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.
In a number of important ways this is the most practical motorcycle the Borgo Panigale factory has yet produced – and there are a number of Ducatisti who won't take that as a compliment.
It's built around the 1000DS motor, an updated version of the 1977 Pantah engine bored out to 94mm for a capacity of 992cc. DS, of course, stands for Double Spark; the motor has new cylinder heads, each sporting the traditional two desmodromically operated valve but with an extra spark plug on the right side of each head, its cap actually set into the cam belt cover.
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This gives a vastly improved flame front during combustion, enabling more rigorous timing and fuel mapping without any detonation and significantly improving both mid-range power and fuel efficiency.
It rattled my cage by slurping five litres of unleaded in 26km of flat-out running It's fed by the latest version of Marelli's electronic fuel-injection, which manages to run cleanly throughout the rev range despite sucking through two huge 45mm throttle bodies.
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.
Imagine long, swooping corners at 180-plus, sitting bolt upright in street-bike comfort
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