‘The Pikes Peak really is like going from a Ford Focus to a Ferrari’
‘The V-Strom was providing everything I needed’
useful remote preload knob) and lovely power delivery. The V-Strom was providing pretty much everything I needed.
And that, as we switched bikes after an hour, became the theme of the day – needs versus desires. Justin, for example, fresh off the Ducati, was effervescent about the Multistrada.
“It’s just sublime,” he gushed. “It just does everything. The suspension’s perfect and that’s without fiddling with it. The riding position is good, the little screen does more than you’d think. In fact the only thing that’s a little disappointing is the Termi can – you can’t hear it.”
And, after we’d swapped and turned west onto the more nadgery B-roads towards Silverstone, I could see his point. In terms of sheer spec, going from the V-Strom to the Pikes Peak really is like going from a Ford Focus to a Ferrari. And in terms of performance, the 160bhp Duke has the potential to simply blow away the 100-horse Suzuki.
But already, on this very real world MCN250 route – as opposed, perhaps, to a race track – it wasn’t quite working out like that. Yes, for brief, fleeting moments I’d whack open the Peak’s throttle, blast away from the Suzuki in a flurry of noise and aggression. But I was never brave enough to prolong on the road what the Ducati is best at. While, at a more realistic pace the Suzuki is capable, easily able to keep up and more relaxing as well. The drag of the M40 brought a similar dilemma. Yes, the posh Pikes Peak, cruise control and all, can happily do it. But with its harder, slightly inclined seat
and minimal screen it doesn’t do it as comfortably as the Suzuki or, for that matter, the less extreme, better-protected Multistrada S. As the day stretched out, the opportunities the Ducati had to shine were outnumbered by those where it increasingly annoyed. Why annoyed? The fuelling for one. Whether in Touring or Sport mode and despite modifying the throttle response, quite often the Multi, on a closed or hesitant throttle, hics and coughs. The less comfortable seat and smaller screen for another. Yes, the PP is the performance Multi and arguably more than compensates for any flaws with its speed and spec, but on the MCN250 it matters. And even those Öhlins suspenders for a third. Yes, on the all-too-brief B660, the ‘Peak’ was blindingly quick with a ride so sophisticated I could feel every ripple, but the price of that is the loss of the Multistrada S’s brilliant semi-active set-up. So although the last blast was brilliant it also showed up how extreme and single-minded the Pikes Peak is. Early in our ride I briefly thought it the perfect MCN250 bike. By the end I knew it wasn’t. Sure, the Ducati can do other stuff, but nowhere near as well as its ‘lesser’ siblings. You’d never go offroad on it, for example, even though we briefly tried. Just think about those expensive Marchesinis.
As for the lowly Suzuki, apart from being briefly blown away, it simply nailed it. Again.