2017 Ducati Multistrada 950 review

With its positioning as a “premium product”, Ducati has never cared too much about refinement in terms of silky smoothness. Its products are raw, loud, vibey and full of character; that’s what makes them a Ducati. They live and breathe noise and chunky power; they typify controlled aggression and look best painted red because of it.

So when faced with a white, smaller-capacity version of the full-house 1200 Multistrada, I could have been forgiven for feeling a little ho-hum. Except I wasn’t, because I know something about the “smaller” Ducatis – the smaller they are, the sweeter they ride!

Ducati knows it too, so its marketing hype is festooned with “easy to ride” references. Ducati normally cares not for such trivialities – “you want to ride Ducati? Then ride Ducati!” Heavy clutches, wooden rear brakes, lumpy engines – it’s what makes Ducatis Ducatis. Not that the current 1200 versions are hard to ride.

The 1200 Enduro is an exceptional off-road beast, much better than what I thought a tar-footed company such as Ducati would ever produce, while the 1200 Multistrada demands your attention when on the gas but is still so competent in so many areas.

But they do take a lot of your concentration – in a good way – asking that you keep the bike front-of-mind rather than letting your two-wheeler deal with the road while you admire the scenery. This is where the 950 shines.

Doing it easy
Deep into a full day ride, I was soaking up the last of the Sydney warmth, sniffing the last of the autumn scent before winter closed in and slowed down anything with petals or leaves. This bike steers with no effort, holds its line with a light touch, growls out of corners so sweetly, it almost, almost feels like a bike from another brand.

Ducati, however, is clever and knows putting out a bike that feels like anything less than a Ducati simply won’t sell. The more subdued engine note is never-the-less a sweet one, the engine has the breadth you expect of the famous V-twin and still makes for one serious punter corner to corner. But it does it easier and with less rider involvement than the big girls.

Behind the bars is a sweet place to be, with a sizeable frontal area, made up of an agro Ducati snout and sizeable screen, keeping the icy fingers of pre-winter wind wallowing around me, rather than right through me.

It’s a clever designer that can utterly change how a bike feels, yet retains the character its marque got famous with. Ducati has done that here. It is simply the easiest-to-ride Ducati I have had the pleasure to sit on, but it’s not sterile or “missing something”. It nails its design brief and offers lovers of the brand something less brutal to enjoy, and potential new owners a reason to switch to Ducati.

You sit deep in this bike. Like many manufacturers, Ducati is aiming for low seat heights to draw people into motorcycling and the downside of this is less-seat-to peg-distance, short-arses will rejoice, though. For me, at 178cm, that leg room feels cramped after an hour in the seat, however it is supposed to be a smaller bike, and the larger 1200 Multi has no such problems.

The seat itself is quality, for pillion and rider, even if the former is towering over you up the back. The upside is if you are into carrying backpacks, you can take the weight off your shoulders with the pack sitting on the pillion seat. Better still, add the Touring or Urban pack to your order to gain 58 litres worth of panniers or a 48-litre top box respectively.

Enduro option
Interestingly, the first Multistradas came with a strict “don’t ride off-road” edict from Bologna, but the 950 has an Enduro pack option as well. There is a heap of crash protection, but for me I’d be adding some off-road tyres and then I’d be quite happy to engage Enduro mode and head bush.

It’s not a full-house adventure bike though – it is aimed at taking its rider/pillion almost anywhere and it shines as a do-anything bike. Think reasonably-graded dirt roads, not erosion jump-infested 4WD tracks or goat-chasing mountain trails.

It’s the kind of bike, however, that if it’s wet, cold, hot or any of the many reasons riders make an excuse for not riding, this thing will coax you onto the seat. It’s that ease of riding that does it, because this translates to a fun, low-stress day in the saddle.

The dash is part of the “no-stress” routine because there’s a plethora of information there. The fuel gauge is accurate (it wasn’t many years ago that you wouldn’t trust the things!), and the fuel range from the 20-litre tank is just right for this bike because it lets you cruise for 350km or so.

Kicking the bike between modes is easy for anyone au fait with Ducati buttons, they are much the same, and the marque does it well. Choosing your level of traction control, ABS and knowing which gear you are in is easy to monitor via the dash – I just wish Ducati would break up the colours to make navigation even easier.

The bike is feature-rich, with remote-adjustable rear preload, spot-on for adjusting the back end to suit luggage and pillion loads, the Ducati Safety Pack, essentially traction control and ABS settings depending on which mode you are in, the flash 9.1p Bosch ABS system (most humans can’t outbrake it, even in the dry) and all of this I’ve come to expect from Ducati. Its electronics prowess is strong and has been for years.

Cut from a different cloth
What Ducatis have always required for years is a firm hand to steer them, and a brave rider to use the speckled gobs of grunt the big V-twin engines vomit out the rear wheel. And this is where the 950 is different.

Where the bigger bikes need muscle, the 950 has already turned. Where the 1200 is barking the bush down, pawing the front wheel for the air and working the rear hoop into a molten mess, the 950 has cleanly fled out of the corner, as easy as you like.

It’s not slow, far from it, it just does it all without the chest-beating of the big girl and is another advertisement for why we should all be running a smaller engine than we generally do. I can’t talk, I own a big V-twin naked, but this bike has me seriously questioning all that grunt when I could just be much more casually make the scenery blur.

The engine is not a bagful of cats the bigger bike is, it pulls hard, but it’s more like accelerating on a waterslide than taking off in the space shuttle. I couldn’t get enough of punching out of corners on this bike: it sounds magnificent, has all the joy-feelings of a bigger bike, but is simply more manageable.

Heat, please
So there has to be something I didn’t like, yes? Well the VIN plate is in a crazy spot, those things should be out of sight out of mind on such a well-built bike as this. Heated grips should be standard, not an optional accessory on a bike built for touring and with a good “wet “ mode. They should only be available in red. And give me a powershifter. Then, yes. Um.

I really enjoyed my time on this bike. It is solid, an absolute joy to ride hard, unintimidating, easy to ride yet still soulful and a bike that makes you ”yipeee” inside, every time you hit the road to somewhere distant. Must be that Hypermotard-derived engine…

Priced at $18,990 plus on-road costs (for the white version, the Red is $200 cheaper – another reason to just get it in red!) I actually think the 950's biggest competition is with its big brother. It does everything almost the same, without the brutality, and for near-on $5k less than the 1200. More people will fit on it, it’s lighter when paddling around the garage or on the road, and yet it’s a red-blooded Ducati. But only when you want it to be, and all with 15,000km service intervals.

Ducati has walked that fine line between character and user-friendliness beautifully, and the result is a bike that punches well above its weight, at a price point that will and deserves to, entice more people on board the Italian brand.

SPECS: DUCATI MULTISTRADA 950
ENGINE
Type: Liquid-cooled Desmodromic four-stroke L-twin
Capacity: 937cc
Bore x stroke: 94mm x 67.5mm
Compression ratio: 12.6:1
Engine management: Electronic oil injection

PERFORMANCE
Claimed maximum power: 113hp (83.1 kW) at 9000rpm
Claimed maximum torque: 96.2Nm at 7750rpm

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

CHASSIS AND RUNNING GEAR
Frame: Tubular steel trellis
Front suspension: Kayaba 48mm upside-down, fully adjustable, 170mm travel
Rear suspension: Sachs monoshock, fully adjustable, 170mm travel
Front brake: 320mm discs with radial-mount Brembo monobloc calipers, ABS
Rear brake: 265mm disc with twin piston-caliper, ABS
Tyres: Pirelli Scorpion Trail II, front 120/70-19, rear 170/6-17

DIMENSIONS AND CAPACITIES
Rake: 25.2 degrees
Trail: 105.7mm
Claimed kerb weight: 229kg
Seat height: 840mm
Wheelbase: 1594mm
Fuel capacity: 20 litres

OTHER STUFF
Price: $18,790 red livery, $18,990 white livery,
Test bike supplied by: Ducati Australia
Warranty: 24 months unlimited kilometres