 |
| www.ducati.com |
Today Ducati announced their long-awaited desert x adventure bike and to be honest for once I don't feel disappointed you see manufacturers have a habit of building some amazing concepts only for them to be watered down and less aggressive looking when they actually hit the market but for me, Ducati have done an awesome job of staying pretty much true to the original concept that was shown at ikema in 2019 and it looks like they've built something that should be fairly capable off-road so in this article, i'll go through all of the best new features and tell you absolutely everything you need to know about it. SKODA
 |
| www.ducati.com |
Now
look if we're talking about the best features of this bike we have to start
with the styling it's sort of a bit of a retro desert race up but also a bit
modern and futuristic looking all with a healthy dose of off-road aggression
everything about it the round headlights the sparse paint job the big fuel tank
knobbly tires it all looks awesome to me so much so that I'd say it's the
best-looking adventure bike on the market now the original concept bike was
actually based upon the scrambler 1100 with the air-cooled engine.
 |
| www.ducati.com |
But this final production bike has a lot more in common with the Multistrada v2 just with a much bigger off-road focus effectively it's to the multi v2 as the tiger 900 rally series is to the gts and yet in that transition from the scrambler 1100 platform to effectively the Multistrada they've preserved that original concept aesthetic and for me, it's a massive hit let me know what you think of the looks though down in the comments some bikes do have a tendency to polarize opinion and I reckon this might be one of them so yeah like I say the engine is no longer the 1100 scrambler but rather the tesla strata v-twin that powers the multi-strata super sports monster and hyper motor there are slight tweaks to the output but in this bike, it still makes 110 horsepower at 9 250 rpm and 92-newton meters of peak torque at six and a half thousand so it's still pretty handy and certainly makes it competitive with the likes of the tiger 900 bmw f850 gs and the ktm 890.
 |
| www.ducati.com |
It's
worth that in that there's also a terminology exhaust accessory available which
combined with the dedicated map increases both power and torque by seven
percent so that's not bad you'll be touching around 120 horses then it also
gets its own dedicated gearbox with new ratios to better suit off-roading and
that'll be a common theme in this article all of the gears from first to fifth
have been shortened with first and second being especially short to improve
low-speed crawling which is, of course, more common off-road on the other hand
sixth gear is rarely used off-road and adventure bikes do have to be
all-rounders to some extent so it's been left alone with a long enough ratio to
keep the revs down and preserve fuel economy on the motorway they also say that
it aids comfort because it's not vibing too much as well now one of the
features they gave the desert x concept in order to give it that proper rally
bite look was an extra fuel tank at the rear obviously if you're racing across
the desert there aren't many petrol stations so you'll need a lot of ranges so
this is something you'll see on Dakar bikes for example.
 |
| www.ducati.com |
Now
I'm sure they were gonna drop it I thought it was just a bit of a gimmick and
normally these sorts of features the more imaginative ones get reined in when a
bike actually gets produced but not this one so not only does it get a 21-liter
main tank which is pretty decent already but on top of that there's an
accessory rear tank for another eight liters from what I gather from the press
release you activate it with the switchgear and tft dash when the main tank
gets to a certain level when it gets fairly low on top of that I'm not sure if
it's the gearing change or the slight change in the power output but they're
actually claiming that fuel consumption is about five percent better on this
bike than the multistrada so 5.6 liters per 100 kilometers as opposed to 5.9 so
that puts the multi v2 with its slightly smaller tank at a claimed range of
about 339 kilometers or 210 miles the desert x could do kilometers or 233 miles
or if you add the accessory tank that's 518 kilometers or 321 miles pretty
impressive stuff there's certainly no other middleweight adventure bike that
can match it you'd have to go up to the gs adventure or the new tiger 1200
explorer models for something similar.
 |
| www.ducati.com |
Now
like the multi it gets a steel trellis frame but this one is new with a revised
geometry that works with the long travel suspension for more off-road
capability there's more rake more trail and a longer wheelbase all of which
will buy slightly more towards stability than the nippy road-biased handling of
the Multistrada the swingarm looks to be different too more chunky and closer
in resemblance to the one on the Multistrada v4 than it is to the v2 weight
wise the desert x comes in at 202 kilograms dry or 223 kilograms where ever so
slightly more than the multi strata but still not bad and pretty competitive
for the market for suspension there's a fully adjustable 47-millimeter
upside-down fork from kyb and at the rear, a fully adjustable mono-shock also
from kyb so there's no option for semi-active electronic suspension like you
get on the multi v2s but you do get quite a lot more travel so 230 mils at the
front 220 at the rear as opposed to 170 front and rear on either version of the
multi v2 ground clearance is also up at 250 mils as opposed to 220.
 |
| www.ducati.com |
So
yeah I expect you can see a pattern emerging and it's the same story with the
wheels so gone are the 19 and 17-inch cast wheels in favor of a bigger 21-inch
front and an 18-inch rear which are typical sizes for off-road focus bikes not
only does it mean easier rolling over rough terrain but you should also get a
better choice of off-road tires as standard it ships with tubeless Pirelli
scorpion rally strs so those are decent all-rounders they're pretty decent
off-road and I'd say tolerable on the road but the good news is that the bike
is homologated for both off and on-road tires so you could fit something a
little smoother roll in if you're doing decent road miles brakes come in the form
of Brembo's m50 radially mounted monoblock calipers which bite down on 320 mil
discs so I'd expect plenty of stopping power for quicker road riding there's a
two-part caliper on a 265 mil disc at the rear also from Brembo and they say
that with the braking power they've tried to find a balance between decent road
performance.
 |
| www.ducati.com |
But
also smooth predictable modulation which will help with off-road riding on
surfaces with lower grip levels and the ergonomics are a bit of a balancing act
as well the seat sits pretty tall at 875 millimeters which is partly a product
of that increase in suspension height but they also say that they wanted to
make it feel natural when moving between a seated and standing position by
keeping a decent distance between the seat and pegs still for shorter riders
they have tried to keep it narrow to help with reaching the floor and there is
a low seat accessory although it didn't specify by how much in the press
release there's also a rally seat option which is effectively one long bench
seat and they say that this will allow the rider a little more freedom of
movement for aggressive off-road riding on the electronics front we've got the
works basically so let's start with the six riding modes sport gives you the
full 110 horsepower.
 |
| www.ducati.com |
The
most direct throttle response whilst touring limits peak power to 95 with a
little more invention from the traction control and wheelie control the urban
mode sets power to 75 horsepower peak and smooths out the throttle response as
does the rain mode which also maxes out the safety features to ensure that they
kick in as soon as possible now enduro is basically a more novice-friendly
off-road mode so 75 horsepower peak but still a lively throttle for a quick
response and then the option to disable abs if desired rally mode is the one
that they say is best for the most experienced riders aka the one we'd all go
for regardless of experience and it gives you the full 110 horsepower a snappy
response at the throttle no wheelie control low traction control and low abs
with the option to disable rider raids are cornering sensitive owing to a
six-axis bosch imu that feeds lean angles into the mix so there's eight levels
of traction control four levels of wheelie control three levels of abs as well
as off in those two riding modes.
 |
| www.ducati.com |
And
then three levels of engine braking control all of this good stuff is managed
through a new TFT display five inches but in a vertical orientation for a
proper rally look they also say it's more visible when you're in a standing position
now it gets their multimedia connectivity so you link it with your phone for
controlling music and calls as well as turn by turn nav and there are also two
display modes of standard and rally standard is well standard so the usual
stuff but rally they say simulates the operation of the trip master used in
rallies for navigation and it allows you to manually adjust the indication of
the odometer using the buttons on the control block and then you've got the
lighting so LEDs all-round cool looking daytime running lights at the front and
the rear gets their Ducati brake light feature which flashes under emergency
braking to warn anyone behind you not to run into you so yeah it all sounds
pretty good to me the price though 13 795 pounds.
 |
| www.ducati.com |
It's
not terrible but it does put it at the more premium end of the market it's more
than the tiger 900 rally pro for example and that bike gets a lot of goodies
you know heated grips heated c peripheral lights all the engine bars there's a
lot of features as standard on that bike but still with the desert x you get
plenty of power quite a bit more power actually good spec good tech and in a
great looking package so is it worth it i'd love to know what you think of it
down in the comments below so do leave me your thoughts and if you're new here
and you want to see more articles like this.