Now I have never ridden a 1260 so could be talking out of my arse, but I hear it’s got rather tall gearing, even taller than 1200 DVT, so 2 or 3 teeth less on a rear sprocket could be very interesting?
Hi Michel, According to the owners manuals, the 1260 DVT share the same gear ratios as the 1200 DVT. And Yes, you're right about the tall gearing. On that note, I've changed the gearing on all the Ducati's I've owned. I replaced the OEM 40T rear sprocket with a 42T for a much improved low speed control.
4:1 We’ll see. I’ll be taking one out, and if my initial judgment based on looks alone was wrong, I’ll happily admit it, and face the public flogging!
Hi Rich, 4:1 or 5:1 I've been known to make mistakes. Looking forward to reading your post-demo ride comments. Cheers.
Oh Dear. Here it comes. The HD strategy team couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn even if they were inside.
Anyone else had this? On Friday I received an email direct from Ducati motor holding. Unfortunately it was a no reply email. Titled The Multistrada V4. All the secrets of design. It’s about the aesthetics and functionality of the new Multistrada V4 as recounted by the designer. Now aesthetics and functionality are two things that are close to my heart but so is the psychology of producing a product that appeals to consumers and presenting it to them in a way that appeals. In other words product development and advertising. I did it for over 30 years and worked my way up to being European Creative Director of all of Ford’s advertising, bla bla bla. In short, I think I do know a little about this subject, this is my opinion. The thing that struck me immediately was; I’ve never had any communication direct from Ducati before, (except when I asked for a certificate of Conformity). They also opened it up by addressing me by my first name, interesting. Also it had previously struck me that I’d never witnessed Ducati putting out a potential purchasers survey. I’m not saying they haven’t done one but I hadn’t been part of one and my question was, why now? The answer to my mind being the Multistrada is the core of their sales. Maybe not the core of the brand image as that’s more ‘Sport’ oriented but the largest slice of their sales. That’s not unusual, for example BMW used to put out 7 series commercials and the sales of 3 series cars would immediately rocket because younger buyers would buy into the brand image aspiring to the similarly styled 7 series. (Brilliant). It suggests to me they’re not entirely sure they’ve got it right, which would be a shame. They've shifted their core which is always a risk but has to be done to keep up or ahead of things. As I’ve posted previously, all they have to do is take a small percentage of GS sales and on Ducati’s scale it will be deemed a success. It’s plain to see Ducati have taken their design cues from the Gs. The big front wheel, the trellis rear frame, all the off road pseudo adventure style ugly stuff. If they put a shaft drive on it the transformation would be complete. Given the amount of people that I’ve known buy into BMW’s because of the shaft drive it would probably gain them massively more sales. In fact 3 of my brothers buy into shaft drives, two have various BMW’s and one has a Honda. Shaft drives sell bikes because they take away perceived maintenance problems. In fact if they’d spent their money developing a shaft drive Multistrada instead of a V4 Multistrada I’m sure they’d be Hoovering sales from BMW. There’s the rub. I believe it’s a fashion and they’ve missed a trick and this little poll combined with their follow up just makes me think that even more. A few posts above this one someone mentioned that Harley have released their seriously ugly adventure style 1200cc version. All the manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon. It is following fashion for sales, understandable but is it the right thing? Shouldn’t a brand like Ducati be leading rather than following? Therefore strengthening its own brand image rather than diluting it towards BMW’s. Building a brand image takes decades, I cannot stress enough the importance and value of a brands image. It...is... vital... for their success, vital! My question is the thinking behind releasing a new version of the not so successful Multistrada Enduro? Basically that is what Ducati have done. Sales of the road Multi far outstripped the Enduro, yet here we are being delivered an updated Enduro with the all new singing and dancing V4, what a waste. If they wanted to release an on/off road BMW clone they should have put the old twin cylinder engine in it. Smart thinking, after all, that’s what BMW do. Consumers can only buy into what they are given to choose from. It’s a fact. What they are being given to tour on is big heavy adventure style bikes because presently that’s what the best touring bikes are wrapped up as. I firmly believe there is a massive market just waiting to be tapped for a tourer that has all the modern benefits of a Gs but is wrapped up in a far more sporty machine. A lighter, lower more nimble easier to manoeuvre tourer that looks really attractive. It’s a wide open opportunity for Ducati and would fit perfectly and even enhance their brand image. The survey, the emails, the tidal wave of publicity via the motorcycle press and the bloggers only goes to raise my suspicion that Ducati are not at all sure they’ve done the right thing. They will likely achieve their sales by using many other marketing tools at their disposal and hail it a success but I suspect those sales will be much harder than they could have been because they haven’t got inside our heads, that’s a mistake. This poll proves it and I don’t believe it’s just the shock of the new. Oh for what could have been. I firmly believe they have missed a huge opportunity with this new engine by putting it in the wrong bike.
In fact if anyone’s has got Tim Maccabee’s email can they PM it to me, I’m going to forward that last post to him, just in case he’s not keeping up with his target market.
I have had emails from Ducati for a few years now since i first bought a new bike from them. Triumph also do much of the their marketing anaylsis via email surveys. Its nothing new.
I’ve had plenty of emails from them and others, but never as detailed, as long and nothing quite so “let us explain ourselves”. I wasn’t going to comment on it when it arrived, as I assumed it would be on YouTube within minutes. But my first thought was that it felt a little desperate and they felt the need. Didn’t notice the bit where they said “after years of listening to our loyal supportive customers” or “following a detailed market review of which improvements that we could bring would be welcomed etc”. We all know the bike will sell, but just how well is the question.........
