got this bike that can go around corners very easily, can rip forward pretty quickly with 170 horsepower. It’s got various levels for wheelie control if you want to use those. Or you can go through really tight corners like you would a superbike. And a lot of the vehicle’s technology comes directly from the Panigale, so it’s not surprising that it feels extremely sporty despite the adventure bike size, shape and profile that it’s got.
So the “multi” part of Multistrada just seems to keep getting wider with each generation of this bike. And this one with all this race technology has extended its performance envelope further than any of the previous ones without losing any of the other adventure bike things you expect.
It’s an impressive machine. I think people who are already fans of adventure bikes and/or fans of Ducatis should really give this one a close look. I’m pretty amazed with it personally.
