Multistrada 1200 – Ducati Experience Tour ride report

  
See also:
Multistrada Travel Experience (Ducati website)
A new way to travel has arrived: the Multistrada Travel Experience. The world as you’ve never seen it, the bike as you’ve never imagined it. Six exclusive journeys that let you explore places, cultures and thrills in the most intense, exciting way possible. Whatever your destination or your dream…

The Ducati Riding Experience (Ducati website)
All motorcyclists – from complete beginners to experienced track riders -can take part in this training course that has acquired legendary event status.
All sorts of new features have been introduced for the new year, the most exciting being that Troy Bayliss, an icon of Ducati motorcycle racing, will be among the DRE instructors!…

  
Ducati Experience Tour ride report

By Ducati.ms member ‘debby’ (aka Debby:-) 19Jun2011

NB: Full size photos here

Just back from riding an MTS1200 at the Ducati Experience Tour. I thought you guys might enjoy the ride report…

The event was held at the Broomfield regional airport. I think its current name is the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport or something like that. It’s a nice ride down there from my home in Boulder County, so I hopped on the GT and cruised on down. I had scouted out the airport last weekend because I’d never actually been to it and didn’t want to get lost.

So I knew just where to go, but when I got there I didn’t see any sign of the Ducati operation. I was expecting to see the big red truck and tents in the parking lot. Nothing. What the hell – did I get the day wrong? Did the Ducati crew get lost on the way to the airport? Finally I noticed this little sign:

So I parked my bike, went through the building, and out to the flight area. They were set up right out there on the flight deck:

Pretty cool! I checked in at the registration desk and headed on over. The format was a guided group ride, with five Diavels and five Multistradas per group. When I got there the previous group was still out, but they had a few bikes on display.

Here’s a Diavel:

And here’s a nice black MTS Touring model, on the display stand with the Rocky Mountains in the background. Pretty nice setting!

I didn’t get a chance to ride a Diavel but I did sit on one. It’s, shall we say, “different”. The riding position actually feels pretty normal, but the gas tank seems incredibly wide. It flares out wider at the front and just looks enormous. I was kind of glad to be riding an MTS instead. The Diavel looked a little intimidating.

We watched some marketing videos and listened to some PR about all the neat features of the new bikes. Then it was time to suit up and get ready for the ride.

This is actually the group after mine. You can see the umbrella girl getting in position. She posed with each rider and one of the staff members took a photo. No Umbrella Boys were available, so the other woman and myself gamely posed for our photos. Oh well, what can you do.

The ride headed out Hwy 128 to Hwy 93, which runs along the base of the foothills. We headed south on 93 to Coal Creek Canyon, then went up the canyon a ways and turned around and came back down. There were rules to follow: stay in formation, no wheelies, no passing. There was a lead rider and a sweep rider to make sure we all held our positions and didn’t do anything funny. I was a little nervous about the group ride was going to work, but this worked out really well. There were actually seven of us in my group – three on Multis, the rest on Diavels. There was one other woman in the group, riding a Diavel. The sweep rider was a woman, also. I thought that was cool. I wasn’t able to get any photos during the ride, sorry. For those who know the area, we went up Coal Creek to the Sinclair station, then turned around. I would have preferred to keep going a little farther, because the road tightens up and gets really fun beyond there. Oh well. The round trip was a little under an hour, I think.

Multistrada 1200 Riding Impressions

And now for some riding impressions. I rode a white Touring model, like the one in the photo above. I think it was actually the same bike. Before leaving, they showed us how to cycle through the various riding modes. We started out in Urban mode, were asked to keep it there for the first couple of miles, then were encouraged to go ahead and try all the different settings. So I did. It’s pretty easy to switch. I ended up running it in Touring mode most of the time, but the bike seemed pretty fast even in Urban and Enduro modes. I’d say it pulls stronger than my GT.

I was a little intimidated by the size of the bike and the 150 hp, but once underway I found it easy to ride. The power is very controllable and the fueling is the best of any stock Ducati I’ve ever ridden. It didn’t stall or do any surging or jerking or anything like that. Really pretty good I thought. Suspension felt good too, but these roads were pretty smooth so I couldn’t really do a good evaluation. It would be fun to ride the bike over Squaw Pass Road, which has pretty poor pavement. That would have made for a pretty long test ride though.

In spite of the bike’s size and power, I found myself feeling pretty comfortable on it right away. I liked basically everything about it – power, steering, suspension, front brake (not at all like the hair trigger brakes on my Hyper). There was one thing I didn’t like: the rear brake. I’ve read a lot of criticism about it here on the forum, and now I know what you guys were talking about. This one had a vague feel and an incredibly long travel. I had to push it down so far I felt like my foot was going to hit the pavement! I don’t know if they’re all that bad, but I really felt this one needed to be set up better.

Otherwise, great bike. I could see myself owning one. I’d have to sell my GT though, and I really love that bike. But the MTS really seems great for getting out on the road and covering some miles.

One question for those of you with the base model: how do you like the suspension? In the past I’ve never been too impressed with Marzocchi forks. I ended up replacing them with Showas on both my 900SS and my GT. Is the fork on the MTS ok? The base model would fit my budget a lot better than the Touring or S models…