Posted September 7, 2005   Email |  Print

Ducati Multistrada 1000 S: A Supermoto for the open road

by Lance Oliver

People get confused about Ducati's Multistrada.

Some look at the tall, upright posture and think it's the latest entry in the growing adventure-tourer category. But the Multistrada was not designed to leave pavement.

Others see the 17-inch tires, dual disc brakes and, on the 1000S model, the gleaming gold Ohlins suspension, and think "sportbike." But the Multistrada's riding position is as far from the sportbike tuck as a non-cruiser can get.

Ducati Multistrada 1000 S DS
Engine	air-cooled, two-valve-per-cylinder Desmodromic 90-degree V-twin
Displacement	992cc
Bore and stroke	94mm x 71mm
Compression ratio	10:1
Carburetion	Marelli electronic fuel injection
Transmission	6-speed
Wheelbase	57.6 inches
Front suspension	Öhlins 43mm fully adjustable inverted fork with TiN
Front travel	6.5 inches
Rear suspension	fully adjustable Öhlins monoshock; hydraulic remote pre-load
Rear travel	5.6 inches
Front tire	120/70 ZR 17
Rear tire	180/55 ZR 17
Front brake	two 320mm semi-floating discs, 4-piston caliper
Rear brake	one 245mm disc, 2-piston caliper
Fuel capacity	5.3 gallons
Claimed dry weight	432 pounds
Seat height	33.5 inches
MSRP	$13,495

It all falls into place when you think of the Multistrada as a big Supermoto bike. One with enough power, wind protection and luggage capacity to carry you many miles beyond the urban streets and go-cart tracks that usually define Supermoto territory.

The confusion is understandable, because the Multistrada looks like nothing else on the road. Since the bike debuted as a 2004 model, Ducati has expanded the line, adding a 620cc version and supplementing the original 1,000cc Multistrada with both a lower-cost "Dark" version and the 1000S with upgraded suspension.

I rode a Multistrada 1000S from Southern California to the Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon-Washington border for the Sportbike Northwest Rally (watch for a report in a future issue of American Motorcyclist magazine), and it proved to be an ideal bike for the 2,510-mile round trip.

The fairing and the upright riding position made hours on the interstate more painless than on any of Ducati's superbikes, yet the Multistrada S still offered a dose of Ducati superbike handling once I arrived at the hairpin curves of the Rowena Crest on U.S. Route 30 in Oregon.

When it comes to styling, we all know what we like. But there's no way not to mention looks when you're dealing with the Multistrada. There's the signature Ducati single-sided swingarm and trellis frame, but it's matched with that unusual split fairing — half frame-mounted, half-fork-mounted.

Let's just say that everyone loves the way it looks. Except for those who hate the way it looks. You decide which camp you fall into.

Settle into the Multistrada S's cockpit and the riding position feels more like a BMW than most Ducatis. The windscreen swoops back close to your face, so airflow remains smooth, unlike some half-faired bikes with fairings so far forward they create turbulence. The S model's tapered aluminum handlebar provides an aggressive but stylish complement to the instrument cluster.

The gauges, consisting of a digital readout to the left and a white-faced dial-type tachometer, allow you to choose from an array of information. The instruments not only keep track of speed and miles traveled, but also average speed and running gas mileage estimates. This gives the rider four different ways to tell when the Multistrada is due for more fuel.

But in a perverse twist, once the low-fuel warning light comes on (with two gallons left, on the model I rode), the miles-to-empty figure goes blank, just when it seems you need it most.

For similarly inexplicable reasons, the engine's redline is not marked on the tach. You'll know when you hit it, because the hit feels like a mule's hoof to the forehead, if only because acceleration was going so well up to the point when the rev limiter kicked in.

Really, though, there's no need to be bouncing off the rev limiter. The Multistrada package is built around Ducati's fuel-injected, twin-sparkplug, air-cooled, 1,000cc twin. Ducati claims 92 horsepower at 8,000 rpm, and says torque peaks at 5,000 rpm. The engine feels happiest around 6,000 rpm, right in the middle of its strong midrange. There's no top-end rush like a multi-cylinder sportbike provides, and you couldn’t pull stumps with the low-end torque, as with many big-displacement cruisers. But keep the engine spinning in the midrange, and the Multistrada always pulls satisfyingly out of the corner.

While the S models sports a few detail differences from the base Multistrada, such as the aforementioned tapered handlebar, a carbon fiber timing belt cover and carbon fiber front fender, the real difference is the suspension.

The 1000S rides on Ohlins suspension at both ends. The inverted fork is fully adjustable, as is the rear monoshock with its handy remote preload adjuster. The lower fork tubes get their high-zoot gold-and-polished-bronze color from the titanium nitride coating, which reduces wear and friction. (Plus, if you're into such things, it immediately announces to the cognoscenti that you bought the upgraded Multistrada.)

On the road, the suspension is good as gold, too. Can we all agree right now that with suspension you get what you pay for? Yes, the Ohlins pieces boost the price of the 1000S to $13,495, which is $1,500 more than the base Multistrada 1000, but they work.

Endless miles of expansion joints on Interstate 5 passed unfelt beneath me. Bumpy construction zones created no drama, and rippled Oregon Forest Roads left the bike unflustered. And when it came time to ride the smooth and tightly coiled curves of the Columbia River Gorge, the Multistrada felt nearly as taut and composed as any sportbike that would have jarred me over those previous obstacles.

Handling? Let's go back to the Supermoto analogy. The wide bar provides so much leverage it's easy to over steer, if you jump on the Multistrada after riding most sporty bikes. The taller profile also means the feel is completely different from a sportbike. The sit-up, foot-out Supermoto riding style feels more appropriate than a tucked-in, knee-down sportbike style.

Ducati's optional, color-matched saddlebags tuck in nicely and provide storage for several days on the road. A full-face helmet will fit in each, and despite the Multistrada's underseat exhaust, the bags have no weird cutouts or odd shapes to complicate packing. One key pops them off the bike or opens them.

So you've got good wind protection, classy and capacious luggage, and you're ready for the open road, right? Well, there's one fly in the Multistrada touring ointment. The seat.

It looks good enough — artfully carved into the bodywork, broad and flat at the back and narrow at the front. But it sure feels hard at the end of 400 miles, never mind the one 700-mile day I did.

At the Sportbike Northwest Rally, maybe a dozen riders asked me about the Multistrada. All the ones who had ridden the bike complained about the seat. The majority of the others asked about it, usually saying something like, "Is the seat really as bad as everyone says?"

OK, through diligent research I found a few Multistrada owners who proclaim themselves happy with the seat. So maybe it's just another part of the bike's Supermoto flavor.

The Multistrada is a do-it-all choice for the rider willing and able to swing the entry fee into the Ducati fold. It's a great (if pricey) commuter: Toss your laptop computer in the saddlebag, sit up tall for a view over rush-hour traffic and enjoy both the torque and good gas mileage of the air-cooled twin. Then, on the weekend, it's a sportbike: Ride the canyons with your friends on their repli-racers and arrive more rested than any of them. On a long weekend, it's a sport-tourer: Fill the bags and go wherever the road leads.

After all, Multistrada is Italian for many roads. On this bike, you can try them all.

© 2005, American Motorcyclist Association