Ducati Multistrada V4

Ducati Multistrada V4 Outshines Competition at Alpen-Masters 2021 Contest

German magazine Motorrad compares 14 bikes this year; the V4 comes out on top in its class.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/...ion-at-alpen-masters-2021-contest-169358.html

"adverse conditions" in that test - on the Grossglockner pass? haha!
Reading that "uphill with a passenger from 15 to 45 mph" test seems like it was made to favor the GS

Give me 17" wheels front and back and I'm in, it will never be off pavement.

So I’ll start this long post by asking if anyone has heard any rumors about additional after-market exhaust options for the MS V4s besides the Akropovic and QD options? Any good Termi rumors? The reason I ask is when I bought my V4s I wasn’t interested in the Akra slip-on, and my dealer told me that although I could order and install the Akra full racing exhaust the up-map codes weren’t being released in California yet and so I’d basically be buying a $4k system that didn’t release the full added power to the bike until who-knows-when. They suggested I get to know the bike and just wait till this fall as additional exhaust options should be coming available, so now I’m starting to look around - just haven’t found anything new yet.

On another front, I’ve been reading some of these posts talking about this-or-that bike being better in the dirt, or the MS not being good in the dirt, whatever. IMHO, I think folks are overthinking it - just get the bike you want and go out and practice on what you’ve got. I’ll share my journey as an example - I’m sure others have similar.

Before the V4s I bought an ’18 MS 950 as my first-ever “adventure bike”. (I’ve posted pictures of both bikes below). Prior to my MS950, other than motocross as a teenager I’ve owned nothing but sport bikes (I’m 58 - so those motocross days were several decades ago). Now, I didn’t buy an ADV bike to go on ADV rides - I bought it because I had remote mountain farm properties around Central California and several times a month for work also had to visit farms at opposite ends of the State and pass through cities like LA or SFO that are both several hours away from my home. I put 37K miles on that MS950 in the pictures below in 3 years - averaging about 200 miles a month out in the dirt on very technical, steep, often single-track trails that are often heavily rutted, filled with rocks and as technical as anything I’ve seen on any Youtube video involving big ADV bikes ever. I don’t do it for fun, although it is; instead that kind of riding is the nature of what I face for a living.

Did I drop the bike in the dirt? Definitely - and often at first. Thank goodness for robust protection (see photos below). Learning by watching nothing more than Youtube videos, however, I went out in the mountains and taught my self to brake slide, then power slide, then elephant turns and the rest - all on my Multistrada. I got comfortable with wheelies on that MS950 in the dirt, then going over larger obstacles like fallen branches and larger rocks. I didn’t have - and still don’t have - any frame of reference other than other people’s reviews to know if a GS or KTM is easier. And it honestly doesn’t matter - all I know is I can now do everything on my MS as well as I’ve seen on any other big ADV bike video and with limited exceptions it does what I want it to do, goes where I want it to go, and I absolutely friggin’ love it. I would add that I believe the bike still has way more capability as a machine than I do as a rider.

Now, admittedly I haven’t gone out and tried some of that more technical trail riding on the V4s yet - but I’m optimistic and looking forward to it. The only reason I haven’t is that the dealer accidentally installed the Pirellli Scorpion Trails on the bike when I took delivery instead of the Pirelli Rally STRs I had ordered and I decided to try the Trails out for a while until I need to replace them. The Trails are definitely better on the pavement, where I spend 90% of my time anyway. My driveway at home is about 300’ long and dirt the entire way - the Trails are just fine on that, but I am not comfortable hitting the same kind of terrain I do on the 950 on the V4s as better tires will definitely be needed first.

But on the pavement? To get to my closest farm I drive a 17-mile twisty canyon road, 1.5 cars wide, that has more blind turns than I could possibly count - literally spaced no more than 250’ apart in the longest straightaways and the V4s is an absolute ripping blast/beast. Hitting the local high-school parking lot in my leathers and pucks, by the end of the second day I was sliding my knees around in endless circles confidently focusing not on lean angles or stability (because both are so rock solid on the V4s) but focusing my attention instead on how lightly I am able to hold and work the controls with finesse while slowly wearing my pucks down. On long empty stretches of freeway - rumor has it well into the triple digits I experience nothing but planted confidence. I swear, everything I do on that V4s the feedback I get from the bike is constantly something like, “Ok, ho-hum, that was easy, what else do you want to try?”

Bottom line - get out and ride and constantly practice and learn and these bikes will do anything you might ever dream of or want to do, and if you’re really really lucky (at least for most of us) maybe one day you will be 80% as proficient as the motorcycle itself is (I’m still trying to get there).

Oh, in the pics below you’ll note my V4s is fairly customized. Before taking delivery I had my dealer send the aluminum handlebars, triple-clamp, side panels, crash bar, engine and radiator guards and passenger rear-sets out to a professional paint shop and had them all painted matte black (for my personal tastes, the stock “red” V4s had too much silver going on and I personally thought the “sport” livery was too busy). Threw a bunch of Rizoma/Ducabike black-aluminum sparkles on, smoked wind screens, some carbon fiber (Matte, plain weave) and have more carbon fiber on order (rather, I’m having the supplier of the Carbon Fiber I ordered - Motocomposites - re-work several of their carbon fiber offerings for the V4s because most of their parts when I received them could not be installed on the bike by my Ducati dealership - too many design flaws Motocomposites are now working to fix).

After all that customization to my V4s (not cheap) - will I still comfortably take it out on technical trails one day? You betcha, without hesitation - as soon as these tires wear out and I slip on a new set of Pirelli Scorpion Rally STRs.

Just do it.

Good post, and I echo your sentiments. I can understand previous Multi owners asking for the 17" wheel+SSSA / Pikes peak / V4R model (I did also), but IMHO there's nothing I'm finding lacking about anything I'm asking this bike to do that I did on my old Multistrada PP, and it's more comfortable to boot. I'm waiting to grind down my OEM Pirellis a bit before making the switch to PR5 trails but I'm very happy with it.

Thank you. Yes, I suspect most of us initially miss something about an old bike we loved whenever we try out a new bike, but if we’ve picked up a compelling new piece of machinery those quibbles probably disappear once we’ve put a couple thousand miles on a new bike and completely dialed it in. All good bikes arguably excel at something, but I can’t imagine how anyone that puts in the mileage on this V4s and dials it in through the myriad of possible custom settings could find it lacking or disappointing in any department.

What is it that you like about the PR5 trails? I’m always wondering about different tire options but have liked the Pirelli’s and am always worried that if I buy something different I might not like it as much. When it comes to tires, I’ve never wanted to risk feeling like I need to nonetheless ride the lifetime out of a new set of tires that I don’t like as much for whatever reason. I understand all the reasons why tire manufacturers or shops don’t do it - but I wish there were “try out these different tire model test-days” promotions where one could try out a few tire options for a day to explore the differences “no risk” - much like you can go to a bike dealership and test various models.

I switched to the Michelin Road 5 Trails and really like them. I feel that they deliver a better feeling ride on road, and are much better in the wet than the OEM Scorpions. I haven't had significant experience off road to say how different they are there. Both have felt the same on limited gravel/fire roads.

Many thanks. Just from the looks of them, I have no doubt the PR5’s would likely be better in the wet. Relatively speaking I just don’t do that much riding in the rain because it just doesn’t rain that much where I live on CA's central coast. For road use, my main concern is centered more around grip/feel in high lean-angle cornering because of all the canyon twisties I regularly ride. For serious off-road I definitely need something with pronounced knobbies - but that can also handle high-lean angles in the paved twisties. I like the Rally STRs because they grip great in technical off-road terrain, but I’ve also run them on track days at Willow Springs (absolutely love Horse Thief Mile) and Buttonwillow and found them to have sufficient lean grip even on the racetrack (basically, the Rally’s work, but since the ride is “bumpier” due to the knobbiest the Trails definitely provide a better tactile feel through the corners - as you would expect). From Revzilla’s review of the PR5’s, I would imagine the PR5’s are also great during high lean angle cornering - they seem well engineered for it. Thanks for sharing - may try them sometime.

+1 to this.

I don't have specific experience with the trail sizes, but I do with the 17/17 PR5, PR4, PR3 tires.. On-road handling and grip and turn-in feel is predictable, fast, amazing, and confidence inspiring for me. Wet weather performance when leaned over is phenomenal. They even do just fine on dirt roads / fire roads / gravel - obviously not a true dirt tire but anything unpaved you'd take a car down it will work fine.

Friends who have the TPMS sensors installed and configured, a request from you:
What does the dash display look like / where is the readout? Is it always up on the main dash or do you have to select it in a submenu to get pressure displays?
Does it do the standard wheel-sensor-readout behavior where it has to spin up to activate so you don't get a readout until you're moving?

I've been using the FOBO TPMS caps w/ the phone app and they seem to do a reading cold with the bike not moving, which is nice to get a readout before getting underway, but I definitely will be doing TPMS when I get new tires put on (I have the sensors already), just want to know what to expect. Thanks in advance!

The FOBO system is nice, I'm moving it over to my 790 once I get the Ducati TPMS installed.

They sound great, appreciate all the recommendations. I'll go ahead and try them out next time I buy more street oriented tires. Thanks for the insight!

It shows up in the myriad of display options you can scroll through in the lower left hand corner.

Pressure is shown in bar.

The 10 different menu items can be re-ordered. 3 will display at a time. Use the 4 way controller on the left hand controls to scroll. Hold that controller down or up to switch between the upper and lower left hand menus.

I think you can change it to PSI, yes?

If so, I haven’t figured out how to do it. Would be great if someone else knows.

Maybe I have a bad attitude, but I justify it by having said that I spent $26k for it - this is pretty f*cking ridiculous. I just reviewed the Owner's Manual again for TPMS and yup - bar readout only. I get that it's a universally scientific measurement, but they already allow imperial / metric unit selection, why not bar / psi???

F*cking stupid. My guess is it will show up later in a software update, but come the f*ck on.

It never showed up on my 1260. I just got used to it.

Bar? Seriously fawk

Welcome to the rest of the world guys .

Aww, you're a cutie.
I paid $USD for my bike, I live in the US, my Ducati dealer is in the US (and so is Ducati USA), it was approved by the USDOT, and I ride it on US roads. They can put f*cking PSI on the TPMS readout, if they want to take my money.

Since you don't seem to have ever been to the US, just so you know:
- it's PSI on our car's manuals and recommendation labels (yes, even on non-US cars)
- it's PSI on our tires (yes, motorcycle tires too)
- it's PSI on our tire pressure gauges
- it's PSI on our air compressors
- it's PSI on our TPMS sensors for cars (yes even on non-US cars)
- it's PSI on our TPMS sensors for motorcycles (yes, even non-US motorcycles)

It's BAR on my brand new Ducati. Okay.

On my 1200 Enduro, the cruise control increase/decrease always operated in KPH. So, I just got used to clicking up 8 times for a 5 MPH increase, same with decrease.

On the V4S, it was the same way at first. Then, following a software update, now the CC increase/decrease works in MPH increments. No mental calculations required.

That Ducati saw fit to make that minor change makes me optimistic that eventually the Bar/PSI change may be forthcoming.