Rennie Scaysbrook | September 2, 2022
Ducati has finally released its first purpose-built adventure motorcycle. The big question is… how does it ride?
Oh, glorious Colorado. And there’s hardly a better bike to see it on than a Ducati DesertX.
Photography by Gregor Halenda
As far as long-awaited bikes go, I can’t think of one for the last five years that has had as much anticipation attached to it as the Ducati DesertX.
Ducati harbored plans to bring a dedicated ADV motorcycle to the market long before the first prototype of the DesertX was unveiled at EICMA in 2019. The mid-size ADV segment has never been more competitive, and Ducati certainly took their time with the DesertX’s development, creating an all-new machine that’s a far cry from the dressed-up Scrambler 1100 we saw in 2019.
Rugged DesertX looks are a definite departure from the more modern Multistrada line.
The DesertX utilizes a version of the 937cc 11-degree Testastretta motor found in the Monster, Supersport, Hypermotard and Multistrada V2, but with revised gear ratios from first to fifth gear to give a more optimum off-road performance. Those shorter gears (especially in first and second gear) are like when you put your four-wheel drive in low range, allowing it to creep down hills smoothly and sedately without stalling.
Ducati is claiming 110 horsepower and 68 lb-ft of torque for the $17,095 DesertX, putting it almost on par with the KTM 890 Adventure R (103 hp/73 lb-ft) and Triumph Tiger 800 XCA (95 hp/58 lb-ft) and ahead of the smaller capacity Yamaha Tenere 700 (74 hp/50 lb-ft) and Aprilia Tuareg (80 hp/51.6 lb-ft). Of course, it’s also the most expensive in this category, even outshining the Triumph by $900, but the good thing with the Ducati is you’re only buying one bike with no electronic lockouts you need to pay to get past.
The Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR rubber handled this sort of stuff well. Any more rugged and you might want to start investigating knobbies.
This is the first Ducati to be primarily developed for off-road use and, as such, comes with a tubeless 21-inch front and 18-inch rear wheel laced with Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR rubber as standard. Ducati’s four-bikes-in-one machine in the Multistrada was always designed first as a street bike, an off-road capable bike second, and comes to the market with an asphalt-focused 19-inch front and 17-inch rear wheel configuration.
The DesertX, on the other hand, is firmly in the dirt as its home of choice. A tall 9.06 inches of front-wheel travel is complemented by 8.66 inches at the rear, with the suspension the domain of Kayaba with chunky 46mm fully adjustable forks up front and a fully adjustable shock at the rear.
(Left) Channeling the looks of the great Cagiva Elefant will always win you a few admirers. (Right) The dash is a bit unique, to say the least.
The ride is a plush one, it must be said, and for my 200-plus pounds of fully geared-up person, I needed to crank everything up in terms of preload, front and rear compression, and rebound, to attain the kind of balance I wanted when scaling some truly incredible peaks in Aspen, Colorado.
As usual, Brembo has supplied the brakes in the dual M50 monobloc calipers we first saw way back in 2016 on bikes like the Kawasaki ZX-10R, Ducati choosing not to go ahead with the Stylema calipers that first came out on the Panigale V4. Despite this, braking power is never in question. Those M50s clamp down on twin 320mm discs and are matched to Brembo’s cornering ABS, as is the case on every production Ducati for sale right now. The rear brakes consist of a twin-piston caliper clamping down on a 245mm disc.
All loaded up with the optional soft case luggage.
The electronics are a large part of the DesertX. Controlled by a Bosch IMU and much like the KTM 890 Adventure R, the DesertX has almost every electronic bell and whistle you could hope for, including six riding modes, including the off-road-dedicated Enduro and Rally modes, four power modes of Full, High, Medium and Low; Engine Brake Control (EBC), Ducati Traction Control (DTC), Ducati Wheelie Control (DWC), Ducati Quick Shift (DQS) and three-stage cornering ABS that can be completely deactivated.
Mission control is a dash that looks much like my iPhone 13 Max. At five-inches tall, it can take a little time to get used to the layout, particularly as the current trend seems to be for wider dashes, not taller. Give it a bit of time and you’ll probably come around to it, particularly when you’re doing turn-by-turn navigation, as that’s how most people have their phones set up in their cars.
On-road manners are excellent for a bike clearly aimed at off-road.
The dash runs in either Standard or Rally—the former is more useful for the general road information you’d expect, like remaining fuel and trip info, while Rally mode focuses on the maps you’d normally read in an actual rally race. Pretty neat.
As impressive as all that tech is, it doesn’t mean much if the motorcycle itself is no good. This is not the case with the DesertX. At first sit, the DesertX’s ergonomics are ideally set up for real off-roading. Tall bars are matched to a 34.4-inch seat height, giving riders from 6’6” down to five-feet-tall whippets more than enough room to move around.
Crash bars thankfully come as standard, so you won’t scratch that beautiful pearl-white color scheme so easily.
It has a bit of an old-school feel at the handlebars, a little like the Tenere 700 in that the gas tank isn’t mounted down low like on the KTM. Interestingly, Ducati has developed an auxiliary tank that sits at the rear of the passenger seat and takes the capacity from 5.54 gallons up to 7.6 gallons and is activated by a switch on the dashboard once the level on the main tank falls below a certain level.
Getting out of town and straight onto the dirt, it’s easy to see how well adapted this engine is to the rigors of ADV riding. The overkill of the V4 Multistrada is quickly forgotten as this 11-degree Testastretta laps up rocky hill climbs as easily as the highway passes with more than enough low-down torque for the rough stuff.
Underbody protection is plentiful.
The electronics help a huge amount here. You can dial up or down as much intervention as you like in terms of traction and power maps, but I found the best performance was attained by just switching off TC and wheelie control. This hints at just how good a base model the Ducati is because you can allow it just to be a big dirt bike, the suspension lapping everything up and not getting tangled up when the electronics start to cut the power.
The DesertX is light, agile and supreme fun when you start attacking your favorite sections of dirt. This is a Ducati, after all, and leans more than just a little towards the sporty side of the riding equation. Once I had the same settings for the fork and shock as Ducati’s lead desert-racing rat, Jordan Graham, the DesertX was incredibly fun to experience. The combination of that motor, the dialed-back electronics, roomy ergos, and the dialed-in KYB suspension made for one heck of an afternoon on the Aspen snowfields that were, thankfully, devoid of snow. Slow, rocky ascents were easily tackled, likewise powering back up them.
Look where you want to go and do it. That’s the beauty of ADV riding.
In a style befitting of the great Dakar Rally Lucky Strike Cagivas of the late ’80s and early ’90s, the subsidiary then Ducati owners Claudio and Gianfranco Castiglioni also owned, the DesertX is an excellent machine for a first-timer to produce. Yes, it is certainly expensive, and you’re paying a premium for the badge on the tank, but when it looks this good and goes this good, it’s hard to argue with the price tag.CN
VIDEO | Ducati DesertX First Ride Review
2023 Ducati DesertX Specifications
| MSRP: |
$17,095 |
| Engine: |
Ducati Testastretta 11°, L-Twin cylinders |
| Valvetrain: |
Desmodromic valvetrain, 4 valves per cylinder |
| Displacement: |
937cc |
| Bore x stroke: |
94 x 67.5mm |
| Compression ratio: |
13.3:1 |
| Cooling System: |
Liquid |
| Fuel System: |
Bosch electronic fuel injection system, 53mm throttle bodies with ride-by-wire system |
| Exhaust: |
2-2-1 |
| Transmission: |
6-speed |
| Electronics: |
Riding Modes (6), Power Modes (4), Ducati Wheelie Control (DWC), Engine Brake Control (EBC), Ducati Quick Shift up/down (DQS), Cruise Control, Full LED Lighting System, Daylight Position Lamp (DRL), Ducati Brake Light (DBL), USB Power Socket, 12V Socket, Self-Canceling Indicators |
| Chassis: |
Tubular steel trellis |
| Front Suspension: |
KYB 46mm fork, fully adjustable. |
| Rear Suspension: |
KYB shock, fully-adjustable |
| Front-Wheel Travel: |
9.06 in. |
| Rear-Wheel Travel: |
8.66 in. |
| Front Brake: |
Dual M5 Monobloc, 4-piston, radially mounted caliper, 320mm disc, cornering ABS |
| Rear Brake: |
2 piston, fixed caliper, 265mm disc, cornering ABS |
| Front Tire: |
Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR 90/90 – 21 M/C 54V |
| Rear Tire: |
Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR 150/70 R18 M/C 70V |
| Rake: |
27.6° |
| Trail: |
4.8 in. |
| Wheelbase: |
63.3 in. |
| Seat Height: |
34.4 in. |
| Fuel Capacity: |
5.54 gal. |
| Weight (curb, claimed): |
492 lbs. |
| Color: |
Matte Star White Silk |
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