2016 Ducati Multistrada 1200 Enduro launch review

It was funny, right up until the surf arrived. The waves had always been there, they just hadn’t been in any danger of drowning a $30k Italian masterpiece, until we all got bogged.

The last time I rode Boambee Beach in Coffs Harbour, NSW, it had been on a large cruiser, and given how well Ducati’s new 1200 Enduro had handled everything else up until that point I figured we would surf the hard-packed sand up to the river mouth like it was a highway. It turns out the storm damage was more severe than I first thought…

My optimism may have been a little on the fervent side in retrospect, and Boambee had looked pretty sketchy as I headed onto it. But the sheer competence this adventure bike had exhibited elsewhere meant I was sure it would make mincemeat of the sandy stuff. It would have, had we not stopped.

Ducati’s new adventure bike is no Italian pretty boy – it’s a proper off-roader, making no apologies for getting dust in the lasagne and messing its hair as it chunders up the endless supply of bush roads our great country has an endless supply of.

The bike looks almost too good to get off-road, but that’s soon forgotten as you plough through a muddy creek bed, float an erosion jump, drift a sandy section, run away from a closing tide on the beach.

I’ve always loved the road-going Multistrada 1200 S, and also suspected its natural balance, ferocious, yet cleverly tamed engine and roomy ride position would lend themselves well to off-road rigour. I never guessed just how well. And never guessed I would one day be lifting a Ducati out of the surf…

The day had begun climbing out of our Coffs Harbour base and up to Sealy Lookout on the bitumen. It’s tight and twisty and a 60-zone, but even at that pace I could feel the bike wasn’t loving it, being as it was in Enduro mode and running Pirelli Scorpion Rally knobbies. The bike was mellow in the power delivery, soft in the suspension, lazy in the steering and the bike was walking very mildly on the fresh rubber.

But you don’t need to settle for what a bike is giving you these days, and on the Ducati 1200 Enduro, the fix is a few button pushes away. On the fly, I switched from Enduro mode to Sport mode – aah! That’s better.

Sport mode firms up the suspension damping, shifts from the 100hp (claimed) map to the full-house 160hp map, adds throttle responsiveness and essentially makes something that felt doughy a few corners ago, into a bike that would hand a sportsbike its own arse on a bumpy backroad, knobbies and all.

When a few kilometres later we hit the dirt, as any good adventure ride should, I shifted back into Enduro mode, where the smooth engine delivery, softer suspension and dialled-back DTC made sense. The Pirellis sunk into the dirt, too – they are an amazing tyre for what we put them through.

As the day wore on, I went even further into the modes, using the 'electronic clickers' (all adjustments are done via the dash and toggle switches) to slow down the damping and add some preload to help it turn how I like it, as well as turn off the traction control to take us onto the ill-fated beach. The best bit is the bike modes stay as you set them, rather than having to re-set each time you start it up. Four modes mean you have four pre-set options at your fingertips at any time.

If you want to ride the bike off-piste in Enduro mode with full engine power (the Low, Medium and High power options are distinctly different), no traction control and anti-lock braking on full-intervention, you can. You shouldn’t, but you are definitely the one making the choice, which is as it should be for a rider. Many adventure bikes don’t let you set and forget like this, and it’s such a pleasure in the bush to have the freedom of choice.

All this electrickery makes it hard for me to define for you, the reader, the exact personality of this bike – it has many. The important thing to note is that none of these personalities are annoying, and all can be modified to suit you.

In default setting for Enduro mode, for instance, the bike bottomed out landing the smallest of erosion jumps. No problem – the next stop, I dived into the mode menu (one button push), navigated to the suspension, chose rider with pillion mode (two helmets)and then firmed up each end to one step harder from default on both damping rate and spring pre-load at each end.

I did all that before the sweep rider arrived, and from the seat – no crawling around on the ground under the bike with a screwdriver. The sweep rider arrived, I took off and, again, I was on a different bike.

Landing erosion jumps, I took to landing rear wheel first, rather than both together, and it was amazing how hard I could hit them. It blew me away, actually, how stable this bike is.

With the suspension suiting me and the medium-speed four-wheel drive tracks we were riding, the bike was starting to feel all kinds of awesome. Which is when my inner alarm bells sounded.

Adventure bikes have a habit of drawing you up to speed and the amazing 1200 Desmodromic Variable Timing (DVT) engine propels you to wicked pace, effortlessly. This kind of pace has ended in tears for many adventure riders when they arrive at the Achilles heel of most Adventure bikes – a seen-too-late obstacle. Slowing that pace is bloody hard when you are talking 225kg (claimed dry weight) of adventure bike.

The Ducati’s fantastic front end buries into the dirt when the brakes are hit hard, and the Bosch anti-lock braking is nothing less than astounding at how much stopping force you can apply without intervention. This bike is particularly impressive turning into gravelly corners featuring wheel grooves and thick and thin patches of gravel – it just ploughs through it all with a stability few other Adventure bikes can match.

That said, I did arrive at a rock ledge and then an erosion mound hidden in the shadows, and both were a white-knuckle freak-out on my part as I tried to wash off as much speed as possible before the hits.

The bike handled both well, slowing better than I thought, then staying stable as it dealt with the result – it’s an incredibly stable platform, and I never really noticed the hidden steering damper working its magic.

But the lesson was learned – from then I only unleashed the power when I could see well up the road. The rest of the time, it was all short shifting and riding the claimed 136Nm of torque up hills.

So, it’s clear to me, even on the short ride of our test loop, that the off-road prowess of the Ducati is right up there with anything else.

The front end is simply amazing (it almost feels like it’s a 21-inch hoop up front stability-wise, rather than “just” a 19-inch), the engine and suspension modes are well calibrated, with the means to customise, and the bike just thunders over almost anything, with just the right amount of electronic assistance to help new off-roaders earn their stripes without ending up on their heads.

There’s more to an adventure bike than just performance, though. The 30-litre tank – which was only two-thirds full to begin our test – is part of that. Range is around the 400km mark, judging by what we got on our shorter run.

There are two 12V power outlets for powering GPS, heated vests, SPOT trackers, etc. The service intervals are out to 15,000km. There are two seat heights available on top of the standard 870mm option: 850mm and 890mm. There are hefty pillion handles for anyone you want to take across Australia with you.

The list goes on.

Back in 2000, you couldn’t sell an adventure bike in Australia. You just couldn’t. Now, thanks to bikes like the 1200 Enduro, people are feeling more confident in taking big bikes places the technology and build approach wouldn’t let you take them back in the day.

Which is what led us onto the beach.

As soon as I hit the unusually mushy sand, I knew we were in trouble. I got on the gas hard, the bike leapt onto the “sand plane” and I was cruising, but wary of stopping. Or turning. I eventually did both, turning up the beach to see if any of my fellow journos was silly enough to follow me on. Turns out they all were, and were strung out in a procession of bogged bikes behind me.

I went to go back and help, and got bogged too. Then the waves came crashing in and one bike copped a decent hit of spray. Shite…

Some sheer desperation and quality team work got the bikes unbogged and back to the safety of the harder verge, riders and bikes unscathed but we were uncomfortably close to losing a bike to a wave. I couldn’t help feeling all eyes were on me…

From our short ride, my criticisms are limited to how scuffed up the pretty red panels of my bike became from my knees rubbing – the white or grey colour options make more sense in that regard.

There is an oddly-placed VIN plate – it looks too exposed – and the indicators housed in the handguards are a good way to make those handguards really expensive to replace, in the event they sacrifice themselves to protect the bike, as is their job.

The pillion seat also hit me in the butt when I got a bit too “enduro” and sailed off something gnarly, but that was a good way of the bike saying – “calm it, Johan…”

Then there’s the price. At $29,990 plus on-road costs, you want to be serious about your adventure biking to bring this bike into your garage. However, and it’s a big “however”, the bikes come fully loaded with tech stuff that works brilliantly. It’s not just there for the marketing department to make acronyms for; it truly makes the bike more rideable.

The semi-active Skyhook suspension is magnificent, the anti-lock braking is the best I have used on an adventure bike (it marries to the new geometry so well) and the traction control isn’t a pain, it’s a worthy back up and helps keep the bike driving straight without annoying the rider too much.

Until we take this bike back-to-back with the other heavyweights in the booming adventure bike sector, it’s impossible to say how the Ducati will fare, but first impressions are that it is immediately in potential category-winning contention, an amazing feat.

Reasons to buy an adventure bike just got hotter. Just walk a beach before riding onto it. Lesson learned…

PERFORMANCE
Claimed maximum power:  160hp (117.7kW) at 9500rpm
Claimed maximum torque: 136Nm at 7500rpm

TRANSMISSION
Type: Six speed
Final drive: Chain
Clutch: Wet, multiplate

CHASSIS AND RUNNING GEAR
Frame: Tubular steel trellis
Front suspension: 48mm Sachs upside-down forks with electronic compression and rebound damping adjustment with Ducati Skyhook Suspension
Rear suspension:  Sachs monoshock with electronic compression and rebound damping adjustment and electronic preload adjustment with Ducati Skyhook suspension.
Front brakes: 320mm discs with Brembo four-piston monobloc calipers, ABS
Rear brake: 265mm disc with twin-piston caliper, ABS
Wheels: Light alloy spoked, front 3.0 x 19, rear 4.5 x 17
Tyres: Pirelli Scorpion, front 120/70-19, rear 170/60-17

DIMENSIONS AND CAPACITIES
Rake: 25 degrees
Trail: 110mm
Claimed dry weight: 225kg
Claimed kerb weight: 254kg
Seat height: 870mm (850/890mm optional seats)
Ground clearance: Not given
Wheelbase: 1594mm
Fuel capacity: 30 litres

OTHER STUFF
Price: $29,990 plus on-road costs
Test bike supplied by: Ducati Australia, ducati.com.au
Warranty: 24 months, unlimited kilometres