At face value, it appears Ducati has only mildly tweaked its Multistrada V4 S for 2025, but our ride on the superbike of adventure motorcycles shows how much work was done on this new model.
Check out the story at https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-reviews/ducati-multistrada-v4-s-first-ride-review/
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6CLI74xvMBFLDOC1tQaCOQ
Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/
Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld
Check out the story at https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-reviews/ducati-multistrada-v4-s-first-ride-review/
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6CLI74xvMBFLDOC1tQaCOQ
Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/
Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld
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SportsTranscript
00:00Welcome to Cycleworld, welcome to beautiful Italy, welcome to the equally
00:04beautiful Multistrada V4S, brand new for 2025. Now the guys at Cycleworld have
00:09invited me to ride the new Multistrada because, believe it or not, I was one of
00:13the first to ride the original Multistrada all the way back in 2003
00:18when it was like a air-cooled supermoto, we aren't too sure what it is bike. All
00:22those years later, we're here in 2025 to ride the new Multistrada V4S.
00:33It's kind of shocking to think that back then on that old air-cooled V-twin
00:36we're now at 170 horsepower. That power has not changed for 2025, it's just
00:41revised fueling, slightly different exhaust, so it's all Euro 5 compliant. In
00:46terms of styling, there's some slight changes, it's still got that
00:49desirability, still got that real high-end finish, but it's all about the
00:53kind of electronics and tweaking and just making improvements and learning
00:57from other Ducati models. So, for example, when I rode the Ducati Diavolo on its
01:03world launch, it had the rear deactivation system, so you didn't have
01:07the back two cylinders running below 4,000 rpm. That improves fuel economy
01:11and it reduces the heat when you're stationary. That's what's happened to the
01:152025 Multistrada. On the rally version, if I remember rightly, it has the
01:20automatic lowering system, so as you ride along, you come below 20 kilometers an
01:25hour, it takes off the preload, lowers the rear shock, so you can get two feet on
01:29the ground. Now, that rear shock lowering depends on if you've got a pillion and
01:34luggage and how big you are. If you're a light rider like me, well, relatively
01:37light, the shock lowers around 15 mm. If you've got a pillion and you've got loads
01:42of luggage, it's going to lower more because you've got more weight to push the
01:44preload down. It really makes a difference for a short rider like me. I can get two
01:48feet securely on the ground. Rear shock is completely new. The pivot has gone up
01:53just a little bit. I think it's one mil, but that makes a difference because it
01:56gives you more leverage, so the bike has got less tendency to sit, less tendency
02:01to squat. That's the theory.
02:08We've got a new wet mode that we never had before. We've got revised electronics,
02:13revised traction control, a plethora of rider aids, obviously cornering ABS, but
02:19now we've got a new braking system. If I apply the front brake, it does the back
02:23brake, and in some of the modes, if I apply the back brake, it does the front
02:26brake. It's all just tweaking an already excellent bike. Nobody
02:30got off a Multistrada and went, I could do with some more power. That's why they've
02:34left it as it is. I think a few people got off it and said, I want a little bit
02:38more comfort. I want a little bit more finesse. They've done that. We've
02:41been riding on roads here that can only be described as kind of a motocross
02:45track. It looks like somebody's kind of paved a playground. It's just
02:49unbelievably bumpy and there's off camber, there's grass coming through the
02:52road, there's big potholes. When you're in touring mode, it's just really,
02:57really controlled. It's got a really interesting system that the front end is
03:00now talking to the back end, so if the front end goes over a bump, it
03:04communicates to the rear end before the rear end has hit the bump and kind of
03:08predetermines what is about to happen. So the front end is talking to the back
03:12end. It makes obvious and simplistic sense and it's kind of like, why didn't
03:16they just do that previously? But now they've done it, you can kind of feel it,
03:20especially in town. When you go over a speed hump, the front goes over and
03:23then the back seems to know what's about to happen. But the ride quality is really
03:27impressive. There's a definite gap between sports mode and touring mode. I
03:30think it was a bit closer before, but now there's a definite gap. Touring mode is a
03:35little bit easier, a little bit softer, a bit more palatious. It's very comfortable,
03:39it's very manageable and it's very comfortable.
03:47The braking, I think it's down to a personal preference. If you're in touring
03:52mode and you're taking it steady, because you're touring, when you apply the back
03:55brake, it applies the front brake. So you can almost forget about braking with a
03:59front brake lever conventionally, just rely on the back brake and that's why
04:02the KTM fitted a bigger disc and a different pump and a different back
04:05brake. So you can just kind of be lazy, but if you start to ride a little bit
04:08more aggressive, then when the back ABS kicks in, it kicks in the front ABS. So
04:13then you want to flick into sports mode. When you flick into sports mode, now the
04:16front does the back, but the back doesn't do the front. So again, the braking
04:20changes depending on what you want to do. For example, in enduro mode, you have
04:24front ABS, but you have nothing on the back, so you can lock the back and have
04:27some fun. In the new wet mode, we did give it a go. It reduces the power and
04:32obviously puts all the rider aids through the roof. Really fun to come out
04:35of a first and second gear corner in slippery conditions and just use the
04:39throttle like a switch, see the traction light come on, everything's controlled,
04:42everything's behaved. We also got the opportunity to try the radar on the
04:46motorway, which is something we've done before. It's basically adaptive cruise
04:50control, it just allows you to keep the space between the vehicle or motorcycles
04:54in front. Really useful, pretty simple, pretty easy to use. We've also got
04:59something really interesting called the forward collision warning. Now I try to
05:03activate the forward collision warning, which is basically a big illumination on
05:06the dash, by trying to ram into other American journalists. But if you're using
05:10the brake, it doesn't really come up because it's there to give you the
05:15warning that you're not applying the brake and you're about to hit something.
05:17So if you want to see that come up on the dash, you've actually got to ride up
05:20to your mate pretty quick without touching the brakes, the warning flicks
05:23on the dash, then you apply the brakes. It's just another safety aspect that
05:27says, hey guys, you're riding a bit too close to your buddy, you've not hit the
05:30brake yet, how about you give it some.
05:38As I say, we've had the opportunity to ride it all day and try all these little
05:41tweaks and little improvements that Ducati have made. They've not made a
05:45massive step, it's just improving an already excellent bike. So off-road we
05:50only got kind of a bit of a flavor of what to expect, maybe 10 to 15 kilometers
05:54off-road. To be honest, I should have adjusted the bars and got those a little
05:57bit higher because they're adjustable and I should have played around with the
05:59suspension settings because I felt it was a little bit soft and it kind of
06:02pushes the front a little bit, understeers a little bit. But then there
06:05is an argument of who's going to take a big exotic Ducati really hard off-road.
06:09I think people who are dedicated big adventure bike riders are probably going
06:12to go for a different manufacturer. I think the mulch dryer is appealing to
06:15guys who are coming down from sports bikes who want loads of power but they
06:20want comfort and they want to do distance. In terms of accessories, it's
06:23just a question of how many boxes you want to tick. Do you want a center stand?
06:26Do you want panniers? Do you want heated grips? Do you want heated seat? How far do you
06:30want to go? Make the Multistrada your bike, essentially. We've got lighter wheels,
06:34we've got spokes wheels, we've got different tires, we've got different size
06:37luggage, we've got center stands and now the heated grips go from 0 to 5 and so
06:41does the seat, where I think before it only went from 0 to 3. To be honest, I
06:45didn't think Ducati needed to do much with the Multistrada but they've
06:48actually gone a little bit further than I expected. When I was sat in the
06:51presentation, I thought this was going to be one of the shortest presentations
06:54of the year and just kind of sat back with my cocktail waiting to not do a lot
06:57and then it was like, oh this is new and that's new and then you got the lowering
07:01shock and you got the anti-collision, then you got the radar, then you got this
07:03then you got that. So there is quite a lot when you look at the bike and see
07:06how much has added up. I guess the big question is when the guys at Cycleworld
07:10get it back in the US. It'd be interesting to see, like for example, if
07:13Justin takes this off-road and really splashes it through the dunes like he
07:16can do. It'd be interesting to see when we put it against the competition and
07:20see how it fares against the new GS and there's obviously a possible KTM around
07:24the corner. But in terms of a first impression here in Italy, riding the new
07:29Multistrada V4 S, it's still got all the excellent qualities of the Multistrada.
07:33It's still quick, it's still fun, it's still excitable but it's a little bit
07:36more comfortable, it's a little bit more refined than it ever was before.
07:50you