GERMAN motorcycle website, Motorrad, has claimed that a Ducati Multistrada (MTS) has been spotted testing on the roads around the Borgo Panigale factory. The bike is said to have been getting tested for a year and a half around the factory in Bologna.
Motorrad also claims that the silhouette of the bike is very similar to the current bike – although they sadly include no pictures – but includes a host of innovative features and safety devices not seen on an MTS before.
Top of the list of safety features is Ducati’s Advanced Rider Assistance System (ARAS) which includes radar sensors apparently showing on the front and rear the bike. The system is designed to highlight vehicles in the riders blindspot and warn of slow-moving traffic in front of the rider. The system allows the bike to map out the environment around it warning the rider through visual or audio warnings. The system could also be used to maintain the distance of the bike from a vehicle in front when using cruise control – although there is no mention of this feature from the factory.
As we have no official word from Ducati on this, we can only guess what the bike’s final spec to be, but a power output of 170bhp or more is clearly on the cards should the rumours be true. One thing that isn’t clear is the price, Ducati’s current top-of-the-range MTS, the Pikes Peak, comes in at £21,000, with a base model coming in at £14,000 – it’s fairly safe to assume the new machine’s standard variation will fall somewhere in the middle.
With the factory now making a streetfighter based around the V4 engine and now the news that a new MTS could also be on the way, are we about to see the demise of the V2 from the Ducati range, or is there a place for the old layout in the global motorcycle market?
