• There has been a recent cluster of spammers accessing BARFer accounts and posting spam. To safeguard your account, please consider changing your password. It would be even better to take the additional step of enabling 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) on your BARF account. Read more here.

22 Pikes Peak Multistrada riding review

Sundance rocks. Been a family fav since '74 when it was opened as the Sundance Mine Company. Incredible sports memorabillia there and the food is amazing!!

So.. yesterday was the day after my Fathers Celebration of Life on Saturday followed by another friends COL. I was the MC and creator for my Dad so to have that go off well was a huge relief. The Mrs said to ride go on Sunday to complete the relief of responsible son, so I went (of course!).

I was a bit hazed from all the celebrating so I set off in what I considered a chill mode attitude. A friend borrowed another friends Triumph 800 to ride with me. He normally rides a BMW 1000R and is fully geared. Since he borrowed everything and was on an unfamiliar bike it made sense to keep the chill vibe. I did.

We sauntered up Page Mill and then over to Alpine. I figured the Triumph ADV bike would be fun on Page Mill / Alpine and Stage. Right out of the gate I hit dirt on about the 10th turn in on Alpine. Both tires slide.. foot off the peg oopsie moment. That totally confirmed being chill. :laughing

I had a new helmet and jacket too so a bit different visual from the Arai Corsair. The shield is a bit darker than my Bell transition and perhaps that helped me miss the dirt. :dunno I so want a transition shield. Somebody make one for the Arai please!! :teeth

We hoofed it to Pescadero Road to Pescadero. The Store in Loma Mar had more bikes and cars than I ever seen there by a lot. We did not stop, but it was cool to see. Another time. In Pescadero we thought maybe a brunch stop at Duate's for soup and bread to be good. They don't open until 12 so no go. We rode Stage back to 84 and the faster sweeper are total joy. :ride Then we went to Alices.. PACKED. No way. So on to 35 / 9 and to Spankys. Good grub.

I focused on steering input. Using counter steering to put the bike where I wanted it. It really does that well. Still well below the 600 miles so I continued to be observant of the 6K limit.

The day ended up being a bit more of a new gear experience than a new bike experience. The bike is great and a couple times I let it rip a bit more and when it got to 7K plus I felt what will be the awesomeness of Multi power. Probably about 8K for a sec or two a few times. I still have yet to try the quick shifter. Figure when I will light it up when it is the right time.

Wearing the KLIM airbag under the new jacket was fine. Once we started down the Isle of 9 it got warm. Thanks to the Duc I knew it was 86 degrees in Ben Lomand. Yeah .. a bit hot.

At our late brunch I found all the vents and opened them. You can see the back one open in the pic above. Like an air brake. :laughing
It was 91 on the way out.

The combination of jacket and airbag is heavier and hotter. I did wet the front of the vest with cold water and with the vents open I could feel it. Wearing a cool vest below that should work.. what is another layer? :p The vest has a fabric front that does allow some air through.
Vents are on the upper chest shoulder, rear shoulder and one on each arm. The jacket does not have snaps so if I want to let air through the front I have to depend on the velcro. I may add snaps :dunno

The pic above was coming back up 9 where we ended up behind a Sherriff and knowing the really fun part before 236 was coming up I pulled over to let him escape. He ended up coming back by the other way when we were doing the photo thing. I told the wife I would get a pic of the birthday swag.

Back to the helmet. It is quieter than the Bell. The shield release is modern and secures firmly. Took me a minute to realize the amount of force required to open it. I was worried I would break it at first, but good now.

There was quite a bit of traffic so the pace stayed chill most of the time. A romp down Page Mill was pretty clean and that was a good time to feel the bike out. I kept the foot in (chill) so nothing crazy and I actually only touched my foot on the peg once. It is easier to get to the balls of my feet on this bike. The handle bar thing feels right now. Did not notice any weirdness.

I am really digging the brakes too. I have always been more of a full hand braker in the mountains and I am focusing on just two fingers and it has great feel. I used two on the '15 Duc when riding normally but when I wicked it up the other two tended to want to come out.

So... up to almost 360 miles now and letting it rip is just a couple rides away.
 
Munroe had one of these sitting out front when I walked by on Saturday, it's even cooler looking in person.
 
Glad to see that you're enjoying the new whip! :thumbup I dunno' if there will be another Duc in my future though, the myriad of little issues I had with my 2013 has made me kind of gun shy around them now. :nchantr:(

Looking forward to more reviews! :ride
 
Rox makes a good up and back handlebar riser that I used on my previous Multi and is on my SuperDuke GT now. Makes a big difference in every way.
 
A good ride with Butch today. Now to 475 miles so one more and dump the oil and let it rip.

I went up and over my Hamilton with my good friend ..Butch Roberts. Eerrrrr ... Butch. :love

A bit wet on the way up and Butch left me. :x
New bike, wet spots... just chilling. The total cloud cover was at 3800 ft and we broke through it to sunshine before the observatory.

The backside to the junction was sunny and dry when Butch waived me by it was because that might be too bumpy for a crotch rocket. :laughing

Nice lunch with very few other riders there. Pic of Butch showing off his new Graves pipe. Sounds good. Damn my bike is quiet. I think I am good with that.

After lunch I led back up the hill and I picked up the pace feeling good. The wet spots had me gripping the bars too tight and not looking far enough ahead on the way up and that was gone. Started using the speed shifter and it is awesome. Seamless shifting and the bike stayed more settled and was damn fun.

At the top I waived Hammie Boy by and we had a great nose to tail ride down. Speed shifter is really cool. Keeps the flow smooth and fast. Many of the turns taken in 3rd gear and the torque pulled me along nicely. The foot out... speed shifter on upshifts engaged. FUN!!! :ride

After break in I will try the speed shifter downshift part. Pushed it to 8k once chasing Butch Roberts. He is so smooth on the dirty 130 it is a joy to ride behind him.

All good so far. Getting more familiar with the PP Multi. Digging it.
 

Attachments

  • 1447D04F-2A22-4D99-B4DC-8BFB7EF528E0.jpg
    1447D04F-2A22-4D99-B4DC-8BFB7EF528E0.jpg
    190.8 KB · Views: 26
Been awhile, but very glad to see this thread and that you’re enjoying the bike - looking forward to seeing what you report when you can open it up the rest of the way.
 
budman said:
A good ride with Butch today. Now to 475 miles so one more and dump the oil and let it rip.
Click to expand...
Glad your wait is almost over. Sounds like a great bike. Can't see waiting myself, but you gotta go with what makes sense to you.

For me the previous edition is a great enough bike, and I was tempted to take your old one off your hands. I'm too lazy (busy? both?) to sell a bike to make room though.
 
Bud, last Monday I had the opportunity (or rather, it was the only bike left) to ride one of the 2022 Pike peak Multistrada at Laguna Seca while instructing for the Ducati Rev's school/ event. The mechanics convinced me to take it out after my day of riding the Streetfighter V4 SP. I've never ridden a multi surface touring bike like a multi and doing it on-track for my first time, I was less than excited...but given everyone else had all the other Ducati fleet bikes on track, I was gonna sit out (which I was fine with) or ride the Multi. I trusted the mechanic and went out...after lap one of getting comfy on it, I started to see how capable it was. In race mode the bike was amazing confident. At one point I looked down going over T1 in 6th and saw mid 140's on the dash...for an ADV bike! brakes allowed deep trailing and the suspension was well squared away. Any rear wheel slip was managed nicely...power wasn't killed, but managed. Riding against the V4's, the multi was a bit down on power, but I saw that orange flashing glow around the tach over and over...it took the abuse just fine when I ran it to just before redline before upshifts. Clearance was good, but I was still dragging boots a bit which didn't cause any performance issues, but was distracting. I passed lots of V4's on her mid corner...

One of the complaints, and given it's an ADV bike there's probably little to do about it on a race track, but on the dual apex turns (T2 mostly), the bike would lengthen forks in the front after the 1st apex making the turn back a bit difficult...so I'd finish the corner off with the throttle and letting the rear spin a bit (and let the electronics handle the mess I was making).

Bike was super fun though...way more than I'd ever guess. If you get the chance, take her to a track day...it was a neat experience!
 
Cool to hear Berto!

I have also only noted touching boots. I have not drug the pegs, which did occur on the past bikes.

Bike is at the MotorCafe now for the 600 mile service and then I can let her fly. :thumbup

Did you do that speed shifter downshift?? How did that feel.
That is in completely foreign territory for me and I have not done it.
The speed shifter upshifts do an amazing job of keep the RPM's up. I noted a 1500 drop on the back off the throttle and clutchless upshift vs the speed shifter droping about 500 I think. Hard to follow the tach when you are having fun :teeth
 
Autoblip downshifts..yeah, they rule. No clutch needed. Me, being the curmudgeon I am, it took me FOREVER to commit to it on my R6 when we put it on it...and I was horrible with it on the 1K's I rode. I've gotten used to it now, but don't discourage if it takes a little bit. Old habits die hard. Once you get used to it, though, it's excellent!

Speaking of: the Ducati Rev's event: next year get ahold of me and we'll get you signed up for it. It follows the Moto America round on the Monday after MA. Neat event and Zemke should be doing instruction with his team (us) and Eric Wood, again.
 
Been a while since I have been to the track. Was fantasizing about THill West, but Laguna always rocks. Appreciate the invite.... and nudge.
 
Nudge indeed...and anytime you wanna go to Thill, message me and we'll set it up with Pirelli and I'll go too!
 
3 days on the road

Update from an 800 mile weekend.

Headed up to Quincy will a few friends. It provided a chance to ride on several types of roads.
Freeways to get there and back.
Goatee country roads.
The glory of great pavement, sweeping turns, decreasing radius downhill turns etc. etc.

So some thoughts.

Performance:
1. I need to adjust the bike suspension to “with bags” even though I am bagless to stiffen up the suspension when railing on those great pavement twistees that allow you to rip. (AKA I am fat).
2. Letting it rip through the 6K break in RPM made for some fun. I never did hit redline and did not need to. Solid power and smooth.
3. Great power for passing cars and trucks where there is a broken line or DY.
4. The speed shifter makes that doing that easy and also makes for smooth transitions when strafing the canyons.
5. Since I was sport touring there was no death braking, but the brakes work really well and I am good with two fingers always. A bambi did jump out of the brush and I did apply more pressure than I would usually and I automatically went to two fingers (riding thing not a bike thing). I did not stab the brakes so no measure on the ABS.

Comfort:
1. It is nice to have touring mode to jump into when slabbing HWY 5 or even on some of the goatee stuff. The bike is still solid suspension wise and offers near the same ability to carve the turns.
2. I got use to the standing and was able to do so at 80mph on the freeway without any issues.
3. The seat is a bit less comfortable on the long ride, but still fine really. The bootie would get tired after 200 miles or so, but standing or shifting my ass a little made it work just fine.

Misc.
I experimented with the adaptive cruise control. It works really well. I noted it would lower the speed when I got to a certain lean angle. I assume a safety feature and the computer does not trust me. :laughing

I am still riding with the E-settings that the bike was set up with for TC, Wheelie control etc.

I did not try the power shifter on down shifts. It is so foreign to me that I just did not try it yet. Had a few opportunities where I was lugging it a bit in a turn, but the grunt was usually fine at pulling it through. I am sure I will get there.

I will start fiddling with the setting over the next month before I go for a 2500 mile ride in September.


Digging it! :thumbup
 

Attachments

  • 22 Quincy.jpg
    22 Quincy.jpg
    153.9 KB · Views: 11
  • 22 quincy 2 (2).jpg
    22 quincy 2 (2).jpg
    193.6 KB · Views: 4
You will get used to the power shifter. Had it on the Ducati I rented in Europe, in 2019. On my 2020 BMW S1000XR, the downshifts are smoother if the throttle is open just slightly. Nice trip report.
 
Bud- Palo Alto to (the top of) Pikes Peak is <1350 miles. I know you're wondering...
 
:laughing

I was not, but thank you for letting me know. :p
 
A good test ride yesterday with my bud L8Braker.
BTL happened and he was riding wicked on his new Ninja 1000. Totally confirmed I need to stiffen up my suspension.

Wii do that before the next go. Feeling more comfortable every ride. No tickets just smiles. PageMill, 36, 9 ... fun.
 
Last edited:
Another test day so to speak.

Adjusted the suspension to rider plus bags. Noted a bit more solid when being sporty. Did more testing on the GoPro.

Face cam... solid. Rear cam. Looked great until the main bumps on Page Mill up near 36 sent it skyward. :laughing

I am debating internally on if this bike is as flickable as the V2.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top