’ ve long considered Ducatis to be the motorcycle equivalent of Ferrari cars . Both are high performance , specialised Italian machines that tend to come in red and have a real aura of being fast and cool . Even before riding one I expect them to be a little bit special to drive / ride , just because of what they are , how they look and their history . So , of course , when Rodney O ’ Connor offered KR his personal Ducati 950 S Multistrada to test we jumped at the

chance . The only problem was , the time frame was tight and it coincided with wet weather . Obviously ... this is of no consequence or worry to the ultraintrepid KR test team . A little torrential rain wouldn ’ t bother us , would it ? We simply dialled back our princess-meter and cracked on . It ’ s fair to say the Multistrada is not designed as a hard-core adventure bike . It ’ s more highperformance road / touring meets adventure style sit up and beg comfort , with an astonishing array of electrxonic wizardry thrown in to the mix . All of which is readily controlled via

switch blocks on the handle bars and changes monitored by the 5-inch TFT screen . Of course , that ’ s not to say the 950 wouldn ’ t happy on gravel roads or off-road capable . Simply , it ’ s just that the tar-baby side of its character is stronger . It feels to have a little more weight on the nose , more like a road bike feel than the slightly lighter up-front feel of the average adventure bike .

ITALIAN BEATING HEART The 950 is actually a 937cc Testastretta engine . It ’ s a liquid cooled V-twin with a six-speed gearbox and is now 5kg lighter than before . The motor producer a healthy 113hp at 9000rpm and 94Nm of torque at 7750rpm and is fed by 53mm throttle bodies . There are four power modes – City , Touring , Sport and Enduro . Each mode has its own individual power and electronic suspension setting plus a high and low power delivery for each mode and soft / hard suspension options . I ’ ve read online that the Ducati has over 400 different electronic choices , which does seem a little over the top to this ex-hill farmer .

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