DUCATI MUTLISTRADA 1200 ENDURO
Ducati’s Multistrada 1200 Enduro might not be built for putting in quick laps around a track, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t try
What’s a bike like this doing on a track like that?
FIRST LIGHT BREAKS AT THE KARI MOTOR Speedway. That’s my cue — I suit up, boot up, erm… helmet down?… and grab the bag of keys. We were at the track for the jury round of the Times Auto Fast Bikes Awards, but the jury was still snug in bed. I, on the other hand, was down at the track to get my share of track time before I was diverted to ‘more important work’ like keeping the jury well fed and hydrated. So I rummaged through the bag of 30 odd keys, feeling around for what seemed like the most appropriate one, peeking inside to see if I could spot what I wanted. MV Agusta? Nope. Triumph? Nope. Okinawa? Nope. Ducati? Ah, yes. Oh wait – Panigale, nope.
A little more rummaging and a little more peeking, and I found the other Ducati key – the one to the Multistrada 1200 Enduro. Wholly inappropriate, but immensely capable of belting around a track. Perched on its centre stand, it stood nearly six feet tall and towered over every other bike in the pit. It stood there menacingly, waiting for me to thumb the starter button and awaken it from its slumber. The high pitched whine of the starter motor was followed by a subdued thrum of the two 600cc cylinders firing one after the other, it sounded almost sedate at idle. The watchman snoozing in the pits opened one eye and looked at me disapprovingly. A twist of the throttle caused him to nearly fall off his chair.
Heaving the bike off the stand, I fiddle around with its many buttons. Ducati have gone to town on the Multistrada when it comes to electronics. If I elaborate on the electro-trickery this bike comes packing right off the shelf, I’d exhaust my word count before I can get to the end of it all. Riding modes, cornering ABS, wheelie control, traction control… the list goes on and on and on. Well, Urban mode seems like the appropriate place to start, at least till the motorcycle’s oils and my reflexes are over the effects of a lazy Sunday morning. I needed a sighting lap or two anyway. This mode curbs the enthusiastic 160bhp of the Multistrada and allows you access to no more than 100bhp. Enough to get warmed up then.
At 254 kilos, you’ve got to pay attention to the Enduro’s weight while standing still (it’s 19kg more than the 1200 S) but on the go, you feel absolutely none of it. Sitting comfortably in the cavity carved out between the tank and the rear seat, the Multi feels (I know it’s hard to believe) agile on the go. There’s nothing particularly exciting about Urban mode, it is meant for the city where you don’t want the Multi surging forward into the car ahead of you every time you tickle the throttle. On the
track though, it really shone light on how easy a big bike like the Multi is to manage through bends. With the power not being overwhelming, I could concentrate on getting the bike tipped in, holding my line and powering out early. It wasn’t before long that I had managed to get in to a good rhythm, the bike flowing along the tight bends of Kari rather satisfyingly. Flying down the start-finish straight, I glimpse a couple of cars pull in to the pits. Crap. Was the jury here already?
No time to waste. I got off the throttle, and fiddled with the riding modes again. Touring? Not right now, I didn’t have much time before someone played killjoy and flagged me back in to the pits. Sport mode it was. Cracking open the throttle, I felt the bars go light in my hands, the nose of the Multi lifting ever so slightly. I nearly shat myself, but C1 was approaching far too quickly to worry about soiled pants. Leaning in, the Multi attacked the first set of corners with a ferocity you wouldn’t expect of an off-road biased machine. I caught my breath as I reached the back straight, but was going at the next set of corners before I knew it. Down Kari’s long main straight, the Multistrada Enduro’s staccato exhaust note ricocheted off the pit wall as I threw gear after gear at it. I don't know how fast I managed to go down Kari's long main straight — I was too busy looking at the next corner. Cocooned from any sort of wind blast behind the massive tank and front screen, I haul on the anchors, shed speed at a scary rate and devour another lap of the track.
I lost count of how many more laps I did before the flag emerged from the pitwall, signalling me back into the pits. It may have been three, it may have been 20 — my brain didn’t have the capacity to keep the raging Multistrada under my control and count laps simultaneously. I got off the bike shaking, and continued shaking for the next 20 minutes. In Sport mode, you get the full 160bhp but with limited electronic aids. And it was absolutely visceral. I write this a couple of days after my time at the track, and my heart rate still spikes when I think about it. Ducati truly have broken new ground with the Multistrada. Despite its off-road intentions, this is an animal on the track. One that will give many a proper track bike a run for its money. And if you put it up against something far too quick, it is capable of just going off track and carving out its own lap as it pleases.
The Multi’s versatility however is not limited to its track prowess. It’s a proper hooligan too, a bike that loves all sorts of monkey business. Later that day, a friend of evo India Hrishi Mandke (he’s the guy in the photos here) got hold of the key to the bike. He called me aside to help him with setting up the riding modes, and I put it in Sport mode. But that’s not what he wanted — Sport mode still has limited electronic intervention. A little more fiddling around and he figured out how to turn everything off — wheelie control, ABS, everything. He left the pits with one wheel in the air, and stayed that way till he reached C1. I still haven’t figured out how he managed to squeeze his oversized gonads into his leathers, but the day I do, I’m going to ride the Enduro sans electronics as well. ⌧