1200 DVT 3500 Miles ... It's A Different Bike

Hi All,

I bought my 1200S DVT new last Feb when I traded in my Yam Tracer. I covered 10,000 miles in a year on that bike and it showed me that after years and years of superbikes (4 different R1's, ZZR1400, VFR750 and 800, Firestorm, 916SPS to name just a few) I could also enjoy the dual-sport format.

Initially, I have to say that whilst the DVT is a much easier bike to live with compared to the Tracer (and a lot of other bikes I've had) I was a little underwhelmed by the performance but since Feb I've now covered 3,500 miles and I've got to say that whilst I've been noticing subtle improvements in the engine since it's 1st service, it now bares very little similarity to the bike I bought ... and thats not just merely a good thing, it's a bloody excellent thing. A lot of this might seem fairly obvious to some, and I did expect the DVT to improve with miles in-line with my experience on all my bikes from new over the years, but not quite to this level. The last 500 miles have been a bit of a revelation.

The engine obviously felt tight from new, and this even made starting a slightly nervous afair as it always struggled to turn-over on the starter from cold - you always had the sense that the starter-motor didn't quite have enough grunt to turn the engine over - but now it's spins on the starter almost as freely as any jap in-line-4 I've had.

A lot of folk have commented on the mid-range hole in the torque curve, and I would have to say that whilst I wouldn't have called it a hole, it was definately flat and uninspiring - which is not the reason you buy a desmo-twin. You expect to have to rev it a little harder than most other twins, which is the whole point of the desmodromic valve-train. If you design an engine that can rev then you expect to need to exploit that extra top-end but at the expense of low-down drive, which was something I remember quite well from my 916SPS which always felt over-geared unless you bounced the thing of the limiter in every gear. So I hoped the DVT unit would improve low-down drive and keep the top-end buzz, which when new the engine was only really hinted at that flexibilitly. It never felt smooth from low revs and was very lumpy below 3,000 RPM. I'll admint that this has, at times, had me questioning what I'd bought - it's been good, but it's not been awesome ... until now.

All I can say is that it's just not that way any more. I don't have a noticeable mid-range drop in oomph and the engine pulls in a much more linear way up to 6K RPM, whereafter you still get that nice rush of power coming in, but it comes in much smoother due to the way the mid-range has improved. I no longer feel the contant need to knock it down a couple of gears to pass a line of traffic and previously I'd only use 6th gear as an overdrive and I'd resigned myself riding it like the Ducati engines from the Foggarty era and keep the engine spinning well whilst at modest speeds. Now, it pulls almost as well in 6th as it does in 5th - it still feels like a tall gear but thats not a bad thing. 6th is now a routine selection on quick A roads and not merely reserved for motorway speeds. The bottom-end is much more useable too, and all this is just in the unchanged Touring mode. Pop it into Sport mode and it gets even better and really DOES feel like it's in a SPORT mode. I had modified my Urban setting to give me Sport engine mode with Touring display but retaining the suspension settings, giving me a relaxed ride with a sharper throttle response, but now I'd put it back to defaults as default Touring mode feels so much better now.

It's like in the last 500 miles the bike has started to wake-up and take part in the world with a determination to makes it mark. It's like chalk and cheese and it's bloody fantastic. I never thought a bike could improve with miles quite so dramatically. I've had to top-up the engine oil by about 300ml, and it does look a little black through the viewing glass so I might give it a flush and re-fill, because it's clear that it's taken at least 3,000 miles to really break it in. In truth, it's only a little over the 1,500 miles more than the break-in period thats outlined in the owners manual, so I shouldn't be at all surprised.

I'd been thinking about a full replacement exhaust but I'm tempted to just get an slip-on end-can and maybe a dyno session before I do that, just to see. I started out really liking my Multistrada from new, but now I absolutely love it in a way I never thought happen. I'm wondering what the next 1,000 miles are going to be like. The miles I've covered in 3 months isn't much less than some people do in an entire year. Which makes me think - assuming other peoples experiences are similar to my own, some people could buy one of these and only start to have it properly broken-in within the 1st year of ownership. Not only that, but nearly all the bike tests and reviews in the media are going to be on nearly new hardware, and probably not on a bike approaching 4,000 miles. It would be nice to see how a 3,500 miles Multi fairs against an S1000XR. I'm not suggesting it would have the beating of it on the track but I recon the gap has got to be closer.

 

I've not had a service since 620 miles as per the manual, and if I had an update (and I don't believe I have) then it would not have happened in the last 3,000 miles and it is during this period where I've noticed the biggest difference .... unless the Ducati pixies broke into my garage over night and did the update without me being aware.

 

As mentioned in a thread elsewhere, I just got my DVT back from the dealer after having a fork seal replace. After collecting it and heading home, and then after my 50 mile commute this morning, the bike felt distinctively different. I'm almost at 5,000 miles and the engine is still improving, but after collecting it from the dealer it felt VERY different.

I called them this morning to ask if they'd done any updates to maps or whatever, and the guy in the service department (not the actual mechanic) said that whilst he wasn't able to confirm there and then that it was highly likely. Whenever bikes are in for almost anything they hook them up to their laptop and the updates just automatically happen. He seemed to think that since I took delivery of the bike in Feb this year that there have probably been 6 or 7 updates released.

So, whilst I haven't been able to confirm with any certainty, this feels like a completely different bike yet again. No flat spot or any kind, just great throttle responsive and urgent linear grunt, even in Touring mode.

 

I saw the other message relating to an article which mentioned the updates to the Enduro being made available to all DVT models ... which was what prompted me to call the dealer to ask. Whilst they wouldn't be specific their comments lead me to believe that there has been an update with a considerable engine map change. Very good it is too.

 

I've just gone past the 1000 mile mark....I'm in Love with my Dvt too Rainman, you are not alone !
The joy of owning it even cancels out the rip off & pain of being charged £220 for basically an oil & filter & software update
I've owned many bikes including a 2014 mutely, but this is just sublime !!!!!

 

What hole? There's no hint of a dip, flat, hole, nothing, just a massive surge. Prior to how it is now, it was certainly uninspiring in the mid-range which led you to keep the motor spinning to avoid it, but now it's unrecognisable.

Anyone else been in to a dealer lately with a completely standard bike and had any updates? I'd love to hear other peoples opinions on the difference.

 

Not sure what you mean? Is there something you were hoping for? I think that as well as fixing the mid-range power they've played around with the fly-by-wire throttle curve in Touring mode. It's much more responsive.