Ducati has relaunched its travel enduro Mulitstrada. It not only got a very powerful V4 engine with cylinder deactivation and the latest electronics – it is the first motorcycle in the world to offer distance radar. Nevertheless Ducati shocked the fans: The new Multistrada no longer has a desmodromic valve control.

The market for travel enduros is fiercely contested and the competition is doing everything to win the almost incomprehensible and sustainably successful BMW R 1250 GS to attack. Ducati tries it with a mighty V4 with 125 kW ( 170 PS), according to Ducati even better drivable and safer than the Multistrada with V2.

The heart, the V4 Granturismo, has been redesigned based on the V4 in the superbike Panigale. The Multistrada comes to 1158 cubic centimeter by a cubic capacity of 0.2 millimeters 53, 5 enlarged stroke and one with 83 millimeters by two mm further bore. The maximum power of 125 PS is 10 . 500 / min. The torque curve, which is decisive for a travel enduro, offers between 4000 and 12. 000 Tours permanently over 100 Nm, with a maximum of 125 Nm at 8750 / min. How useful the high performance in a travel enduro is with regard to off-road excursions remains to be seen. Performance fetishists will have their fun on the street.

Unleashed: No more desmodromics The new V4 dispenses with forced control of the valves. That certainly hurts some Ducatisti, after all they have been proud of this special feature since the legendary engineer Fabio Taglioni first introduced it 1968 installed in the Ducati Mark 3 models. All Ducatis with the exception of the vertical shaft models in the 1970 have enjoyed the desmodromic to this day even though it only really brought anything to the high-revving racing engines. But it has remained complex, expensive and maintenance-intensive to this day.

Ducati Multistrada V4 (6 pictures) Ducatis Travel enduro Mulitstrada with V4 engine has nothing to do with the old V2 Multistrada.

That is why the developers for the V4 Granturismo rely on conventional springs and cams for valve actuation. Ducati only writes all 60. 000 kilometers before a valve clearance check, which saves a lot of costs. The new V4 also has smaller throttle bodies, longer ducts and optimized combustion chambers. The throttle valves are driven by an electric motor and thus enable one of the two cylinder banks to be switched off at low speeds and at traffic lights.

Silky engine running Although the V4 engine has two more cylinders, it is 85 mm shorter, 95 mm lower and 1.2 kg lighter than the 1260 – cm3-Testastretta-V2 of the still current Multistrada. The more compact shape now allows a lower center of gravity for better mass centering. Since it also runs with significantly lower vibrations, Ducati does without a balance shaft in the V4.

As an acoustic cosmetic, the V4 now got 70 Degree of crank pin offset so that it sounds more like a two-cylinder. The transmission has a wide spread thanks to a short first gear to make driving off-road easier, and a long sixth for fast motorway stretches.

Aluminum monocoque instead of steel grille Ducati is also taking a completely new path with the frame of the Multistrada. While the predecessor still had a tubular steel frame, the new one has an aluminum monocoque that houses the engine as a load-bearing element.

Only the screwed-on rear frame still has the traditional Ducati tubular design from steel. While the V2 Multistrada had a massive single-sided swing arm, the Multistrada V4 is equipped with an almost filigree-looking double swing arm.

Gills against the heat The design remains close to that of the predecessor and yet looks completely different. The beak remains above the front wheel, but the side panels are smaller and make the Multistrada V4 look lighter.

The front mask has been redesigned, it now has three air inlets and the LED headlights got a different shape. The developers spent a lot of time with the Multistrada V4 in the wind tunnel to optimize the aerodynamics. For example, the three “shark gills” behind the radiator cowling are supposed to conduct heat away from the driver’s legs. The disc is now steeper, can be adjusted with just one finger and should guide the wind even better over the helmet.

Larger tank The tank-seat combination has been completely redesigned. The tank volume grew from 15 on 22 liters and the seat is no longer pulled up on the tank. As a result, the driver no longer sits in a hollow, but can slide forward to the tank to load the front wheel when cornering.

However, the two-part seat remains so that the passenger clearly towers higher. However, the height of the adjustable bench increased by 15 millimeters on 840 or 840 millimeters. On the other hand, the bench turns out to be narrower at the front, so that the step length remains approximately the same.