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Realizing my Italian dream: Brought home a 2023 Ducati Multistrada V2

27th October 2023, 11:03 by Dev Shah

Its an attention magnet. People stop you for selfies, kids wave you as soon as they get a glance

BHPian abhi_tjet recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

A beautiful adventure tourer. Isn’t the previous line oxymoron?

However, leave it to Ducati to make even an adventure tourer beautiful, not brute but beautiful.

I liked a line in a conversation from one of the US based series where one of the character owned a Korean(Hyundai) car showroom. The gist of it was like,

I sell Koreans so that I can drive Italians.

There is something about Italians which despite their shortcomings brings a certain flair, certain oomph in their product. Ask me, I own a late 2013 FIAT Linea.

Ducati was a dream, a childhood dream, thanks to the movie Matrix. I have seen people of all age group, and gender ogling at my bike, making conversations, etc.

Triumph never managed this much attention, might be since it was a naked roadster.

During my college days, I de-stickered my LML Adreno FX and rechristened it as DUCATI, lolz.

It sounds embarrassing now but that sowed the seed of getting a superbike . A Ducati at that and hence the title.

This will be a longish thread guys and gals. Apologies in advance.

I have completed around 3 months of ownership and odometer has crossed 2000 kms. So, what better time to pen my thoughts and share my initial experience, likes, dislikes, and so on with the mighty Multistrada.

Likes:

The beautifully calibrated 937cc Ducati Testastretta, L-Twin engine. Its butter smooth in operation, torquey and fun. It’s the most powerful in its segment and it shows while riding.
The suspension from KYB/SACHS is sublime. It can eat rough road surfaces, imperfections, potholes, etc for entire 6 course meals without a sweat with 170 mm travel at both, front and rear.
The handling is too good as per my limited skills. The 120 section front and 170mm rear does help a lot here. It’s a bit more top heavy than Tiger but quite less than my ex-Triple which means a great balance in handling and keeping a line during corners.
The braking set up is good. It uses radially mounted Brembo 4.32 monobloc 4-piston callipers. Experience is more delightful due to Brembo MCS lever.
Feature list on safety front is quite elaborate with Vehicle Hold control, cornering ABS with 6 axis IMU, combined braking, Ducati brake light, a comprehensively configurable ABS and traction control menu and more.
All switchgear feels good to operate, a bit better than my Triple.
The feature list is quite nice. Hydraulic clutch, Brembo levers, a comprehensively configurable rider modes menu where you can customize different engine maps, Ducati Quickshifter(DQS), ABS, traction control, etc. Self-cancelling indicators, ambient temperature gauge, battery current readout, etc are all standard.
Seats/Ergonomics – The seating position and rider triangle is too good. Seat is spacious, well-padded and very comfortable for rider as well as pillion
This thing is very fuel efficient as per superbike standard. It's quite easy to get around 20 plus kmpl easily. Considering the weight and bigger engine, this is a pleasant surprise.
Last but not the least, looks. Do I need say more? It looks overwhelming with so many curves and beautifully designed parts. The headlight contour, tail lamp, choice of rims, the beautiful seat upholstery, switchgear, the Ducati red color etc. Its splendid.
Its an attention magnet. People stop you for selfies, kids wave you as soon as they get a glance, parents want their kids/ themselves to be clicked with bike and strangers talk to you. Not a dull moment even when its parked. Triple just never managed this much attention.

Dislikes:

There are many small parts here and there which have quite a lot of clearance gap. This wasn’t expected. Seems like, its same with all Ducati’s.
Exhaust note is rather muted. My erstwhile bike easily used to get mixed in crowd due to its unassuming looks and color. But, it definitely sounded a lot better and announced its presence in style.
Surprisingly, the knuckle guard is very flimsy and clearly a case of form over function. Barkbusters are like mandatory. This is the first item to be broken in case of fall.
There are lots of weld marks on end can. Its unpainted as well which highlights all of them. Not sure why it can’t be painted in black.
For a bike costing more than ₹1.6 million ex-showroom and touted as a tourer, not providing a Cruise control should be considered a sacrilege. I am more than happy with Halogen headlamps and LCD display console. I understand the absence of quickshifter in V2 variant. But no cruise control, come on Ducati!
Lots of curves and shapes. The places which were smooth in triple are curvier here and hence more effort is needed to maintain. This point was in likes as well since these curves makes the bike looks ravishing but a pain in wrong places when it comes to maintenance.
Heat - This bike is just not made to be stuck in traffic. If it will be used in such conditions frequently, one will definitely have a burn mark, especially on left thigh.
You just can't park it and be done with it. It need a safe parking away from public stare. I literally stopped(gently) a lady who was putting her kid on the parked bike for a quick pic.

PS - Credits for all the beautiful pictures goes to bhpain sukiwa. He took a lot of pain to capture and process them. Pictures clicked by him can be identified through the watermark.

The backdrop:

My prior ride was a BS6 – 2020 Triumph Street Triple R which I bought new. I had a wonderful time with it and was literally a ‘fill it, shut it, forget it’ experience for me. All my big bike experience is courtesy to that and my comparison in many aspects will mostly be with my ex-Triple.

After clocking in excess of 20K kms, I wanted to try different genre and an Adventure Tourer was top on that list. My first preference was on road touring. A bike which can take various dirt, gravel road, absence of tar on road, potholes without making me nervous about ground clearance or shocks bottoming out with 2 up and still easy, fun to ride.

Selling Experience:

Accordingly, I got my bike checked/evaluated at Superbike store shop at Wakdewadi near Sanjay Hyundai showroom. I heard good words from Triumph showroom (they too sell the bike to them) as well as some riders for that shop. I was given a quote by them which was a bit less than my expectation but I agreed since many people recommended the shop and I was ok to lose some amount provided the paper works transfer will be quick and clean.

However, after quoting the price, that guy never proceeded ahead and didn’t close the deal. On calling, he always told that he will transfer fund same day but he never did citing some excuses. After waiting for a month or so, I stopped pestering him and he too never contacted. Guess I will never know the reason. As per above experience, I can't recommend this shop to anyone. The guy goes by the name Gulzar.

After this ordeal, I thought of taking matters in my own hand and posted ad in various forums including team-bhp classifieds.

As per my selling experience,

Generally, people expect a low run bike and are very surprised if running is more than 15K-20K

Accordingly, they low ball you.

90% people do just time pass.

I logged in Facebook just to post an ad for my bike in one of the popular superbike classifieds groups. My ad got more than 100 likes but no decent inquiry.

It took me some time to sell my Triple, most probably, due to the mileage I clocked. However, I am happy that it finally went to a BHPian (I have mentioned this in detail in my Street Triple ownership thread)

Final wash before handing the bike to new owner - BHPian throttleking. I hope it’s serving him as finely as it served me.

After selling the bike, I wanted to take it slow due to onset of monsoon and some other important things going on in parallel. However, that wasn't going to be the case.
Out of the blue, I got a call from Ducati Pune, just a day after I sold the bike. I was asked to come to dealership once for discussion and decide accordingly. Ducati guys had my number since I visited them once in early 2022 to check out the new showroom and model spread.

Contenders - There were 3 main ones.

Triumph:

Being a Triumph owner, I was very much comfortable with them and my first preference was for Tiger. So, I visited Triumph first and below is how it went.

Out of a range of Tigers, Triumph Tiger GT 900/850 Sport was my first choice. I have test ridden Tiger 850/900 Rally Pro earlier couple of times. It is a fuss free bike which can take various terrain and uncertainty in road conditions with aplomb without breaking a sweat. So, it was just about the wait time and availability.

And that actually became the deal breaker.

Below was the status on various Tiger’s coming on Indian shores and my experience.

Tiger 660 – Its availability was ok but after owning a Street Triple, this was kind of a downgrade. It could be a good 2nd bike. Since I was moving away from Street Triple, I wanted something at similar level, if not better.

Don't get me wrong, there is no problem with bike. The engine is ultra smooth and rev friendly, suspension is plush as compared to Street Triple with better GC and more travel.

I would have bought this if it would have been available in 2020, when I got my first big bike. Not now though. Street Triple spoils you in many good ways. It taught me that 118ps is kind of more than enough that you will ever need on our roads. You can’t go above 8-9K rpm in more than 95% times of your riding time in higher gears. Our public roads are just too much dangerous for that. But anything lower than that might not give you that rush.

Tiger 850 Sport – I would have bought this. Its a no nonsense bike with all the basics covered. However, there was no confirmation on availability. It could have taken 3 months/6 months to arrive, there was no guarantee. Despite a modest power/torque figure, this is a proper tiger. That 82NM torque is generated much earlier in rev range, add a plusher seat which can comfortably accommodate 2 with luggage, this is a serious tourer.

Tiger 900 GT - Again, there was no confirmation on availability. It could have taken more than 6 months to arrive. There was only one upcoming piece in blue color and I wasn’t fond of that. I could have gone with this as well otherwise. This is a higher version of 850 Sport with better power/torque figure which you cannot judge in regular riding. However, this will definitely help in case of higher payload and more demanding condition.

This also got some feel-good features such as cruise control, heated grips, adjustable suspension among others. Looks like I have to wait more to experience cruise control in bikes (or even in cars). My Multistrada as well is devoid of this feature.

Tiger 900 Rally/RallyPro - Same story with this variant as well. There was no confirmation on availability. Only the demo bike was available. I though never considered this variant because of my modest frame of 167 cms. A seat height of around 860 mm(21-inch front wheel) is too much for me. Also, it was going out of my budget by a fair margin.

With a heavy heart, I moved the Triumph out of my contender list. It was surprising since I always thought of moving to Tiger from Triple whenever the time comes.

BMW:

I wanted to check 850 GS (GSA was out of budget) as well as F900XR. I took a short test ride in April of 850 GS when a rider buddy got one this year. Despite my apprehension towards parallel twin motors in these big bikes, I liked the initial experience.

Below was the overall experience while enquiring for various models:

850 GS – I called them and requested for a test ride, slightly longer one if they can oblige. I also gave them the reference of my rider buddy, talked about my last test ride experience to show them my intent of buying. After getting my details, they conveyed that they will update me on the same. However, nothing actually happened after that. One of the executives connected with me few days before my Multistrada delivery asking about whether I got a test ride. He again went into oblivion when I said no. And same thing happened even a month back. I got a call from BMW Motorrad feedback team asking about test ride experience. And again nothing happened after that

F900XR – There was no demo bike and no test ride possibility.

And that was it with BMW Motorrad Pune.

Kawasaki:

It is the wild card here since I didn’t exactly check with them during my latest bike search. However, I visited the dealership sometime last year to check on Ninja 1K SX and Versys 1K.
Below is the elaborated experience:

Versys 1K – There was a demo Versys at the dealership. When I ‘boarded’ on it, I was like a 7-year-old boy sitting on a Bajaj Super standing on its central stand. Though the spec sheet says a seat height of 820 mm, this bike definitely need rider with long legs, at least an inseam of 33-34 inches, I suppose. It is quite wide at centre might be due to inline 4 layout. Compare this with 820 mm seat height of Tiger 850 Sport/900 GT where I can almost flat foot the bike. No OEM lower seat height option as well. I silently moved on to Ninja 1000.

Ninja 1K SX – This is the only inline-4 bike I have ever ridden. I was obviously overwhelmed. Only main reason to let it go was low GC with 2 up. Secondary issue was, it is a ‘road’ tourer, good roads are important, you won’t enjoy if the road suddenly vanishes. The seat height(835mm) was again an issue here but with OEM low seat available, I overlooked that part. Considering the dearth of a 'budget' faired in-line4 in India, I definitely would love to own this bike or the upcoming ZX6R.

However, Kawasaki have weight issues. Ninja 1K tips at around 240 kg and Versys leads the chart with 255 kg. That didn’t help its cause anyways. To give a perspective, Tiger 900 GT weighs around 216 kg, 850 GS around 233kg and Multistrada V2 is at 222Kg. Even the Multistrada V4 and Big Daddy GS(new gen) weighs less than 240 kg. All kerb figures.

There was no more confusion now. It was Ducati all the way.

Ducati:

Below is my experience of models that I checked out before finalizing.

Multistrada V4 – I visited Ducati Pune in early 2022 to check out the models in general. They didn’t have the Multistrada 950 for test ride since this model was being phased out for upcoming V2. They accordingly sold the demo vehicle. They instead offered me the V4S for a quick ride. I suppose this is the biggest capacity bike I have ever test ridden. I have no words for the experience. Despite the intimidating stance and huge demeanour, it’s all sublime once when you get going. The throttle response, the turn ins were very agile and very confidence inspiring. I loved it. This experience basically set the mood for Multistrada V2 since IMO it will be more agile and flickable due to its lighter weight and me being sitting closer to the ground. The engine performance again though exemplary is something one can hardly realize/utilize and IMO 950 gives a good balance.

Here is a small clip of test riding V4. This was me first time riding a proper litre class adv.

Multistrada V2 – Ducati Pune do not have the V2 for test ride. They have the Monster and Streetfighter V2, Scrambler 1100 though. Accordingly, no test ride before getting this bike. I asked them to show me a V2 in real at least if not for test ride. They would have requested their customers because 1 gentleman obliged and brought his grey V2S at the showroom for me to have a quick ‘dekho’.

Meanwhile, BHPian the_skyliner, a proud owner of Multistrada 950S, whom I connected to get his view, insisted me to checkout his bike and take for a long test-ride. He was pretty sure that I will love it. I hesitatingly accepted his generous offer and took a quick short test-ride of 1-2 kms in his neighborhood. I will be forever grateful to him for his kindness and confidence in me that I can take care of his exquisite beauty. To give a context, we have just exchanged pleasantries before that in our local Pune biker group, I have never ridden with him, never one to one communicated with him. Still, the trust he showed in giving his bike to me was out of this world. Thanks a lot again, Sir.

I suppose I have to give this credit to our wonderful community here on team-bhp because of which we get a confidence and trust which all members and mods strive to live up to.

The 950 experience – I have ridden the 950 engine in the Supersport form in 2022 when I went to check out Ducati bikes in general. I rode the Scrambler as well during that time. So, I knew that this engine is fun. I just wanted to check how much is the power delivery toned down in terms of linearity like Tiger.

Contrary to my view, this engine is as much fun in Multistrada 950/V2 as it is in Supersport. I was all giggles when I came back after riding the_skyliner’s 950S. I was extra careful with the bike since this bike has a seat height of 840 mm as compared to 830 mm of mine. I was in lower rpm(3k-4k) with gear in 2nd or 3rd most of the time, but the way the rpm climbs so easy in Multistrada along with the locomotive like push of torque is something to believe.

My Perspective:

Between Street Triple and Ducati Multistrada in terms of Engine performance – Multistrada keeps me happy since there is no compromise in terms of engine performance as compared to my Street Triple. It makes equal or more performance figures(power/torque) till 10k rpm. I hardly went above 10K rpm during my ownership with Triple. All the time that I went above was when we start from still and I was never able to max out the rpm apart from initial 3 gears. I dare not to go near 10K rpm in higher gears. Multistrada is equally rev friendly as well minus the aural pleasure of Street Triple.

Between Triumph Tiger 900/850, Street Triple and Ducati Multistrada V2:

Tiger, expectedly, is very unlike Street Triple. Despite bigger capacity, peak power is quite less though achieved earlier in rev range(-23ps). The positive torque delta (8 nm) isn’t huge since it need to move that extra mass (190 kg vs 217kg). Simply speaking, though both power and torque figure come early, it’s too linear to give you a rush. Coming from a roadster to Adv segment and want overall performance, I doubt if there is a better option than Multistrada V2. Despite being heavier than 900 GT by 5Kg, Multistrada’s bigger powerful engine is peppier/rev friendly and makes further 7 extra nm much earlier in the rev range.

Booking & Unboxing:

I had a wonderful experience with Legacy. The SA Saima was enthusiastic without being pushy. With other contenders being eliminated, I made up my mind for the RED experience. I was confirmed a quick delivery since they had 1 unit of Multistrada V2 in stock at their Delhi warehouse. True to their words, within a week of part payment, bike reached at Pune showroom and a couple of days later, I was doing the unboxing.

Eagle has landed. I repeat.. Eagle has landed: