KIWI RIDER 10 2019 VOL1 | Page 26

DUCATI MULTISTRADA HITS 100K. IS IT THE NEXT ‘STRADA TO GO V4? I t’s taken 16 years since the original incarnation of Ducati’s take on the go-anywhere tourer first launched, and now the Multistrada line has reached the 100,000 bike milestone. Ducati is breaking tradition in some ways, with the company not holding onto the bike like we’ve seen happen with so many other milestone vehicles in the past, with the bike – a 1260 Pikes Peak Multistrada – being handed over to its new owner (who ordered the bike through a German dealership) by Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali himself. The special treatment didn’t end there, with the bike also receiving customised laser marking on the top yoke to denote its special place in Ducati history. 26 KIWI RIDER At the same time, Ducati has also confirmed that the next step in the Multistrada story is already well underway with the next evolution of the Italian company’s dual-purpose machine to go V4 in 2021. In an interesting twist, Ducati says it will use a “new, specific V4 engine”, and the V4 will be offered alongside the V-Twin 1260 and 950 Multistradas. While in all likelihood this “new, specific V4 engine” will just be a retuned version of the Desmosedici Stradale V4 from the Panigale and soon to arrive streetfighter, the wording doesn’t entirely discount the arrival of an entirely new engine. But with the 1260 and 950 models still staying in the lineup, we wouldn’t bet against the V4 arriving as either a 1000 or 1100cc.