Another Multistrada review [long]

Got to play with a silver DS1000 courtesy of those nice people
(specifically, Simon) at P&H Motorcycles in Gatwick, today.

Suze had already stated that should I buy one, then she was not going to
come on any more rides with me...Heh. She further commented once at the
dealership, that she would be riding at least quarter of a mile behind me
as she didn't want anyone to think that she was in the company of anything
so ugly. Not sure whether she meant the bike or me.

The seat is, as others who've ridden it have mentioned, rock frickin'
hard, however, it's only a problem after an hour or so. The suspension is
firm(ish) yet this doesn't make it uncomfortable.

In fact, despite the aformentioned seat being /way/ harder than the -12R
(alleged to have a firm saddle) and also the Speed Triple, even crashing
over a couple of potholes didn't jar one's behind and coccyx.

It took me a mile or so to get used to the lump-lump-lump nature of the
twin and to learn not to cane the tits off it; let the torque do the work
and short shifting became the order of the day.

The (in)famous Ducati dry clutch was something I'd not experienced before
and was a tad disconcerting the first time I slipped it a little too much
to be greeted by an angle-grinder-on-wood graunch as reward for my
ham-fistedness.

The gearbox seemed to work, although if a good upward prod wasn't applied,
a false neutral was easy to achieve, unlike the generally slick Kawasaki
'box.

Clutch action itself is light, lighter than other Duc's I've tried, which
was good.

Brakes were good too, not the "top drawer" spec Brembo jobs but damned
good. Immediate bite, lots of feel, no fade. Nice.

Off out of town and down the A217 towards Reigate. Seems to lope along
quite happily at 50-something pulling maybe 2.5-3k rpm in fourth or fifth.

Overtaking was effortless at such speeds; no need to drop a cog, just wind
on that V-twin grunt and slip past.

A couple more graunches when filtering through Reigate town centre on a
busy Saturday, then out the other side along the A25.

Leaving Reigate on the A25 is, these days, all 40mph limit until just
before the Headley turn-off, which is a shame because there are two or
three /very/ nice bends on that stretch.

Very soon I'd had enough of pottering along behind Mini Metros and Renault
Meganes and, conscious we were approaching the nice bit, I took up station
in the "motorcycle lane" and once more effortlessly slipped past the
cages.

The thing that was becoming apparant about the Multistrada was that in a
similar way to the -12R, one can be going faster than one thinks quite
easily. The difference though is that on the big Kwak it's usually when
you're topping 130mph, on the strange Italian beast it's much lower down
the speed range around 70 or 80.

"Pah!" I hear you sneer, "70mph? That's not quick!" Depends what context
it's in, doesn't it? I found myself hooning round corners in a posted 40
limited at 70-80 mph with /ease/ whereas on the same corners on the -12R,
it'd have required a great deal more concentration to prevent highsiding
on the way out. The Duc, by comparison, just seemed to scream "Go on!
Give it some beans!" Which I did.


Having seen what it can do on swoopy, sweepy, A-roads, my attention turned
to twisty, bendy, nadgery B-roads with dodgy surfaces and cow-shit an'
everyfing.

Brilliant! Even more of a hoot than the A-roads! Suze, afterwards,
complained that one of the roads we'd taken (somewhere near Leigh, IIRC)
was so badly surfaced that she had stones pinging up, both ends slipping
and utterly hated it.

I, OTOH, never noticed a thing; no drama, no fuss, not a hint of slip from
the Pirelli's and even went back to do the same bends again such was the
ease with which one could lob the bug-eyed monster through the twisty
bits. Flick, flack, left, right, roll-on, straight, roll-off, tip in,
gas, flick, flack, roll-on, etc. and probably only changed gear twice.

Suze further commented at the "debrief" that immediately I got onto the
twisty bits, I "went into hooligan mode, like you used to on the Speed
Triple". I couldn't deny it, it was all too easy with such a package and
those big, wide bars.

All in all, a great every day tool and pretty economical as far as I can
tell, too.

Faults? Well, yes, the aforementioned seat is a bit of an own-goal, I
think -- Ducati should have said "stuff the shorties" and gone with the
taller gel-seat that is now a £55 option, instead.

And the mirrors. The mirrors are shit. They're too small, too fragile
(they've got the indicators in them) and were nigh-on impossible to adjust
as they just would not stay put. Even when I did get them "just so" I'd
see more of my elbows than of the road behind, plus, thanks to the 992cc
of lumpiness under my butt, they'd vibrate back to their preferred resting
place withing seconds of my adjusting them.

If anyone else here has ridden a -12R and thought the mirrors were shit,
those on the DS1000 are several orders of magnitude worse.

Also, it's a tad, a smidge, an eensie-weensie bit on the small side for
me. Not 'cause of my bulk, either -- it coped with that -- more to do
with my height... Tall folks, those over 6', anyway, I think will find it
a little cramped; I found myself sitting toward the back of the seat,
perched on the lip just to get the bars at a comfortable distance from me.

Simon, who's also six-foot-something, agreed.

And lastly, the screen seems a bit pointless; a styling exercise rather
than a functional device. It directed airflow directly at my chest,
rather than up and over me. Even less well proportioned types would
likely find themselves similarly bothered by it. Especially when it
rained.

Would I buy one? Mmmmm, not right now, not until the price has dropped or
the second-hand market has a few more examples available. Also, as I
remarked to Simon, our friendly sales-bod at P&H, it's fun, but it's not
seven and a half grand of my money's worth of fun.

I'd like to have a longer go on one, maybe a whole weekend rather than
just over an hour, to really know if I want one /that/ badly.

I, personally, love the look, but then again I loved the Speed Triple,
too.

It would be in my dream stable of bikes, mind...