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| Multistrada – the most practical Ducati yet |
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Dave Abrahams October 13 2003 at 01:25PM |
Get IOL on your mobile at m.iol.co.za |
Say what you like about the quirky styling of the Multistrada - and I have no intention of rehashing here any of the scurrilous comments that have been directed at Ducati's first supermotard – the most important thing is that it works.
It's theoretically an air-cooled motor but boasts a large oil-cooler under the steering head – and a readout for oil temperature on the instrument panel, which I found fascinating as it faithfully mirrored the slightly erratic performance of the fuel-injection system when it overheated in heavy traffic then dropped reassuringly quickly as I got out into the airflow again. It pulls from just above idle, despite ferocious power-thudding below 3200rpm (well, what did you expect from two 94mm pistons?) and comes on strong from 4000 to well past the power peak at eight. The big L-twin runs uncannily smoothly below 7000 revs; above that there's a lot of high-frequency secondary vibration and the DS becomes a little breathless – although I bounced it off the rev-limiter at just under 9000rpm a couple of times during our performance testing without the motor showing any stress. Ducati claims a top whack of 62kW at 8000, enough to pull the Multistrada up to a genuine 225km/h with the rev-counter reading 8250 (although it rattled my cage by slurping more than five litres of unleaded in 26km of flat-out running!). Peak torque of 84Nm is delivered at 5000rpm; at that point the bike is loping along at 136km/h in top, using just 6.8 litres/100km, and in fact it cruises best at 163km/h, with the motor spinning at six thou. Ducati's dry clutches don't take well to abuse; this one began to squeal and judder in heavy use but soon recovered its good manners once given a chance to cool at highway speeds. It's as well, though, to ride the bike in a civilised fashion in traffic on hot days, although nothing I did to it would induce the clutch on the test bike to slip.
The fuel injection set-up has no secondary butterflies or vacuum circuits so there's a little "slamming door" effect at low revs, but the state of the art has come a long way since the Bosch Motronic of the late 1980's and the Multistrada can be ridden slowly without leaping around on the road like a landed fish; even driveline lash in the long chain has been kept to a minimum. It's not a world superbike motivator, but it is a hard-working, user-friendly mill with a punchy mid-range that has proved itself over more than a quarter-century of production. It hangs off an odd-looking derivative of the classic Verlicchi trellis frame, with a heavily cantilevered rear sub-frame to take the weight of the passenger and capacious optional quick-detachable panniers. It's actually a neat piece of tubework, with the exception of the forged, welded-in gearbox mounting brackets, which look a little clumsy but are necessary for the swing-arm pivot hardware and the conventional, very neat cast-alloy foot-peg hangers. The single sided swing-arm is derived from that of the original 916, with remote adjustment knob for the preload above the gearbox on the right – a very practical touch for a bike which is intended to carry a wide variety of loads, from a single pilot out for some Sunday morning hooliganising to a couple with a week's worth of luggage. The rear monoshock is a multi-adjustable Showa on a rising-rate linkage while the front forks are from the same stable, very long 43mm inverted units to cope with the Multistrada's tall supermotard stance, adjustable for preload, compression and rebound damping. The test period was too short to allow for much tuning on the suspension so we left it as issued; for a single rider the factory's median settings are a good compromise between accurate roadholding and stability. The bike is a good deal more accommodating than the race-bred 999 over IOL's rough-as-a-bear's-backside suspension test road, but as stable as the ST4s sport-tourer on the high-speed sweepers. Imagine long, swooping, perfectly cambered corners at 180-plus, the bike going exactly where you point it with race-track precision, sitting bolt upright in street-bike comfort – this thing is fun. When you need to brake, there's a lot of front-end dive, inevitable given the suspension geometry, but the bike remains perfectly stable and the big Brembo four-pot callipers haul the bike down hard enough to get the rear wheel skipping – not bad for a 200kg street bike. The only concession to the bike's supermotard suspension geometry is that the rear brake has been given more power than usual for a sport bike, together with enough feel for you to do some very naughty things with the rear wheel – rather to the detriment of rear tyre life. Part of the reason for the Multistrada's superb front-wheel tracking is the significant reduction in unsprung weight brought about by the innovative six-spoke cast alloy front wheel, which has the 320mm stainless-steel discs mounted without carriers directly on to a large, hollow hub, on its own short spokes. Seen from the side it's more air than anything else, which is exactly the idea. The rear wheel, cast by Brembo, is very similar to the Marchesini hoops on the World Superbike racers, with a dished offset hub to accommodate the 245mm rear brake and chain adjustment. The first thing you notice when you sling a leg over this distinctly odd-looking bike is the front seat – it's one of the hardest I've yet sat on and much harder than the separate, slightly raised pillion accommodation. But it's perfectly shaped to avoid any pressure points, spreading the rider's weight perfectly over its entire area. After a few minutes you don't feel the hardness any more, only the accurate feedback through the inside of your thighs that keeps you aware, without having to think about it, of the bike's exact attitude. With a bike this tall and this agile, it's important, and it's one of the Multistrada's great strengths. The centre section of the bike is very slim, the front of the triangular saddle melding with the deeply indented fuel tank cover to make the seating position very relaxed. You sit with your torso leaning very slightly forward, a perfect position for checking out the commuter traffic – but just as good at high speeds thanks to the weirdest-looking but most effective fairing ever fitted to a bike in this category. The test bike was fitted with an aftermarket screen, slightly taller than standard and with a turned-up rear edge, creating a pocket of almost perfectly still air, with no hint of buffeting. The bike is astonishingly comfortable up to about 170km/h and it's no hardship to keep up point-to-point speeds of more than 180 for as long as the roads allow. The wide, wide handlebars are a big help in traffic, where they combine with the Multistrada's very unDucati-like tight turning circle to produce a strikingly nimble traffic-splitting tool, but the bike's relatively conservative front-end geometry makes it reassuringly stable right up to its terminal velocity and the leverage afforded by the 'bars help you throw this thing around like a motocrosser. You can dive up the inside of more "sporting" machinery and drop it into tight corners in the blink of an eye, even if the high saddle makes it feel like falling off a wall, giggling insanely all the while – it's a while since a road bike has made me laugh inside my helmet. The amazingly compact instrument panel features just the one important analogue dial – the rev-counter – with a liquid crystal display panel alongside which is a vast improvement on previous Ducati efforts. It presents an impressive amount of data in easily readable form, with a full-on trip computer (fuel consumption, range, average speeds, the whole works) available at the touch of two buttons at the top, big enough to use with gloves on – although I would advise against using it on the fly, other than on very straight roads. Ducati's South African design guru Pierre Terblanche is himself a dedicated rider - and it shows in his work. From the Supermono of the early 1990's through the Cagiva Gran Canyon, the 900FE , the highly individul MH900e, the 999 and now the Multistrada, he has demonstrated a talent for building odd-looking (not to say ugly) bikes that work. The Multistrada is a street-bike with attitude, a supermotard that really handles and a better than decent light tourer. Don't let the quirky styling fool you - it's a real-world working motorcycle like no Ducati before it. The Ducati Multistrada costs R107 500. Click here to use IOL Motoring's repayments calculator. Specifications: Motor: Air-cooled four-stroke 90-degree L-twin. Capacity: 992cc. Bore x stroke: 94 x 71.5. Valvegear: SOHC with two desmodromic valves per cylinder. Compression ratio: 10.0:1. Power: 62kW at 8000rpm. Torque: 84Nm at 5000rpm. Induction: Marelli electronic fuel injection, with two 45mm throttle bodies. Ignition: Electronic, twin spark plugs per cylinder. Starting: Electric. Clutch: Hydraulically actuated dry multi-plate clutch. Transmission: Six-speed gearbox with final drive by chain. Suspension: 43mm Showa inverted cartridge forks at front, adjustable for preload, compression and rebound damping, Showa monoshock adjustable for preload, compression and rebound damping, with remote hydraulic preload control, at rear. Brakes: Twin 320mm discs with Brembo four-pot opposed piston callipers at front, 245mm disc with Brembo twin-pot opposed piston calliper at rear. Tyres: Front: 120/70 ZR17 tubeless. Rear: 180/55 ZR17 tubeless. Wheelbase: 1462mm. Seat height: 850mm. Dry weight: 200kg. Fuel capacity: 20 litres. Price: R107 500. Click here to use IOL Motoring's repayments calculator.
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