The Enduro is more than capable off road. I've done the DRE Enduro so I know first hand that it can go off road! It's all down to rider training. You're allowed to buy a bike because you like the looks too. How many people buy Panigales and then never go on a track? Same thing.
Just my humble, but the multi strada is a naked bike. The st range are faired like the new ss. naked bikes can be used as tourers, but I don't think they are Sports tourers in the true sense, which is the styling. There are no true sports tourers on the market nowadays, hence why so many of us still ride old ST's. I hope the new ss is as good as it looks, and it may well become the replacement for the ST range. Multi's are ugly. Plain and simple. They look like beemas.
A lot of talk about Muglistradas, which to me is a modern take on a street scrambler.... The new SS looks like a good package, will it cut it as a sports tourer? I dunno and don't care until I try one with the Wifey on the pillion.
There's a few new sport tourers about, 1050 Sprint GT triumph, Z1000SX and that mugley GSX1000 thing plus the new R1200RS anyone? Any road up or Multistrada su it's plain not plane, just thought I'd point that shpelling mistook out as I'm bored....
I'm not knocking it, the Multi is an awesome bike. The comment about the genre being fraudulent was because these bikes are physically massive and too heavy and expensive to do any 'proper' offroad so very rarely get taken anywhere other than the odd dusty track when they go offroad. In six months of owning a KTM 1190 Adv R I found only one person who took a modern Adventure bike off road regularly and he lived in the hills in Wales so had direct easy access. Decent off road riding is way more demanding than road riding and not something you can do just a couple times a year and very few regular dirt riders would want to take something so heavy on hard offroad. Plus try changing a tyre on one of these damn things with tyre irons! it's not happening without wrecking expensive rims ( I wrecked them!) I'd love to take one across the mountains in Spain or something like that on a proper Adventure. I was mind blown by the sportsbike like road performance of the Adventure bikes, the problem is that all goes away if you put off-road friendly knobblies on them. Owning an Adventure bike fitted with knobblies is such waste of an amazing road bike. That said the road biased tyres will actually handle just about anything that the average owner does with these bikes. The pictures below are all on road tyres. I got rid soon after fitting knobblies because it just seemed like a waste, and have gone back to a race bike on the road. Have you seen the Ducati around the world for the ninety years aniversary? Thats a very cool advertisement for these bikes! Anyhow excuse the thread hijack OP! I reckon a new SS could be a very good thing as it's going to be more practical than the Panigale for the average person.
Twats tend to be good spellers and yeah I tend to get up folks noses, I can't think why I can't make any friends, even fellow Twats don't want to know me. How do you get on, you know with a lack of a sense of humour, that must be difficult too, yes???
That's a good point on the full fairing. Perhaps the nature of sports touring has changed. To me, the sports is the most important element, meaning the touring bit can be compromised in favour of performance, but not so much that it makes it a pain to get to the lovely roads in the first place. Before I bought the ST, the best description I came across was comfy bullet to get there, capable sports bike when you did. That was borne out by day to day usage on a mixture of roads and several very enjoyable trackdays. Maybe the advances in suspension tech and engine management have allowed the hypersports division (ZZ-R, 'Busa, etc) to become a sports tourer, with the same being said for adventure bikes - the MTS, the 990 SMT, 1050 Tiger etc. Maybe the tech has killed the concept of the ST, and it has now simply become a function in the arsenal of other bikes. Even the 1000SX and the GSX-F giant chicken are actually naked bikes with tacked on fairings.
I don't get modern bike styling. It looks to me like everyone - Triumph, BMW, Ducati et al - are making bikes that look like cartoon bikes from the old Bloodrunners cartoon in 1980's Bike magazine and/or look like fully faired bikes with 90% of the plastics ripped off. Personally I think the Pani looks like it's been hit from behind by a transit van - no, I'm not a fan of styling. For anything to be a successor to the ST it has to be a Sport Tourer, so by definition it has to be able to take luggage and a pillion. It has to be able to do the sports thing and the touring thing in equal measure, and still be able to be used as an everyday bike - and still be entertaining... IMHO, obviously...
Alot of Multi slating going on. Many people drive vans but don't need them, but the one thing that they both offer is visibility. Being higher up means you can see more equaling to more confidence to go faster . I should know after riding low slung Jap imports for too many years. Life would be pretty boring if we all liked the same things. But for me comfort and visibility would be top of my list.
Sticking to the SS thread for a moment, it looks a very interesting bike. Although my first thought was I think I'll wait for the 1200 version to come out in a year or two. A test ride will prove things. Any ST owner has got to be interested in it. Let's hope it fills that sports touring gap. Why did it die? The ST is such an underrated machine. You do 30mph and you're not leaning on your wrists. You do a maximum of '70 ocifer' and you're not getting hit in the chest or pushing your neck forwards into the wind. I'm sure riders will say you can do that on an 'adventure bike' but I have tried and can't come to terms with the sit up and beg position. I love sticking my shoulder into a bend and opening it up, which is not going to happen on a mobile skyscraper of a bike. Personally I believe the sports tourer market is coming back. That KTM1290 Gt looks a fantastic beast and it's got to be proof of it, amongst others. I like a small fairing though, just to have a more relaxed ride at speed without looking like a mobile barn door. Here I am in the process of turning my new Monster 1200 into an ST with a small fairing and maybe some tiny panniers and the buggers in Bologna finally catch up with what we've been asking for. Doh! A sports bike that you can do long distances on, that won't topple over with you in a car park. That looks good, sounds good and handles well and you'll never take it off road any way. What took them?
The epitome of the sports tourer, IMHO, is the BMW 1300GT, the only problem is that it is quite heavy and like many bikes suffered it's own set of problems. A modern take on the Ducati ST would certainly get my attention.
I bought my ST4s after trying the modern Adventure breed. Just as above it was the riding position that did it for me and I wanted a Ducati so only the ST series worked for me. This is a welcome development. Will be hanging on to the ST for now but good to know there is a new real world bike on the block.
Maybe there will be a flood of STs on the market as owners queue up to buy the new ST (sorry SS) It would need a luggage option though..
When i owned my ST ( redundancy, had to sell) the only thing i think it lacked was ABS. I know you could get them with it but mine didn't have it. If i could find a good late model ABS version i would think it might just come home with me.
Did 300 miles on a '17 Multi a couple of weeks back, was alright but a bit ho hum. Neither one thing or the other. By contrast the Diavel I had a play on today was a riot, I would have expected to have loved the Multi and hated the Diavel. The new SS is interesting, looks alright and I think is a better finished product than either the Multi or the Panigale, the Diavel has a few rough corners too. Of the current crop of Ducatis I think the Desert Sled and Supersport look the best finished. Doesn't compare with a "proper" Supersport though... ;-)
