Ducati Multistrada V4 S review: The Swiss Army knife of motorcycles

There are specialised motorcycles—supersports, naked street bikes, commuters, cruisers—and then there’s the Ducati Multistrada. Each time I’ve ridden one over the years (and I’ve had a go at various iterations), I’ve been stunned by how the Italian firm manages to combine several different motorcycles into one.

The Multistrada (meaning ‘many roads’ in Italian) is kind of like the Swiss Army knife of the motorcycling world – it offers different riding experiences (and capabilities) to different kinds of riders in a way few other bikes do. If you like sporty riding, the Multi has you covered. If off-roading is your jam, it handles the roughest of terrain easily. Planning a long, highway ride from Mumbai to Delhi? It’ll effortlessly eat up the miles. A track day on the horizon? Amazingly, it’ll put a grin on your face even there.

This do-it-all approach had pretty much been perfected in the model before this one, and in the V4 S, it’s been taken to another level. The engine from the bonkers Panigale V4 does duty in this bike, and offers so much power and torque that it’s almost hilarious.

Any which way you play it, this is an imposing motorcycle – it looks beefy and sharp simultaneously, like a Navy Seal in a Savile Row suit. Ducati hasn’t reinvented the wheel too much in terms of its design; what it’s done is to slap on a number of upgrades. The fins on the sides of the fairing, for example – they do a great job of directing heat from the engine away from you.

The windshield is adjustable with a firm push, which is very convenient. Some terrain will require the rider to stand on the foot pegs while riding, and Ducati has designed the mirrors so that they don’t get in the way when that happens. Normally, adventure bikes aren’t very good looking, since they’re built largely for practicality and endurance; Ducati took that rule book and threw it out the window, thankfully.

How the ride went

Once I settled into the plush seat and set off, I selected Touring mode to begin with. I’d found a nice stretch of highway and wanted to see what the Multi felt like on it, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. In this mode, the throttle felt easier and the suspension softened up considerably, soaking up the road surface to the point that I could barely feel it (in a good way, not in an anesthetic manner). The credit for this goes to Ducati's brilliant Skyhook electronic suspension system, which really works like magic. It makes constant and minute adjustments depending on the terrain, and offers up the best possible ride.

Additionally, the Multi is packed to its gills with a variety of electronic riding aids that make the experience that much easier. The bright TFT touchscreen lets you easily control things like traction control, power, wheelie control, ABS sensitivity and suspension preload and damping settings, and of course there are four riding modes (urban, sport, enduro and touring) and a six-axis IMU rider aid system.

Even in Touring mode, the Multi is as sharp as a pin. You can be effortlessly cruising along at 100 kph in 6^th, and all that’s required to blast off towards the horizon is a twist of the throttle; the various riding aids ensure that you take off like a slingshot, with no fuss.

Switch to Sport and things become very interesting indeed – you can almost feel the bike grinning in anticipation. The difference in character can immediately be felt, with the suspension stiffening up and the throttle response becoming near-telepathic. The bike shrinks around you in this mode, becoming taut and allowing you to attack corners in a way usually reserved for supersports machines, and when you wring open the throttle on a straight stretch, you really have to hang on tight as the Multi tears its way forward.

Electronic wizardry at play

The big Ducati comes with some cutting edge electronic wizardry, as I’ve mentioned, and I figured I’d see how some of them worked. The adaptive cruise control system was excellent, and it automatically maintained a safe distance between me and the vehicle ahead, depending on its speed, by slowing down or speeding up.

The blind spot detection system let me know about traffic coming up behind me by lighting up LEDs on the mirrors – another useful feature. The Multi also has a radar-operated collision avoidance system, which engages the brakes if it thinks that you’re approaching the vehicle ahead of you too fast – but I chose not to test this particular feature, for obvious reasons.

The Multi’s sheer pace meant that I made it to a stretch of slightly rough terrain well before I thought I’d arrive there. The idea was to engage the Enduro riding mode and do a spot of off-roading (whatever I’m capable of, anyway). I’m always nervous about taking big, heavy bikes through broken terrain, but the Multi had my back. The suspension worked wonders to smoothen out everything, and the traction control system cut in at exactly the right moments to ensure that I didn’t spin out of control, or fall over.

Special mention must be made of the Multi’s brakes, which are Brembo Stylema units up front; they feel like they’ll bring you to a dead halt in the blink of an eye. Throw in the fact that the bike comes shod with stunning Pirelli tyres and a cornering ABS system, and you’re about as safe as you can be on a motorcycle. Oh, and I have to sing praises of the cornering headlights as well – say goodbye to those sudden patches of pitch black in the middle of a corner taken in the dark.

There’s no other way to sum this bike up other than to say it’s the complete motorcycle. It’s powerful, practical, sporty and so damn versatile that you don’t feel like you need anything else in the same package (except for a bathtub filled with champagne, perhaps). Its 22-litre tank will give you a touring range of about 400 km (more, if you’re careful with the throttle), it’ll happily potter about in the city in urban mode, I’m pretty certain it’ll perform admirably at a racetrack and you can take part in rallies on it, if you like. AT Rs 23.1 lakh, ex-showroom, it sits firmly in the stratospheric section of the motorcycle market, but I’m certain that it’ll be money well spent for those who can afford it.