I took the new 1200 Multistrada out to stretch it’s legs yesterday, the local dealers wanted some mile on it before it begins it promiscuous life being ridden by anyone with a will to get a leg over it!
I picked it up from J&L Motorcycles in Carlisle with 190 miles on the clock, had a quick introduction to the keyless ignition, and the plethora of switch combinations to make the bike go, and the various ways in which it can go.
Off through the town in ‘Touring Mode’, the bike rides really well and feels much lighter than the Tenere, although the bars feel much much wider and you sit a little more forward to get the same riding position. Heading out of town and clearing the traffic I was starting to get the feel for the bike so I switched to ‘Sport Mode’. One of the great things about this bike is the on-the-fly changes to the setup, not just the power delivery (like in the Dorsodoura) but the suspension too. In ‘Sport Mode’ the suspension stiffens up (so you can feel those sweet papers on the ground as you go over them) and the power delivery is almost savage, not so bad as it bites you but if feeds in very quickly and that one overtake soon becomes 3, 4 or 5. Good job the breaks are awesome because when the power catches you out, the breaks sort everything out for you.
After clearing the A roads I hit the B & C roads, along with the undulating surface that the Tenere loves so much, I though the Ducati might struggle a little here, but another on-the-fly change to ‘Enduro Mode’ and the power delivery drops to a poultry 100Hp and the suspension softens to start soaking up the bumps. In ‘Enduro Mode’ the bike feels very similar to my Tenere in both power delivery and ride & handling (My Tenere isn’t standard as it comes with DNA filter, PC-V and HyperPro upgrades). The big difference is the Ducati still has ooooodles of power well after the Tenere is bouncing off the redline. The Multistrada isn’t as easy to turn in on these roads as the Tenere, but I put that down to fact I hadn’t really had any time to get a relationship going with the 1200, and it was the most expensive bike I’ve ever ridden at £14k, so risk taking wasn’t on the agenda.
Along the coast road and back to A roads for the ride home, I jumped into ‘Sport Mode’ and started to carve up the traffic. This bike is sports bike quick, really, I took one car on a short piece of road and was into three figures between the boot and the bonnet of the 3 Series BMUU, if you don’t have your whit’s about you this bike will see you licence flutter away into Mr plods glove box.
As I rode back into town I tried out ‘Urban Mode’, and to be honest it’s rubbish! The bike feels like it’s hunting all the time , the ever-so-snatchyness you get with all V-Twins is very noticeable and you’ve got no power, the bike feels asphyxiated. A quick flick back to Touring and the bike behaves allot better.
The seat is very comfortable, it’s firm but sort of bottom shaped, it’s strange as I though it was more sportsbike like than tourer, adventure or commuter. You get a reassuring feeling from the pillion seat as just nudges you from the rear if you move too far back. Normally on a new bike it takes me a while to get used to the seat, but I covered 80+ miles on this and didn’t feel at all uncomfortable.
The hand guards, with the nice expensive looking LED indicators are very good, there is no wind buffeting around the outside as you get with lots of these type of guards, and despite there still being snow around I never felt cold with my autumn/spring gloves on.
The Mirrors are a strange setup, rather than the arm moving to bring the rear into view, the mirror is set into an outer shell and the mirror moves in that, so the arms never move.
The bike is fairly well thought out, with two power outlets, one each side near the in-built pannier mounts. The bike also comes with three matching lock barrels for panniers if you decide to buy them later.
The keyless entry is good, and by keeping the key in you pocket, you just kill the engine (with the kill switch) and walk away, it sorts itself out! Upon your return, you have to sort of reboot the bike by moving the kill switch (which has three positions) up, then down and down again, then back up. When it goes back up it exposes the start button, kinda quirky but easy once you get used to it, Keyless range is about 1.5 meters so it’s not going to able to be started if the key is in the house and the bike in the garage.
This bike is like a computer game to operate, and I never got fully familiar with all the functions that you can control with the various combinations of what are about 4 multi directional buttons. Ducati say that they have all the electrical gremlins sorted out, and the bike will go between services without a workshop visit, I hope it’s true as the electronics alone are mind boggling. The multifunction computer gives lots of information, range (left in the fuel tank – very useful) average speed, average fuel consumption, current fuel consumption, trip time and some other stuff that I just can’t remember. On the main dash you have time, engine tem, rev counter, and some more stuff, that I forget!
Despite the whole bike being an electronic whiz, the screen is a manual adjustment, but with 120ish mm of adjustment you can get it to where you want it very easily and the locking knobs are large and glove friendly. The cockpit is a very uncluttered affair, it look like it’s missing something, I suppose once you get a GPS in there it will fill up a little.
The bike is equiped, from the factory with the top Pannier mountings already there, although the bike I had was the 'S' with the Carbon body bits, I think the Tourer version is probably better value.
Under the seat is something that Tenere owners only dream about, space! Enough for a set of waterproofs and a sandwich. It’s a proper space too, not just some spare space above the battery.
Ducati say this is four bikes in one, and to be fair you really notice how the same bike behaves in four completely different ways depending on the mode you are in. I wouldn’t like to take the bike anywhere more adventurous than a well laid gravel road, but the Enduro mode works exceptionally well on the winter damaged B & C roads, Touring will give you great all round ability and Sport will have you holding on for dear life! The modes are all tuneable, so maybe a little work on Urban mode will sort out the shortcomings here.
As if to give the bike some off-road ability, they've even given it removable rubbers.
I like the bike, and I’d like to get back on it when I can break the 5/6K rpm barrier, I think this bike will be a totally different bike when the rev ranges opens up and the engine is a little less tight.
Is it worth £14k, I'm not sure, when you consider that J&L have already taken orders for this bike, and two of them are GS1200adv's it's clearly a seller and might even upset some who've put the deposit down on a Super Tenere, as long as you are road warrior and not a RTW adventurer.