How I got a used Multistrada 1200S: Likes, dislikes & experience so far

The Ducati has a drinking problem. Its fuel efficiency hovers in the 16-17.5 km/l range whereas my Triumph Tiger 800 consistently delivers 19-21 km/l.

BHPian Axe77 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

• Model: MY 2016/17 Multistrada 1200S (Regd Feb 2017)
• Bought used: March 2022 @ ~53,570 km
• Current odo: ~61,200 kms (as of April 2023)

What’s Hot

• The bike!: In totality. It's red, it's hot and comes with a generous dollop of chilli pepper fire every time you whack open that throttle.
• The engine: 160 PS power & 136 NM torque. Liable to cause random giggling when you twist that wrist at any speed.
• The look: The bike just refuses to throw up a bad pic, even in the hands of a talentless bloke like me who sucks at photography.
• Build quality: Really good, surprisingly. For a bike that’s on the other side of 6 years & 60,000 clicks, the bike still feels pretty well put together.
• Tech & Electronics: Loads of tech including the DVT engine, IMU, switchable ‘on the fly’ riding modes, electronically adjustable Skyhook suspension, DWC - the level of variables are just mind-boggling.
• Stock headlights: Fantastic. These are the first pair of stock headlights that actually made me realise my Clearwater purchase was virtually superfluous. I’ll anyway transfer the Aux lights to the next big bike so no problem there.
• 17” wheel: Makes for an incredibly sporty ride. In the right hands (not mine), can give proper sports bike a run for their money. Off Tarmac though, I’d definitely be a lot happier with a 19” / 21” front wheel.
• Changing riding modes: Can change through its riding modes on the fly while riding and the mode remains the same even if the bike switches off. An incredibly useful feature specially when going through varying terrain.

What’s Not

• It’s Hot!: I mean … the engine heat. It's definitely a notch higher even by superbike standards. This is not a bike you want to get stuck in traffic in.
• Versatility (lack of): Harks to its overall sports tourer DNA. It is much more of a couple of tricks pony than an out-and-out all-rounder, as much as they call it “four bikes in one”. I felt the Tiger was far more versatile - in particular when it's off the tarmac.
• OEM accessory prices: Cost a bomb. I’ve mostly made do with high-quality aftermarket brands though with the added advantage that they will be portable to my next adventure bike.
• Desmo costs: Again, super expensive but they’re once every 30,000 kms and my running really isn’t going to be high enough to warrant doing this twice thankfully, in my likely limited tenure of ownership. And if I‘ve enjoyed it long enough to experience this twice - well - it’ll be well worth the joy it gave.
• OEM hard panniers: Pretty crappy. I’m just not a fan of the whole side-opening oval format of the side luggage system and much prefer the conventional top-loading rectangular boxes or semi-rigid saddle bags in comparison. Personal preference really.
• Low-speed driveability: Can be a tad snatchy at low speeds, specially if you’re in a higher gear than warranted, although the DVT has made it much smoother than previous iterations of the bike.
• Key’d fuel lid: The bike has keyless ignition but the fuel lid requires the key. Terribly annoying. Converting the petrol lid to keyless is an eye-wateringly expensive accessory (thankfully I have this accessory on my bike).
• Some rattles: It's a bit rattly in some places (I think rear foot pegs) with the passage of time).

I’ve kept this review relatively brief since I’m conscious it's a 2017 bike that’s now a generation older, with a substantially different V4 that’s taken its place. But I nevertheless did want someplace where I can post any updates on the bike and also provide the readers with a reference point of what it is like to own this beautiful machine and also hopefully what it takes to own a well-aged Ducati in India. With that caveat out of the way, here goes:

The purchase

As I had mentioned in the postscript to my Tiger ownership thread, I really had no specific plans of buying a Multistrada. I had the occasional itch to buy a second bike and I was seriously considering a sparingly used Ninja 1000 in early Q1 2022. But the MTS 1200 purchase itself was entirely happenchance.

I heard of an MY 2017 pre-owned 1200S that had come to Ducati Mumbai and decided to check it out. There was an instant connection within just a short test ride. It had fairly heavy miles on it, was out of warranty and was within nodding distance of its 60,000 km second Desmo service. So the process was run carefully with detailed questions to the service team as to the approximate upkeep costs it was likely to throw up in a 12-month time horizon. The team, both sales and service, were wonderfully helpful and responsive and I finally mustered the courage to buy an out-of-warranty, heavily run Ducati. What gave me some confidence was that no corners would have been cut in its maintenance and upkeep and it was genuinely a first-owner and well-looked-after machine.

I had a half-used set of Michelin Road 5 tyres thrown in, which I installed fairly quickly replacing the existing Verdensteins, as well as a spare set of front brakes which came in handy since they were due for replacement by the time the bike had reached its 60k Desmo service.

All in all, the bike never even got listed on the used market and between Ducati Infinity and me, we settled on a sensible price for the bike, in what was a pretty short negotiation (if I can even call it a negotiation).

And there began the journey with the Multi. At the time, it was sharing space with the Tiger 800 and it made a lovely combination. For any of the rough stuff, the Tiger was always the default choice but for anything that’s tarmac biased, the Multistrada was just STUPIDLY FUN and soon became almost my default choice for the road-biased Sunday runs.

The wonderful 10 months that the Tiger and the Multi shared garage space.

For those of you familiar with the opening bits of my Tiger review - Yes! I did have to say sorry again and it took a fair bit of effort to make it sound like I meant it. Happy to report though that by now, my wife has more or less given up on me on the motorcycle front so at any given point, if I want to run a two-bike garage, it's met with almost no resistance barring the mandatory token indignation.

A pic right after my first test ride of this 1200S. The wide grin in the picture says it all - I knew that moment, that barring any fatal finding from the service team, the deal was done as far as I was concerned.

Dealership experience

In one word: superlative. I’ve had a great experience on every front with Triumph and the experience at Ducati has been no different - even better, if anything. My brief interaction with the sales team was excellent but the service team has been absolutely brilliant. They’re competent, and extremely customer-centric and if the product fits my needs / budget, I would never hesitate to buy another Ducati from the Mumbai folks from a peace of ownership perspective.

The presence of a south Mumbai service centre is also very convenient and many folks (as did I) take delivery of their Ducatis at the conveniently located service centre.

Delivery day picture at the service centre. My mind is already racing through all the mischief I’m going to get to with this devil.

With that said and done, let me come to the bike itself.

Riding ergonomics and comfort

The bike is extremely comfortable for long hours in the saddle. My bike came with an aftermarket shorter windscreen which is anyway something I prefer and had installed on the Tiger as well, which can be manually adjusted up and down as needed. I find the wind buffeting adequate with this screen and much prefer it to the stock taller windscreens that one needs to look “through” instead of over - specially for shorter riders like me.

Both rider and pillion seats are of generous proportion and despite being a heavy full-size ADV, the reach to the ground is relatively manageable. I haven’t tinkered with the riding geometry in any way. The seats are a tad hard but not to the point of being uncomfortable. The rider seat is sort of scooped nicely low so you do feel like you’re sitting down on the bike as opposed to riding on top of it.

What does NOT work for me at all is the stand-up ergonomics. The entire posture is altogether awkward and I just don’t feel at home while riding standing up. This is in complete contrast to the comfort and ease I felt in the Tiger while riding on the pegs. It's also a big reason (17” front wheel aside) that I really don’t feel happy riding off the tarmac on the bike. I should add though that from an electronics front, the Enduro mode works very well even though I generally just tackle such terrain sitting down. It's the standing ergonomics that feel out of place to me.

This click captures a particularly awkward standing riding posture on my part. Somehow on the Tiger, my stance felt much more at ease.

Engine & performance; Braking

In a perhaps debatable view, this third generation of the Multistrada is hands down an iteration that is one of the best in its own right. It is the penultimate (barring the mid-life update to 1260) of this particular L Twin variant of the litre-class Multi before its migration to the V4. The 1200 sports the (then) updated Desmodromic Variable Timing (DVT) equipped engine boasting 136 NM torque and ~160 HP of power. At the time of purchase, the bike was sporting a +4 sprocket at the rear which gave it an absolutely manic bottom-end pull. When it was time to change the sprocket (done at ~60,500 kms), I actually dialled this back to a +2 sprocket over the stock size.

I’m not one to judge a bike exclusively by its spec sheet and while the bike’s spec sheets are impressive on all fronts and by any measure, the effect of those horses has to be experienced first hand. The engine has a charm of a previous generation, before BS6 came in and before Ducati made every generation progressively more civilised and refined. It has an absolute raw ferocity to it when you twist the throttle, whether you’re accelerating from 20 to 80 or at any triple-digit speeds. Twist the throttle in the right gear at virtually any speed and the Multi responds with utter ferocity, leaping forward with an urgency that takes some getting used to.

The brakes are excellent high-spec Brembos (M50s I think) and do a stellar job of bringing this beast to a stop in any urgent braking situation. Again, top spec components here on a top-notch bike and no complaints whatsoever from the entire braking performance on the bike.

Suspension, handling and related tech

An excellent suspension set up with that sweet 17” wheel aiding crisp handling. The bike comes equipped with its trademark Sky hook suspension with four riding modes that can be switched on the fly (a HUGE advantage - on my Tiger, every time we went off-road, I’d have to pull over to the side and change riding modes keeping the bike stationary while doing it).

The bike has Bosch IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), a height-adjustable seat which I keep at its lower setting, cornering ABS, multiple customisable settings for Ducati Traction Control and Ducati Wheelie Control which I’ve detailed in the images below and different engine maps which release or restrict the full power depending on the riding mode selected.

While you can customise how you want the suspension set up in each riding mode, I’ve actually left it at its factory default settings. Additionally, you can also select four different options that further tweak the suspension a bit. These are solo rider, rider + pillion, solo + luggage and pillion + luggage. This plays around with the suspension firmness a bit. Sometimes, if I want a minor tweak to the suspension firmness, even when I’m just riding solo, I might set the option to pillion / pillion + luggage.

The controls described above

Engine heat

As I mentioned, engine heat is definitely pretty high and while it's never presented an issue while touring, get stuck in a traffic jam and it’ll remind you that you’re on an Italian exotic. Stay stuck in traffic long enough and it's definitely going to sacrifice a fair share of your favourite swimmers in the process. Having said that, I’ve never had the bike shut down on me due to the heat on the occasions I’ve been stuck in bad traffic. Overall, this is not a deal-breaker issue by any measure for me - it's hot for sure when stuck in one place but overall liveable.

Cockpit, controls & tech

Intricate, detailed beyond belief but slightly contra intuitive to use the way the controls are set up. It took me a bit of time to figure my way around navigating the myriad menus and sub-menus because of the way the buttons and knobs to navigate and select settings are configured.

The bike comes with 4 riding modes - Urban; Touring, Sport and Enduro. Urban and Enduro mode restrict the power to a ‘modest’ 100 bhp while sport and touring unleash the full 160 horses available at your disposal. Each of these modes can further be customised for Engine map, DTC (8 levels), DWC (8 levels) and ABS (3 levels). It further allows for specific settings for the Sky hook suspension for each of the 4 riding combos (solo / pillion / with luggage). I’m not proficient at advanced calculus to work out the effective number of combinations possible but suffice to say I’ve trusted whatever the Ducati factory engineers deemed appropriate as the default setting for each of these modes.

The bike also has numerous display modes, which customise the level of information that the extremely informative screen throws up. In the ‘default’ display mode, the bike has a lovely custom manner of displaying the power / torque delivery depending on the mode selected. Note how it has that steep climb in the sport mode in contrast to say the Enduro / Touring mode. The screen itself is a colour scheme but clearly of a previous generation, with the colour display in later Ducatis definitely seeming a notch crisper in the display. The readouts are clear regardless and extremely informative.

You can set different levels and styles of display through this control

Typical display when set in the "Default" mode. Note how the RPM meter launches differently in sport mode compared to other modes in this display style.

The default settings for each of the four modes across the different metrics can be viewed here.

The multitude of settings that are possible. I've set out below a sample using the Sports mode for illustration here.

Fuel efficiency and tank range

The Multi does have a bit of a drinking problem – it typically gives me barely 16 – 17.5 kms to the litre whereas the Tiger in contrast almost consistently delivered 19 – 21 kmpl. Fuel stops as a result are a bit more frequent - I’m typically looking around for a bunk every 200 kms with the need to fill up max by 225 / 230kms. Fuelling up at the 225 km mark would typically lead to an approximately 16.5 - 17 litre full up. Again this is not fatal in itself, but given that a lot of my touring happens with ‘all ADV’ groups, I do need my refills a bit sooner than the other lads.

Luggage setup

• SW Motech tank bag
• SW Motech Sys bags L (semi rigid side panniers)
• SW Motech top box (38 ltr)
• Kriega bags: set of US series 30 / 20 / 10, used as required

I’ve discussed the luggage system itself in sufficient detail in this post. Coming to my preferred usage format for the varying luggage solution here goes:

In-city:

SWM tank bag & / or top box, if and as required. The top box is most handy if I’m taking the bike for a morning run and want to leave my helmet, wallet & some overclothes locked inside.

Outside the city:

For short morning rides outside the city, I now prefer to remove the top box altogether - the SWM tank bag alone serves me just fine. If needed, I latch on the Kriega US 10 on the rear Alu rack which has my basic toolkit and tyre inflator.

Longer Touring:

My preferred set-up is just the Kriega US 30 bag for luggage, possibly combined with the US 10 for tools. If travelling longer / with more luggage, I’d combine the US 30 / 10 along with the Sys bag side pannier set up. My preference now is to only try and use the top box for short in-city distances.

My brief trial with the Kriega side OS side bags, before I ultimately purchased the SWM Sys Bags

Standing at the Grand Hyatt Goa lobby from an office trip earlier this year. This is my single preferred set-up now. Side saddlebags with the Kriega US bags on the tail rack in one or more combos depending on the luggage required.

What does the full SW Motech set-up look like with the top box? If a lockable top box is critical, this is an alternative to the above. Note the cable lock running across the side pannier now. Those are the Steelcore locks that I picked up subsequently.

Living with a 6-year, ~60,000 km run Ducati

So how’s the Ducati been in the little over one year and 7,000+ kms that I’ve had it? All in all, remarkably reliable. Other than basic pre-ride checks that I’d subject even a newer bike to, I would not hesitate to take it on a long ride in a heartbeat. It's been utterly reliable, the cost of upkeep - predictable and barring some nominal niggles I have no complaints whatsoever.

Isolated Issues and niggles

• Horn switch: Was a bit sticky at some point. Needed some small spray or something which the service centre sorted during a routine check up.
• Rattly rear foot pegs: Unfortunately one of those Ducati things. Over a period of time, I think the bolts get a bit loose, causing the foot peg to rattle. Since I almost never have a pillion, I’ve just zip tied it for now.
• DSS error: The bike has three sensors and if any of these go kaput it can throw up a DSS error. I did get this once but it was likely only some muck or something interfering. I got the sensors inspected and cleaned up and the error has since gone away, never to return in about 2000 kms since.
• Side stand: My side stand gave way while I was at track day at the MMRT. Had to manage with a paddock stand for that weekend and got a new side stand installed once I was back in Mumbai. Quite a harrowing experience while it was gone, but overall the part was made available very quickly - literally within a few days. Didn’t break the bank either - cost less than 5k IIRC, give or take.
• Minor rim bend: I had a very minor rim bend that was causing a very slow leak in the front tyre. I had the rim straightened out through a trusted third party vendor who a lot of Ducati owners have used. This has happened in my Tiger too and so far no issues since the repair.
• OEM luggage fit: Completely unhappy with the OEM hard side pannier setup. It had come a little lose I guess with the amount of miles on it. I could have gotten it fixed with some minor jugaad solution but since I’m anyway not a fan of that style of luggage, I simply went and installed side pannier mounts from SW Motech and installed the 2022 released version of the Sys Bags L set up. I am really very happy with this purchase and look forward to moving this to the next big ADV as well.

Major maintenance: 60,000 km Desmo + chain sprocket

The bike underwent its Desmo service at a little under 59,000 kms if I recall correctly. The overall cost was about ~ Rs. 61,000 after they threw in some discounts. Of this a little under 16k was on account of labour and ~45k was towards parts. This is definitely well within the amounts I had anticipated and budgeted towards this major service at the time of purchase.

The other major spends were on a new set of tyres and a new chain and sprocket (went +2 on the rear as I mentioned earlier). Both of these were done at a little over 60,000 kms. The tyres cost ~Rs. 40,000 (Michelin Road 5s) and the new chain & sprocket cost ~Rs. 26k give or take, including labour.

Overall, these are within the amounts I had estimated as I mentioned and other than specific accessories (most notable being the Clearwater Aux lights and the luggage system) I have had NO unusual expenses in the last 13 months of ownership - this, on a bike (to reiterate), that's done 7,000 kms under my ownership at the 55 - 60k kms mark on the odo. I'd say this is impressive for the privilege of owning an exotic Italian like this.

Closing Notes

Really nothing further to add to the review. I’ve left a ton of pics in the next post from the last 13 months and will continue to post updates on this bike from my ownership hereon. Hopefully, they will mostly comprise only ride updates because the bike really hasn’t thrown up any drama on any front whatsoever.

I’m conscious the review itself may have limited relevance since this particular model is no longer on sale now. But it’s definitely shown me that owning an old, high mileage Ducati is far from fatal, and with the right checks and balances is something one can definitely consider, as long as one is mindful of the general upkeep costs of course. At least for me, it’s definitely broken the whole reliability question mark over Ducatis.

While they have got a reputation to be cantankerous beasts, they’re definitely building more solid and reliable than they’ve been given credit for. In my immediate riding circuit itself, is a same-generation Multistrada 1200S that’s done well over 75k kms - a substantial portion of those with two up touring - having travelled extensively to the far corners of the country including the North East. It continues to do similar duty, having been to Spiti / Ladakh just last year at the hands of the most amazing riding couple.

There is no doubt that the current generation of Multis are fantastic and are an engineering marvel in their own right. But I feel truly blessed that I got a chance to experience this specific generation for how it is and what it represents - before the Ducatis became a bit more civilised. One that won’t hesitate to snap back at you if you’re being silly - playful to the right measure but demanding respect every step of the way. It has the sophistication of modern-day machines combined with the inimitable charm and the raucous roar of a prior era.

Waking up at 4.30 am to go for a Sunday ride has never been this easy. It's certainly more rewarding than ever with this beauty of a beast. For all my riding compatriots on the forum, thank you for reading and hope you enjoyed the brief review.

In the meantime, ride hard, ride safe and Godspeed!

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.