#Ducati#Multistrada#V4S
Welcome to mcn and a series of videos where we talk to mcn staff about the long-term test bikes about rich’s ducati multistrada v4s hello rich and you’re not just a member of mcun staff you are the editor the boss man of which there are many so first question is how long have you had the ducati and how many miles have you
Done on it so i got the first one of these in march this year um and had about 250 miles on it yeah and then disaster struck which was when uh ducati had the engine recoil problem oh yeah so as you remember they had a problem with valve guides on the new v4 engine and what that meant was the the valves were
Wobbling in the guides and causing engine failures so 250 miles that bike went away and then this one came in replacement since then i’ve done uh just under 9000 miles on it right a lot of miles fair few yeah a little bit light for me but uh but yeah 9 000 is a a pretty decent test of a bike so yeah and how long have
You been riding for um first rated motorbike when i was five years old so that’s 20 years yeah yeah 20 20 20 years you can have a promotion no that would be 42 years ago but first started riding really in earnest when i was about 11 years old and i got a suzuki rm-80 having uh convinced my parents that if they let
Me ride off-road i would never ride a bike on road it was an uphill struggle yeah i’ve been riding ever since and got my road license in 1994. uh so last year had honda africa twin the ases plus version so top of the range and similar specs to this bike here really similar price as well and before that i’ve had bmw gs
Adventure um i’ve had all sorts yeah you know my my history and my personal bikes is is really sports bikes so the sort of adventure bike class is relatively new in my biking history but it lets you do big trips isn’t it so so where have you been yeah where have you been on this not as many places as i’d
Like to have done because uh obviously this year’s uh been about as uh free and easy as last year really yeah so it’s been a bit disappointing but i’ve still got about a bit i’ve done a few my kicks from doing long days riding yeah i love a thousand mile day if i can sneak some in and my two biggest ones this year on
This bike i did the northumberland 250 which was a new route that launched um well last year so that was i left home in stanford whizzed up to northumberland then up around bambra castle up into scotland and then back down again and so that was a 707 miles in a day and then my other big one that i did on
This bike last year was over into wales so over across through the peak district up into anglesey little apple anglesey and down through the center of wales down through sort of barlow and newtown cross gates down that way and then back up through worcester and up to stanford so and yeah that was 520 miles i think in a
Day yeah i love it absolutely love it you should have my job and this bike is perfect for it exactly so comfortable yeah and you know it’s actually i would say the most comfortable long-term i’ve ever had wow it’s all new for this year isn’t it new engine new chassis but it’s got a lot of tech on it hasn’t it so
How’s that been to live with you don’t get to use it really because it’s you with it for such a short amount of time but yeah i mean it’s been um it’s all fantastic now so it’s having problems uh there’s a little cubby hole here and as you can see there’s a wired connection yeah and you can hide your phone
In there and then connect your phone to the dash and then you can run all of your your connection through the dash and through the switch gear a quick update a quick software update solved that and it’s been absolutely uh thoughtless ever since and the dash is brilliant you know the uh especially the nav which i use all
The time and really really good high resolution clear intuitive as is all the switch gear and so yeah all that sides really really good other electronics i mean you’ve got every support system there’s everything there isn’t it you know you’ve got suspension and riding modes all through the switch gear and dash
You’ve got two-way quick shifter and obviously traction control anti-lift i mean christ it’s huge um but it all works really well and you don’t actually notice it’s there which is you know a great endorsement the genius isn’t it doesn’t interfere with your ride it merely supports you i think i’m right in saying is this
Is the first long test term test bike we’ve had with the radar crews yeah what’s that being like to actually live with i i was really uh one of the sort of luddites going oh why do you need that it’s you know barely use cruise control anyway so why do you need adaptive cruise control actually it’s answered all
The things i dislike about cruise control so you set it through the dash you can set how close you want that intervention to kick in but i use it all the time now because you can if you’re cruising down the motorway at whatever speed you choose let’s not mention numbers 6970 yeah good numbers yeah um you can set it
And then obviously as you approach a vehicle it’ll it’ll just hold you at the distance that you’ve asked it to back from that vehicle as soon as it’s back out your path it’ll accelerate you back up to the speed that you’ve picked so it’s really good because it stops you having to muck around with the cruise
Control all the time whereas you know with the old system you’re always cancelling or clicking it up clicking it down mucking about with it it’s a real pain this solves it brilliantly and because you’ve got the rear radar as well oh yeah and the light comes on you’ve got warning lights in the mirrors which tell you if
You’ve got a vehicle in your blind spot and again you know um but it’s really good yeah it does add something and yeah i’d certainly rather have it than not the only time where it isn’t as perfect as your own inputs would be is uh if you’re motorway and you’re pulling across to the the ordinarily you just
Breeze straight past the radar of course sees it and goes ah you you’re effectively off the throttle as goes oh it was all clear wasn’t the problem doing what it can see and it’s not obviously own brain at processing that information but that will evolve as well won’t it largely thoughtless so i want
To bring you to the front quite contentious oh it’s got a wheel it’s got but yeah the cat you’ve gone with the 19-inch front wheel compared to the multi-striders of old so have you found that um that’s been a tale of two tyres really so um this bike originally comes on um scorpion trail 2 brother really good
Bloody good tyre yeah absolutely and the only is it slightly numbs the front end feeling and it’s a little bit too adventurous spec or a little bit too touring sort of focused for this bike and this is like a massive supermoto really it’s such a fun aggressive live bike that you want that steering control so i know
You’ve picked up on it in road test quite rightly that 19 at the front that you have with the 17 but these dunlop mutants yep they’ve got a more aggressive front profile they’re a little bit softer um and it’s it’s returned all that feel most of it they look like wets as well don’t they yeah i mean they work
Like wets as well brilliant tyre yeah really impressive um but they’ve given a load more confidence and feel and composure back to the bike yeah um and it’s and it’s taken away most of the downsides of having a 19-inch as a 17 but if you really want that obviously there’s the new bike speaker yeah exactly now
Which has got that so you mentioned the comfort really really comfortable bike yep another big question um is that this this goes up against the gs really it’s a ducati gs isn’t it so what is it like against the gs because you’ve owned one i’ve probably done over 60 000 miles on gs’s absolutely love them as well
So yeah one of my favorite bikes uh every year we try and think of new ways to criticize the gs and it’s difficult almost yeah um how do they compare but that’s because 99.9 of my time spent on the road and i think this bike just offers a slightly more refined road riding experience to go off and do a round
The world adventure i’ll take the gs it’s simpler it’s easier to work on and it’s less delicate off-road yeah and in every other sense it’s just as good as this the only reason i prefer this i suppose on the road comfort slightly better wind noise is lower the airflow management’s much better on this bike
Terms of flexibility on the road it’s just a nicer package than the gs but yeah i mean you could only either and never be disappointed exactly it’s not a cheap bike obviously especially in this spec is it is it worth it quality wise you you getting your money’s worth yeah absolutely i mean this bike in this spec which
Is what they call the full v4s so it’s got all the extras all the heated stuff panniers carbon front fender and every extra going basically and the uh cropper which is hiding behind this pannier you can’t see that’s a shame yeah it’s uh it’s a sweet looking thing yeah but it’s in there yeah um but yeah that’s 22 and
A half grand uh in that spec but last year i had uh africa twin ases plus that was 21.5 grand and the difference between the two bikes is just yeah not even on the same planet that shouldn’t be that much should it that bike no not at all um but the beauty of this is everywhere you look the quality is visible
You know you can see where your money’s gone it feels like value for money the fit the finishes i mean this is a 9 000 mile bike now in all weathers it’s been off-road it’s yeah it rides like brand new the tech works yeah it really is worth the price tank so apart from the engine obviously that was a teething
Problem with these bikes at the beginning which is sorted and and the issue you were talking about with the linking up with the dash have you had any other problems with it no none at all it’s been absolutely seamless apart from those two things and i say yeah the engine thing was obviously regressible for for an all-new
Engine platform to have a problem at birth is always a shame but you know it’s been absolutely bulletproof since and ditto the connectivity is completely sorted by the software update so yeah no issues at all so the thousand dollar question pound question would you buy one if i had twenty two and a half thousand pounds
Yes uh yeah i mean i i can’t afford to buy a bike that’s this expensive personally um but i’d well i have a collection buy one of these what have you got by the way you’ve got some lovely stuff in there yeah i’ve got a few nice ones and so i’ve got a ducati 996 um i’ve got a honda sp2 uh as in the original vtr
Thousand sp2 i’ve got one of the last for 2007. and i’ve got a slabside gsxr 750 and i’ve got a honda vfr 750 fiw so the last of the pre-vtecs and a 1975 cb750 single overhead cam wow with the full dumpster kit on it so it’s a proper 70s gin palace it’s uh yeah an intriguing bit of kit very few toys in the in the cupboard
But you know i i can’t personally afford this but would i recommend it to people to buy yeah absolutely yeah okay it’s worth it yeah and it won an mcn award this year didn’t it yeah as our as our best all-rounder for 2021 yeah and rightly so because it just does absolutely everything you know it’s as comfortable
To tour and as an rt yeah and more comfortable and more costly i’d say than a gold wing actually yeah um and you know you can you can ride off-road it’s got enduro modes it’ll look after you and it’s you know it’s docile in town compliant but it’s a bit of a hooligan on the b roads if you want it to be as well it’s great
Everything it really is well hence we gave it the all-rounder award he’s happy it really can do it all well thank you very much for talking us around your bike thank you and thank you for watching and stay tuned for more of our long-term test videos coming up soon you
Transcribed from video
Spending 2021 with the Ducati Multistrada V4S | MCN By MCN – Motorcyclenews.com