Ducati Multistrada V4 RS 2024 Review

We’ve all done it, haven’t we? Smashed through 1000-odd kilometres of touring through the Italian alps with the mister-and-or-misses on the back. Negotiated corner after scenic corner of stunning mountain roads in what can only be described as some of the best moto roads in the world. Finally, you arrive at your destination in Tuscany. You chug an ice-cold Aperol Spritz, strip the hard luggage from the bike, boot your passenger off the back, don the one-piece leathers and switch the V4 Ducati to race mode. Mugello track record, prepare to be broken.

Sound a bit far-fetched? You bet it does. Unless you were born into the Gucci family or your last name is Bagnaia, the likelihood of the above ever happening is infinitesimally slim. And, even if you had the chance, you’d have to be superhuman to fit that much moto bellissimo into one day. But that’s precisely what the 2024 Ducati Multistrada V4 RS is; a continental tourer that’s also a balls-to-the-wall racer. Mi scusi?

And here I am, standing in front of the Multistrada RS at Ducati’s Parramatta showroom in Sydney’s north west. It’s a thing. A very lovely thing. And a thing that I'm about to ride. After downloading the prerequisite apps, standing on one leg, and uttering the secret words whispered into my ear by the official Ducati soothsayer who’s standing alongside me, the V4 screams into life. Wow. The stunning-looking Akrapovic slung off the bike’s rear ain’t mincing its words. The fact that it’s still inside the dealer’s workshop with all its polished concrete and reflective surfaces only makes the roar so much more.

It’s hard not to be impressed, but if loud exhausts and exotic engine configurations were all it took to make a world class motorcycle, we’d all be riding around on V8 drag bikes. The RS is a big bike, too. Especially at the pointy end, giving it a Thor’s hammer-esque vibe when moving. It’s also got more bells and whistles than the Royal Australian Navy Band in a Mardi Gras parade. This includes Brembo stoppers, electronic suspension, radar cruise control, and a fan-cooled compartment for your smartphone with full connectivity and charging.

What does the 2024 Ducati Multistrada V4 RS cost?

Out to dinner with my folks, I rode the Multistrada there to get some more saddle-time. My Dad, ever the responsible adult, ignores everything about the bike and instead asks me how much it would cost to buy. Shamefully, I hadn’t yet taken the time to look it up, so over an entree or three I pulled out my phone and Google it. Yes, it’s an RS and it has the V4 engine so it’s not going to be cheap, but how bad could it be? $40,000? Maybe $45,000 at a stretch? The screen refreshes and I can’t quite believe what I’m reading. 

This is a $56,000 motorcycle. Holy hell. That’s more money than the family SUV I drive and it’s easily one of the most expensive bikes I’ve ever had the pleasure of wantonly abusing. Taken aback, I feel a little bit like the reality TV stars who suddenly realise that the “new trainee” they’ve been teasing and talking down to for the past two weeks is in fact the company CEO in disguise. I’m equal parts intimidated and gobsmacked.

What powers the 2024 Ducati Multistrada V4 RS?

At $56,000, you might be expecting a nuclear reactor or scramjet engine, but instead you get a very racy version of Ducati’s primo V4 Desmosedici. Like triple-distilled Italian machismo, it’s an incredible powerplant that you’d have to be dead inside to dislike. Simultaneously ultra refined and angry like a wasp with a tequila hangover, the 1100cc capacity is compressed at a ludicrous 14:1 ratio, resulting in stonking 180 hp and 118 Nm of torque at your disposal. But put the bike in a sportier mode and twist the throttle, and all these stats will be forgotten in a brutal rush of scenery, directed at your not-so-pretty face, as the very real possibility that you’ve just broken more than one law of Newtonian physics dawns on you.

What equipment does the 2024 Ducati Multistrada V4 RS have?

All of it. It has all of it. And not only that, but it has the best of it all, too. Lots of carbon fibre. Titanium frame. Marchesini forged aluminium wheels. Öhlins Smart EC 2.0 electronic suspension, Akropovic can, quick shifter, slipper clutch, and some very sticky Pirelli Diablo Rosso IV Corsa sneakers.

Then there’s the little touches that make you feel all gooey inside. The backlit ’bar controls, the little ventilation fan that’s built into the lid of the tank’s nifty little phone compartment. The million-way adjustable seats for both rider and passenger. The very Italian, very well-designed dashboard software. The self-cancelling indicators. About the only thing it didn’t have was an automatically adjustable screen.

What electronics and safety features does the 2024 Ducati Multistrada V4 RS have?

Thought the breathtaking list had finished? Not on your nelly. Because the V4 RS also has a bunch of non-physical do-dads that will impress and save your life in equal parts. There is the obligatory riding modes, ABS cornering, traction control, and wheelie control. There’s also daytime running lights, cornering lights, a “Ducati Brake Light” (pressure modulated I’m assuming, unless Ducati are now bragging about 110-year-old safety tech), vehicle hold control, radar and adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, colour TFT display, and full phone and map connectivity.

I might sound like a broken record here, but locking owners into one particular map navigation software and then making them pay for it is a very silly call. All the big boys do it, but it speaks volumes that four-wheeled manufacturers just give you Apple or Android connectivity and leave it at that. Needless to say, the Ducati map software – by a company I’ve never heard of – wasn’t as good as the free Google or Apple maps. Cut to a scene of the nav system insisting that I turn left at a T-intersection only to have me do a U-turn 100 metres later and ride back through the intersection when I could have just turned right to begin with. Now imagine paying for the privilege. No thanks.

What is the 2024 Ducati Multistrada V4 RS like to ride?

Instantly impressive is a great way to put it. The bike is clearly big, but it doesn’t ride like it. And even though I had the seat up as far as it would go and wasn’t able to put my feet flat on the ground, the additional legroom this afforded me once I was underway was super comfy. Then I’m burbling down some random road in Parramatta and it’s all just so impressive. The engine instantly charms. The exhaust note is incredible. The bike feels all kinds of right and now so do I. Trying to keep your huge ego in check? Don’t get this bike.

As with all great brake set-ups, the first few applications can be a little overenthusiastic, especially if the bike you’re used to isn’t as sublime as the Multistrada is at stopping. Talk about amazing. Mind you, it’s designed to safely bring you down from silly track speeds to walking ones again and again and again. So, halting my wobbly lard at road speeds troubled it not even a little bit.

Over the next two weeks I proceeded to ride the friggin’ pants of the thing, including a trip to the central coast and back which – as always – involved a few naughty moments on the Old Pac and a bunch of freeway miles where I spent most of my time playing with the radar cruise control and other techno trickery. It’s an incredible bike, with the ability to go, stop and corner like nobody’s business. Yes, you should probably ride the new BMW GS as well, but they are just so chalk and cheese when it comes to their souls. Contrasting brutally against the BMW’s smooth refinement and teutonic design aesthetic, the Ducati is an angry, whirring, metallic beast of a bike.

It made me think that I was sitting astride some strange 1950s Italian factory staffed only by over-caffeinated racers who communicate in nothing but loud emotional screams and who laugh at you unless you’re thrashing the bike at double the speed limit. God forbid you might want a chilled country cruise and to cover a bunch of landscape just lost in your own thoughts! Riding the Multistrada over great distances would be like going on holidays handcuffed to 427 amphetamine-addicted Luciano Pavarotti’s.

The flipside to this coin is that riding the bike in a reasonable and legal fashion very much makes you feel as if the bike’s bored. This isn’t helped by its decidedly race-bred torque curve that sees all the fun and games situated way, way, way up at the tippy top of the rev range. City riding sometimes resulted in me trying to roll on the throttle in 4th gear at non-light speed velocities, to which the Ducati’s V4 would shake the drivetrain and complain at the fact that you weren't at the redline, darting through the traffic like the Ducati 996 from the Matrix Reloaded.

I also noticed that the bike I was loaned has some decent boogers on the chicken strips, meaning that at some point it had been ridden exactly like that. I could almost hear the bike complaining to me in an Italian accent about me and how lame and slow I was. “You call-a this riding? Testa di cazzo!” After race replica sportsbikes stopped selling in big numbers 15 years or so ago, there’s been a general trend in the past 20 years or so that’s seen manufacturers bringing the torque and the horsies down into more usable regions of the bike’s rev range, but it seems no one told the engineers at Ducati. 

What else do I need to know about the 2024 Ducati Multistrada V4 RS?

If I must be picky – and I’m pretty sure I must for a bike this expensive that – I’d say that the gearbox had a distant feel to the changes that made me think that the gear lever wasn’t in direct contact with the cogs themselves. And some of the bike’s plastic covers were flimsy and cheap-feeling, which stings doubly when you consider the fact that they also use them to hide that amazing V4 engine. Can anyone please explain to me how that works? It’s like dating a supermodel and insisting that they cover their sexy bits with the orphaned Tupperware lids you found at the back of your kitchen cupboard. 

Should I buy the 2024 Ducati Multistrada V4 RS?

Should you buy it? Hell, can you buy it? At $56,000 Aussie Pesos, anyone with the bike on their shopping list must be doing something right. But if you are, and if you’re looking for a bike that somehow manages to bridge the gap between comfy distance eater and trackday champ, then the V4 RS just may be your perfect match.

I’ve already mentioned the new GS beemer as an alternative, but as I said it doesn't seem to quite match up with the ’Cati. Little else seems to, either. All I can think of off the top of my head are the BMW M 1000 XR and the KTM 1290 Super Duke GT, but both cost substantially less than the V4 RS and definitely aren't as special. Still, I'd suggest you give them both a bash before you commit to this rather excellent Bolognese Beast. And if you do, buon appetito.

2024 Ducati Multistrada V4 RS Specs: