Ducati Turns ‘Funky Chicken’ Into $20,000 Transformable Beauty
Ducati Turns ‘Funky Chicken’ Into Transformable Beauty
Ducati via Bloomberg
There are four basic modes -- Sport, Touring, Urban and Enduro -- designed to tackle anything from a racetrack to a clogged highway to a two-week trip through the Rockies.
There are four basic modes -- Sport, Touring, Urban and Enduro -- designed to tackle anything from a racetrack to a clogged highway to a two-week trip through the Rockies. Source: Ducati via Bloomberg
Ducati Turns ‘Funky Chicken’ Into Transformable Beauty
Ducati via Bloomberg
The Multistrada 1200S is no ordinary Ducati. The $19,995 machine was nominated for Bike of the Year by the U.K.’s Motorcycle News.
The Multistrada 1200S is no ordinary Ducati. The $19,995 machine was nominated for Bike of the Year by the U.K.’s Motorcycle News. Source: Ducati via Bloomberg
I’m tickling through Singapore traffic, a typical day biking in the city. Track taillights, feather clutch, check mirrors, pick gap, first to second, brake, second to first, repeat.
A stretch of road opens up, cleared invitingly by a red light. A couple of presses on a button, a three-second wait, and suddenly the throttle that was easing this bike through a choking crawl has flung me through to the next lights so fast the cars behind have barely cleared the previous junction. I’d be praying for dear life if I wasn’t grinning so hard.
Flinging people around at jail-baiting speeds is hardly out of the ordinary for Ducatis. Blood-red and curvaceous, they are the femmes fatales of the motorcycle world, igniting a scarlet spark of lust that scrambles male senses and makes even hardcore pedestrians experience an unfamiliar tingle.
The Multistrada 1200S is no ordinary Ducati. The $19,995 machine was nominated for Bike of the Year by the U.K.’s “Motorcycle News” and hailed as an industry revolution. It doesn’t take long to see why.
The Bologna, Italy-based company has always excelled at building some of the world’s best racing bikes. It hasn’t always done so well at serving the rider who commutes Monday to Friday with occasional weekend sprints to the coast.
Climb onto Ducati’s 1198, which came out in 2008, and there’s no question it’s an outstanding sportsbike. Still, it can be intimidating and irritating after half an hour weaving through a city, with the grumbling and straining of an engine designed to be ridden fast and hard.
Ducati Debt
Partly because of that adherence to sporting tradition, five years ago Ducati was saddled with debt and a range of machines that were out of touch with the demands of all but its most dedicated devotees.
Taken private by new investors (including, with a certain puzzling irony, the Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan), the company adopted a customer-centric philosophy backed by exhaustive surveys and turned itself into a serious competitor for the likes of Honda and BMW.
The Multistrada is the apogee of that transformation, marrying brilliant electronics with a magnificent engine, and opening up the exclusive Ducati club to a broader riding public.
Swing a leg over it and it’s anything but intimidating, even with the slightly eccentric, beaky profile that earned an earlier model the nickname Funky Chicken. The styling is much improved and even with the tall, comfort-biased riding position and wide handlebars I feel like I’m inside the bike, rather than on it. There is still an SUV-like view over the traffic.
Guttural Growl
Flick the keyless ignition and the 1,198cc motor comes to life with that guttural Ducati growl. The engine is the same as the 1198, only retuned so that the valve overlap between intake and exhaust is reduced, enabling a smoother, torquey low-speed performance that makes city riding a pleasure. It’s more manageable than its stablemate, if a touch lumpy at low revs.
The real key to this bike is the signal-cancel button which, when it’s not canceling signals, controls everything from the power delivered from Ducati’s first ride-by-wire throttle to the suspension and the level of traction control to the rear wheel.
There are four basic modes -- Sport, Touring, Urban and Enduro -- designed to tackle anything from a racetrack to a clogged highway to a two-week trip through the Rockies.
For example, put the Multistrada in Enduro and stepper motors raise the rear of the bike and soften the suspension, while traction control is reduced to enable the rear wheel to slide through dirt. Power is reduced to 100 horses.
Deep Woods
Because of the bike’s low clearance compared with an adventurer like the BMW R1200GS, I’m not sure I’d take it too deep into the woods. Still, it’s more than capable of conquering the average firetrail. Transforming it into a sportsbike with 150 horses, a top speed of 155 miles per hour (250 kph), hard suspension and enough traction control to stop the bike flipping you onto the gravel like a rag doll takes three seconds. The change is thrilling, with a dash of terror, tempered by the powerful ABS brakes.
Delve deeper and each parameter can be tweaked almost infinitely according to the rider’s preference and the load the bike is carrying.
On paper, it sounded like gimmickry. Surely, a bike is what it is. A tall machine like this can’t handle like a sportsbike.
In fact, the Multistrada can, even with its height. Flicking it through bends, the bike responds instantly, and holds a line so exactly that after a few minutes I was lured into cornering with more abandon than may have been wise on a test ride.
Few, perhaps two, bikes I’ve ridden have inspired that much confidence, or provided so much fun so quickly.
Ducati says it wanted to appeal to a wider market without betraying its sportsbike heritage. What the company has come up with is perhaps the world’s first true all-rounder, a bike that a relative novice can ride without fear, and an expert can ride without feeling compromised.
The 2010 Ducati Multistrada 1200S at a Glance
Engine: 1,198cc L-Twin, liquid-cooled with 150 horsepower and 87.5 pound-feet of torque.
Transmission: Six-speed, wet multiplate hydraulic clutch.
Top Speed: 155 mph
Gasoline mileage per gallon: 45
Price: $19,995.
Best features: A bike for everyone that’s as exciting or as docile as you want it to be.
Worst feature: Low-speed power delivery still not as smooth as competitors like the Triumph Tiger and BMW R1200GS.
Target buyer: Older riders, or riders returning to the saddle, who want a sportsbike with the comforts of a tourer.
To contact the writer of this column: Matthew Oakley in Singapore at moakley@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this column: Mark Beech at mbeech@bloomberg.net.
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