2017 Ducati Multistrada 950 review, test ride

Size matters, but not in the way you think. We find out if the smaller Multistrada 950 actually offers more excitement than its larger siblings.

Published on Jun 01, 2017 11:54:00 AM

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2017 Ducati Multistrada 950 review, test ride

The Multistrada 950 can be kitted out with a host of accessories for off-road riding.

iPhone, not iMac

It's not like the 950 is low on electronics. The bike gets the Ducati Safety Pack (DSP) that features Bosch's 9.1 MP three-level ABS as well as an eight-level Ducati Traction Control (DTC). The bike also gets four riding modes – Sport, Touring, Urban and Enduro, the first two of which provide full power but different throttle responses while the last two dial back the motor to about 75hp. Each mode also has its own presets for how much the ABS and DTC are allowed to intervene. The Enduro mode, for example, has been designed for off-road riding and it drops the ABS to level 1 which doesn't intervene with the rear wheel at all; the DTC is switched to level 2 allowing for spinning up the rear wheel enough to let the bike slide through dirt.

The roads we were on, albeit a little abrasive, were bump-free for the most part. But we did encounter some dusty sections up in the mountains and a couple of places with gravel strewn across the road. Even in Sport mode, there was almost no occasion where we could feel the electronics cut in, where the rear felt like it wanted to let go with hard throttle openings, or where the front felt odd during hard braking. A lot of this is also down to the fantastic Pirelli Scorpion Trail II tyres which offered plenty of grip at all times.

However, what's notably absent on this bike is the IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) from the big Multistrada. So the traction control and ABS rely purely on wheel speed information rather than reading the bike's attitude along multiple axes. The DTC on the 950 doesn't have the same finesse as the 1200's, nor is there any cornering ABS. And as there's no wheelie control either, we could pop fun, little wheelies when gassing it a bit hard coming over crests. But in all honesty, exercise just a smidgen of common sense while riding and you can happily do without all these top-spec electronic nannies on the M950.

Ducati has also ditched the 1200's cutting-edge 'Skyhook' electronically adjustable suspension on this bike. The 950's suspension is fully adjustable though; it's just that you need to manually change the setup – no on-the-fly stuff like that on the big Multistrada. You do get a healthy 170mm of suspension travel at both ends, and the bike is very well sprung, so riding on rough roads won't be an issue. That said, the stock setup for the front is rather soft and applying brakes into a corner to avoid a slower rider causes the bike to almost violently stand up. And when braking in a straight line, the dive was quite pronounced as well. However, this is nothing that a little fine-tuning of the suspension (done by an expert, of course) can't sort out.

Sizing it up

Even though the 950 is supposed to be a 'smaller' Multistrada, you wouldn't get that feeling, even when getting in the saddle. The rider's triangle (the distance from the foot pegs to the seat to the handlebars) seems nearly identical to the 1200, and even though it's a road-oriented machine in its stock configuration, its tallish seat height of 840mm is in line with off-road specialised adventure tourers (think more Triumph Tiger 800 XCx rather than XRx). The saddle is roomy even for large-sized riders and pillions, and even my 5ft 10in frame was protected from wind blast after I set the manually adjustable windscreen to its tallest setting.