Here’s our review of Ducati’s new #desertx Rally – the Italian’s most extreme production adventure bike, ever. Adam ‘Chad’ Child spent two days romping through the deserts of Morroco on the new £19k #ducati #motorcycle and has this to say about it.
For the full review, head to BikeSocial: https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/reviews/bikes/ducati
Chapters
00:00 – Start amd montage
00:27 – Intro
01:20 – What’s new?
02:29 – Day 1: onboard
04:27 – Compared to DesertX and Triumph Tiger
05:00 – Suspension
07:00 – Riding modes
08:20 – Onboard, jumps and desert
10:40 – Downsides
11:18 – Price
12:15 – Day 2: onboard
13:16 – Verdict & Rivals
14:16 – Outro
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Welcome to Bennett bike social welcome to Morocco we are out in the middle of the desert testing this ducati’s new desert X Rally now I’m about to tell you why this is one of the best adventure bikes I’ve ever ridden Offroad now there’s the key Offroad because today all we’ve done is ride Offroad normally when a manufacturer launches an adventure bike it’s mainly onroad with a little bit of
Off-road but the catti have done it the opposite we’ve hardly touched any Tac we spent all day Offroad hence the reason I am covered head to Foot In Dust I can’t stop smiling and I got blisters on top of blisters I have loved riding this bike so this time it’s Morocco and this
Time it’s the launch of Da catti desert X but this is the rally version this is the big hyped up it up on steroids give it loads of suspension travel and give it loads of ground clearance hence the reason we’ve got two days here in Morocco to hit some Dunes to hit some
Sand and about 90% of this ride is going to be Offroad so what the cat have essentially done is taken the desert X and just beefed it up so we’ve got bigger Forks that are 2 m thicker um we’ve got more travel 20 M on the front
20 M on the rear we’ve got way more ground clearance um we’ve got a bit of Cosmetics tweaks the front Rood guard’s got higher so we’ve got more clearance for mud and gravel um it’s basically what they’ve learned in competition with the desert X taking what they’ve learned
There and beefed it up the engine is exactly the same as it was before which is around 110 horsepower if I remember rightly and the price is around 19,000 in the UK we’ve got a few little extras on this bike a little bit more crash protection um but apart from that it’s
Near enough standard and we got two days here in Morocco which is going to be we’re out with duai we’ve done a decent ride already this is the new desert X rally lighter Wheels to compensate for the extra weight of the uh porks we’ve got a few added extras
Like the crash protection the rad guard the new high front mood guard that’s standard and we got more off-road orientated tires cuz we’re here in Morocco this morning was lots of off-road riding and it was quite cold and the biggest problem as you can tell that I’m getting out of breath is the
Seat height cuz we’re at 910 seat height which is not small so we’ve done um a fair range actually we’ve done uh how many M 86 km this morning and that was all Offroad or 90% of it was uh some of it is quite like pebbly gravel is the best way to
Describe it kind of like throwing like a million marbles down the road and trying to ride over it so at times it’s a bit unnerving but the suspension is outstanding Offroad I mean I got air bored maybe six or seven times you know we’re not hanging about we
We’re really enjoying it the riding position when you stood up is beautiful as well that’s just perfect the foot pegs which are never mentioned foot pegs but they’re so grippy and in exactly the right place there’s a little flick over on the brake lever to makes it more accessible and
Easier when you’ve got big Enduro boots on the controls the switch gear it feels like my bike and I’ve not rode a desert X for a while yet I got on this and I was like this is my bike the suspension control is really impressive I know the standard desert X
Is brilliant as an adventure bike on road and this is proven pretty equal the ducatti desert X which I wrote um a couple of years ago for benit bike social really impressive bike me and Simon hrees also did a video where we did the desert X vers the Triumph Tiger
And again I love the desert X it’s a brilliant bike and what the cat have done is basically just give it a big injection of steroids and kind of masculinity to make it more off-road to give it more off-road robustness robustness I’ll go with robustness I like that word so basically what they’ve
Done is given it more travel on the suspension so you got uh KYB uh closed cartridge Forks which are very trick and very expensive about 4 and a half th000 pound uh 45,000 if you wanted to buy them off the shelf with 20 mil More Travel got a new
Shock on the rear again with 20 mil More Travel fully adjustable front and rear so we’ve got more adjustment we’ve got more ground clearance we’ve got a very tall seat height we’ve got more crash protection with this new uh carbon composite um belly pan the front mood
Guard is now higher so we’ve got more clearance to clear all the mud we’ve got new lighter wheels that are stronger um the rear wheel is slightly narrower also but we’ve got the same Rider modes and we’ve got the same engine we got the same power so it’s a familiar Tes strer
Engine 110 horsepower the same engine that ducatti have used in the mul strata and the hyper motard and other models it didn’t need any more power basically what the cat have done it just made it more off-road to give it more off-road cap capabilities they’ve seen what customers have done and what they’ve
Done at races like herburger have wanted to race the desert X they’ve jacked up the suspension improved the suspension and give it more crash protection and that’s what the C have given us that is what they’ve done and to prove that we’ve had a full day
Of riding here in Morocco and it has been amazing the suspension is so good it’s expensive suspension it’s closed cartridge Forks which I think it’s the first time anybody’s ever done that on a production bike made by KYB front and rear fully adjustable but I don’t think anybody’s done any adjustment the
Punishment this bike can take is impressive but also is its control it just takes everything and it allows you to ride with more confidence and a little bit more speed even when you jump the bike and you deliberately close the throttle the back doesn’t flick out on the rebound the rebound is lovely
Controlled when you land it it doesn’t sound like you’re dropping 20 spanners from the top of an apartment building it’s sounds like it’s all refined it feels quality when I got on it this morning I was in Road mode and I wanted to go to touring and then I wanted to go
To Urban and then I wanted to try rally and all these modes are simple and easy to do on the Fly you can turn off the traction you can add traction you can do what you want on the Fly there’s none of this stopping and I need to go through
The manual to find out how the dash works it’s quite simple you go from Enduro to rally and back to Road the fly just close the throttle now obviously today we’ve been riding mainly off-road so we’ve got two off-road modes which is the rally and injo um when you’re in
Rally you have full power when you’re in Duro you got 75 horsepower and obviously the rider AIDS change uh dependent on the mode now what’s also interesting is that these Rider raids are lean sensitive which is pretty unique for off-road Rider raids so the ABS is lean sensitive the traction control is lean
Sensitive and it it’s catered For off-road riding so when you’re in the full rally mode and the traction is down to one it’s being designed to work with off-road bias tires it’s different uh TC to the desert X it’s been designed to work with this suspension and these
Off-road tires it’s being designed to work off-road so it’s like 26° now just out in the well yeah desert we got Junes over there all these cool tracks this is uh I’ve Rod similar around here before in Morocco and it is just just epic there’s so much space the
Deatti is holding up so well we just been doing whether it comes out on video some jumps for pictures and fairly sizable jumps and when it lands there not like bagging and clattering it just takes it this is middle of nowhere big Junes in Africa lots of dust but truly amazing
Woo oh look at this woo straight through the side of a football pitch how cool is that there messy that’s cool hey dude are we High fiveing hey five gr it is really really impressive off-road it just gives you confidence it just gives you the ability to ride this
Amazing terrain with confidence and you have time to make decisions you have time to choose lines there’s nothing UNS happening the back’s not bouncing around and skipping the front is tractable you can feel what everything’s doing even through the deep sand you can just kind
Of sit back on the bike let the bars find its way track it and travel it lovely is it the best bike I’ve ever ridden off-road in the adventure Market probably so so what’s the downsides well you may have noticed it’s a little bit big that seat height is 910 that’s
Standard 910 mm that is the highest seat height you can get on a production bike at the moment I think but I’m sure some you like Simon harres will put a comment below and remember something from 50 years ago that had a taller seat but that is quite hard work for somebody of
My size who’s nearly 5′ 7 so there are a few moments where you’re struggling to kind of get the side stand up while you’re still sat on the bike so I have to get the side stand up then throw a leg over the bike and then get going the other one is
Price deep breath $1 18995 standard and this isn’t standard so the crash protection isn’t standard the uh radiator guard isn’t standard so once you add that you can get close to £2,000 for a middleweight adventure bike which is a lot of money but when you price up the parts like 45,000 for the
For the suspension the wheels you’re probably looking bear with me I made some notes on this €2,000 for a set of wheels if you wanted to buy them off the shelf rear shock probably another 2,000 orans manual adjustable steering damper it’s about 800 you can see where the
Money’s gone the can’t haven’t just gone we’ve won World Super bikes we’ve won MotoG GP we’re famous for producing beautiful bikes so we’ll give it a massive price tag no what they’ve done is thrown quality items at the bike give you Rider AIDS at work on and Offroad
And then justifi that in the price so it is expensive but you can see where they’ve spent the money so just getting ready for day two had a camping experience last night it was all right got we had like a sandstorm came through at 4:00
This morning so it was yeah in a 10 in heavy wind is um hard going you can see the rain coming in over there so this morning you could see just snow on top of the mountains you can’t quite see it now bikes standard same again same tires same bike as yesterday they’re
Giving a bit clean and fr some fuel in it I guess this is what you want if you come to Africa big Dusty Trails kind of stand up on the pegs let the bike do the work you still got to be so careful it’s like oh big ditch big ditches like that big
Rocks you just always got your concentration head on the big test for this bike I guess is going to be when we put it against the competition for me riding it in isolation I can’t categorically say this is the best adventure bike I’ve ever ridden Offroad
But I’m also struggling to to think of a bike that’s going to be competitive against it I love the husana nordon that I rode in South Africa for about 3 days mainly Offroad that was a very good bike Offroad KTM 890r rode that in wheals for
A couple of days Offroad very good bike Offroad and then there’s new bikes coming into the market like BMW’s f900 GS there’s going to be a new Africa twin I rode the tiger 900 just a couple of weeks ago Offroad not as Extreme as this but that was good bike off-road and
They’re all a lot cheaper with a little bit more Speck but in terms of just Offroad riding I don’t think it’s going to be beaten and it’s not like it’s an ugly bike either is it but it is expensive and the seat is really tall but apart from that I blood love It N Nah