Big on power, design and long-distance comfort.

Ducati recently launched the latest Multistrada in the town of Gubbio, Italy. The mountains surrounding this ancient city provided the ideal backdrop to ride the 2025 Multistrada V4S, Ducati’s most tech-laden adventure tourer since its introduction.

Italians do off-road adventuring a bit differently. Although  a Lamborghini Urus is technically a 4WD SUV, you’re not likely to see one rock crawling in the Rockies. Likewise, the chances of finding a Ferrari Purosangue slinging mud off its four wheels on a hunting trip are next to nil. They are Italian; they have to be designed with flair and with a heavy dose of high performance. They are the supercar equivalents of SUVs.

Ducati has the Multistrada. It’s an adventure bike, but in typical Italian fashion, it’s the superbike of the genre. It’s big on power, and is more likely to be found carving canyons than exploring the deep Canadian woods. The refreshed 2025 Multistrada V4S, however, is much more capable when the pavement ends than either of its four-wheeled Italian cousins.

MULTISTRADA’S PAST AND PRESENT

The original Multistrada — the Pierre Terblanche-designed DS1000 — was launched in 2003. Terblanche takes credit for having designed some of the most alluring Ducatis during his 11-year tenure with the company. This includes the MH900e, the SportClassic models, the Hypermotard, and the Supermono race bike. 

He managed, however, to flub the quirky-looking DS. It was ungainly, it was tall, and it featured, shall we say, unconventional aesthetics. However, with long-travel suspension capable of handling rough roads, an upright riding position and some wind protection, the bike was more versatile than Ducati’s existing lineup, which back then consisted of only sport bikes and naked bikes. Its promise of being capable of exploring “many roads” (a literal translation of the Italian words “multi” and “strada”) introduced a multitude of non-Ducatisti to the brand.

The Multistrada took a giant leap in performance and styling in 2010, when Ducati launched the Multistrada 1200. Since the Italian company has a long racing history, it emphasised this heritage by tapping into its superbikes for power. This second-generation Multi’s 1,198 cc V-twin engine was borrowed from the 1098 supersport machine, though it was detuned to produce a modest 150 horsepower. It was the most powerful bike in its class, making almost 40 horsepower more than its closest competition. In 2020, Ducati broke the tradition of powering Multistradas exclusively with V-twin engines by introducing the V4 Grantourismo engine. It, too, borrowed from the firm’s superbikes; displacing 1,158 cc and in adventure-bike tune, it produced a whopping…