2010 multistrada review

[oldschoolsdime92]

I pulled this from triumphrat.net . I thought some of you maybe interested..

http://www.triumphrat.net/sprint-forum/147243-2010-multistrada-review-long-detailed-pics.html

2010 Multistrada 1200 S Touring

Review by Hatchetman240

A few pics from today before the rain.

I need to open by telling you that this bike can’t be summed up by words. I have to tell you that it is honestly the best piece of machinery I have ever operated. I know it’s a strong opening, but I need to further stress that no matter how good I make this bike sound on paper, it’s actually even better.

The bike is so astounding I had trouble deciding where to begin. To keep it all in balance, we will begin with its flaws.

THE BAD

Panniers:

The panniers are shoddy. It’s amazing to think Ducati would have farmed these out to Givi (which is what I am told they did) and gotten back a product whose two halves do not seat together correctly. I could actually see a gap between what should be a water tight seal. This is like Tara Reids botched breast augmentation, an otherwise flawless form marred by the careless hand of an inattentive hireling. It makes you slap your forehead and ask “who the heck allowed this atrocity to make it to the show room?” Ducati allowed it. I can’t actually blame Givi, because the buck stops at Ducati.

That was what I would have ended with on the subject, had I not just been caught in a monsoon level downpour for an hour. I opened the bags to find no real amount of water in the bags. A few drops, perhaps from when I stopped for gas and checked them (some dripped off my helmet). In any event I have to assure you I would keep anything in there so long as they were in pannier liner bags. The seals could be made water tight with a few dollars of rubber stripping and some crazy glue, but for $20k should I need to do this?

Cost:

They priced themselves over most of the rest of the big adventure tourers and sport tourers, except for BMW. I can’t call this a flaw knowing what I am about to write in the rest of this review, but let’s be real about this: no one lays down 20K for a bike unless it’s doing something nothing else does.

Surging:

Some of the forum guys say it surges; I think I have felt this. Little jumps in the throttle that seem to come and go. I’ll agree with them, yes it does this. I’ve read the aftermarket Termignoni system resolves this with its new ECU. It had better resolve it, it costs $3k! I also read a cheaper $100 fix, but I can’t confirm anything about that.

The Ducati Tank Bag:

It broke an hour after I left the dealer. It’s also really large and poorly thought out. This tank bag is to convenient storage as Charlie Sheen is to stable relationships. I ordered a quick-lock tank bag from an online retailer (they happen to have found a BMW ring that fits the Duc!). I’ll be trying to return the tankbag.

… And I don’t care. Those are the flaws I found. None of them bother me in light of the following:

THE GOOD

It has a traction control system. It has a fuel management system that detunes the engines horsepower when you don’t want to have all the ponies. The suspension system is rivaled only by the highest end motorcycles. It’s not an ugly bike trying desperately to slap enough plastic on itself to be pretty (I’m talking to you Hayabusa!) It’s appearance is actually pretty stunning in person, they did a good job disguising that long span of front forks by adding those ram air nostrils to the bike. It’s Hypermotard meets BMW 1200GS. A proximity key fob gets you started, no actual ignition key spot.

Maintenance:

We all know how Ducati was 10 years ago on this. Around 4 or 5 years ago Ducati started trying to get more reasonable on maintenance. I never thought I would see the day Ducati lead the industry on maintenance intervals. Oil changes at 7500 miles (though the guy I talked to was sort of skittish about that and said 3k or even 6k would be better). Major maintenance at 15,000 miles (!!!) I was assured this would cost around $900. My math is telling me this is kind of a bargain! We’ll see if all that holds true.

Suspension:

That suspension I mentioned is none other than Öhlins. You get electronically adjustable forks with spring pre-load rebound and compression dampening. The rear shock gets the same treatment. This is one of the reasons the bike has such good handling.

Weight:

It’s around 425 dry. It actually feels even lighter. The height of the bike should make it less wieldy, but since I can flat foot it (6’1” and a 32” inseam here) it comes off very much like a motard/dirt bike. In short I can manhandle this bike.

Tires:

The Perelli Scorpion Trail tires were developed just for this bike, and for the four-in-one concept Ducati was going for. They blew away my expectations off road and met my (high) expectations on road. They’re a dual compound tire that managed to strike the perfect balance. Every corner I could lean into I tried a bit more. I won’t be scrubbing the chicken strips off these as I can’t see risking my life to test them, but they’re solid. I also wouldn’t take them off the dirt roads, but they might surprise me.

Handling:

It’s confidence inspiring when the adjustable suspension is set for the task at hand. At low speed in Urban configuration (see electronics for more on that) I was able to achieve full steering lock turns with no urge to touch my feet to the ground. I’m pretty sure I could pass the operators course test for a license on this thing, it’s that maneuverable at low speed.

In high speed sweepers and decreasing radius turns while in Sport mode the bike was basically daring me to go lower on my leans. The input in sport is sharp, it’s going to reflect whatever you’re giving it. While the Sprint settles into its turns like it’s on rails the Multi asks you “how insanely tight would you like me to lay the rails?” I made a small adjustment in the saddle while hunkered down in a fast turn and noticed the minor inputs I was giving the bars immediately. Those inputs were passed over by the Sprint, but not so in sport mode on the Multi. I find the Urban setting most resembles how my Sprint handled.

Ergonomics/Comfort:

I never owned or test rode an adventure tourer before, so the posture is probably common across the type, but the seat was remarkable. Well, it SEEMED remarkable. I learned the Sprint seat was not so perfect after about 350 miles in a day and I really want to test this on a long ride on the Duc, it will be some time before I can do that. My girlfriend was so impressed with the seat that she commented instantly upon sitting on it at the dealership. No long ride with her as of yet, it will be interesting to see if the passenger seat is as good over the long term as she said it might be.

Normally after an hour or two on the Sprint I’ve leaned too much into the bars for long enough to cause my carpel tunnel to rear its ugly head. Obviously, no chance of that happening on the Duc or any other adventure tourer, but it had to be mentioned.

The Multistrada most resembles the posture of a good office chair, if your office chair had a 150hp monster living under and a little forward of the seat of course. The center stand foot piece sticks up and actually can hit your left heel if you ride on the balls of your feet, but it happens to be a perfect fit for me in that now I can rest my heel and ball on that side. I wish the right side were so well appointed; it’s nearly like having running boards.

(continued in next post)

Last edited by hatchetman : 07-10-2010 at 08:57 PM.

[oldschoolsdime92]

Fuel Consumption:

People who have managed to keep the bike to a reasonable speed are reporting 45-50MPG. I got 40MPG today, but keep in mind I only made it up to third gear a handful of times. I even managed to remember to check if fourth through sixth existed while I was on the highway, but they took the bike under 5k revs and down to an RPM where life was rather droll, so I returned to third gear and tried to forget about that.

Wind/Rain Protection:

My one trip home on the highway this morning had me testing the ability to raise and lower the windscreen while riding. It’s on a (roughly) four inch track and secured by one knob on either side. If you don't over tighten the knobs you should be just fine. The stock screen is rather small to protect against rain for a rider without a helmet. I wear a helmet so it didn’t matter. Wind protection was actually excellent and it seemed to stop most of the buffeting. My first night I experienced buffeting while behind a pickup truck, but I haven’t been able to reproduce this yet. You can order a bigger windscreen, but I will be sticking with the stock.

Electronics:

All those fancy traction, suspension and power farkles I mentioned are tied together by an ingenious electronics system so robust I could write an entire review on just those features. Having your traction control, adjustable suspension, and variable engine tuning all tied in together on an adventure touring bike is very remarkable. It allows you to have a number of different motorcycles all in one. Like a transformer… or a wife that can change into a girlfriend… and then into a beer.

At first I saw the four configuration options on the dash (Sport, Touring, Urban, Enduro) and figured three of them are exactly alike and the other doesn’t work. Once I test rode it I had to admit at least two of them were legitimately useful and remarkable, of course I only tried two at that time. Now I’ve used all four and I assure you all four belong there.

Enduro:

This detunes the engine to about 100HP and turns off ABS as well as limiting the traction control. It also maxes out the suspension travel. You’d think a Ducati too pretty to be useful off road. I had a nice stint on dirt roads earlier and found it to be incredibly good. I dreaded this road on my sprint. I used to take it at 10-15 MPH with my feet down in an absolute panic. My blood pressure suffered from travel here. The Multistrada was pushing 45mph on those specialized on road/off road tires, I barely felt the bumps. The height of the machine calls out your inner dirt bike riding child and somehow I am actually looking forward to more dirt roads. Let’s be honest though, you won’t be trail riding with this thing, it’s far too expensive.

Urban:

I’m told other Ducati motorcycles are to traffic as infants are to planes. You’d best not bring either into the respective situations, and if you do there will be a lot of frustration and noise. This setting softens throttle response tremendously, and the clutch becomes a lot easier to pull for all that shifting, you’re down around the 100HP mark, and have ABS and some level of traction control. This is the most obvious and useful setting on the bike. It turns what should be a hard to manage motorcycle into something akin to what scooter riders must feel in traffic; unconcerned about the hardware and focused on lane jockeying.

Touring:

This is no disappointment. In fact, if this were the Sport setting it still wouldn’t be a disappointment. It’s basically just enough suspension to compliment the excellent ergonomics of the bike, and this combines for a great ride. I’d mention the power, but it’s only a softer throttle response that separates it from Sport.

Sport:

Make no mistake, when you put it in sport it actually means something. Don’t plan on keeping the nose down in first and second if you whack the throttle around like you did in urban (or even touring). Obviously I could go on about this, and I will later.

We’re STILL not done in electronics.

There are four suspension settings independent of the adjustments above. You can actually tell the bike how you’re riding and it will adjust the suspension accordingly. Rider, Rider with Bags, Two-up, Two-up with Bags are the four settings.

Everything I have mentioned so far in electronics is adjustable by way of one button: the turn signal cancel. I constantly jam that cancel button when I ride in fear I have a signal on, but don’t worry because to make any of the changes you select you need to hold it in for a few seconds and then close the throttle (just a quick roll off will do) otherwise it will ignore your selections. It works well.

At this point I wondered “what if I want ABS on in Enduro?” or “What if I want to tweak my suspension extra special, cause I’m 260lbs?” You can. You can adjust all of that according to the dealership, and I did see the menu for it today. I’d love to tell you it all works wonderfully as well, but I didn’t toy with it (yet).

Sound/Exhaust:

The stock exhaust sounds and actually looks better than any stock system I’ve ever seen. Even Termignoni couldn’t top this systems appearance. The sound really struck me this morning, riding on a dry back road before the rain. There was something in the engine, something not to be contained. I twisted the throttle and this cacophony of guttural sound began to well up all around me, it gave me goose bumps over the second it took for all the power to really be delivered. It might have been the sound of pavement and aluminum crying, whatever it was it was intimidating, and for good reason. Sadly that’s all I can really say about the sound. I could go on about how it reminds me of Animal from the Muppet Show before he broke into a drum solo, except a demonic Animal. You can’t really describe the sound. I’m also certain that if Chuck Norris made a noise when he was angry, this would be it.

Of course all the Ducatis have an edge on sound. They're the Harleys of sport bikes when it comes to noise. It's part of the ride experience that overwhelms me on this bike.

Power (Oh my God the power):

The bike has a lot of power. Picking up where I was at that point of intimidating noise; once the power came on it was actually frightening. It made me wonder what my careless throttle hand had wrought with the slightest turn of my wrist. The throttle was not open all the way, the throttle wasn't open half way! Obviously, the Sprint is a lot heavier and lower set on the front end, so it isn’t given to such squidly antics without some coaxing by the rider. It’s a bit more reserved in that way. The Multistrada on Sport configuration, however, has all the reservations of a stripper.

It doesn’t stop at the wheelie. I backed off the throttle to get the front end down and let that high fairing start giving me some down force around 50 or 60MPH only to find that’s when the power really comes on. It’s suddenly hitting its stride just as you’re thinking it can’t have anymore left in it. The redline comes on in a way that’s not noticeable. On the Sprint there was sort of an alarm in my head for vibration and sound that told me when to shift. The Multistradas carries the 1198 motor, which was bred for those high RPMs, every gain in RPM rewards you with what feels like coming into the meat of the power band. It’s like a never ending power band, except that it ends in the redline rev limiter. It has no drop off or shudder to tell you the redline is coming. It's coaxing you along, promising more power every second until it slaps you in the face with a redline. All the while you’re somewhat terrified with all of the noise, face smashing onrush of wind, the sudden lift and of course the force that’s pushing your stomach into the passenger seat.

The Verdict

(In Hatchetmans Opinion)

This bike should be featured on Top Gear. It should be sitting there on the Top Gear test track with lighting in the background. Jeremy should be saying everything I just said, only better. It should be on the track being ridden like a madman by Casey Stoner against a Lamborghini Gallardo operated by the Stig. People should know about this all-in-one wonder so that someone out there who wants an 1198 in the twisties that turns into a BMW 1200GS for the long haul can have his or her dream. From this perspective maybe $20k isn’t so bad. Think about the guy who is garaging his Porsche all winter just to get out on the road and do the same thing you’re doing on this bike… except he’s slower, and paid LOT more money. It doesn’t really seem fair for the poor Porsche guy.

It’s not the end all-be all of bikes, that title isn’t attainable. The title this bike deserves is one that is only ever held for a very short time. It’s the next, or current, best bike out there.

Last edited by hatchetman : 07-10-2010 at 09:30 PM.

[Dubguy85]

My dad just bought one.. It might be my next bike... Its freakin awesome!

[oldschoolsdime92]

Its certainly going on my bucket list! I almost fell over when I read the maint. intervals. Thats starting to sound like honda!

[Likwid]

I'd give up a testacle and a toe for the new MTS.