The V4 Rally’s ergonomics, driveline and handling make it an easy bike to live with.

Remember the good old days when motorcycle brands had specialties? Kawasakis were a little mad (okay, a lot mad), Hondas were reliable, BMWs were the tourers and Ducatis were eccentric — that should be read “unreliable” — but beautiful, fast and, well, a little cranky. There was surprisingly little overlap which meant that, if you were shopping a specific kind of motorcycle, the choices were obvious.

I, for instance, owned various versions of the first three. A Kawi Mach III 500-cc triple two-stroke that was as barking mad as reputed. I also owned both a BMW R75/5 and, later, an R1100RS, both bought — no surprise here — for long-distance touring. I also rode a whole slew of Hondas for when I got sick and tired of being left stranded by the aforementioned two. 

Oh, there were exceptions: An astonishingly reliable Laverda RGS1000 is to be found somewhere in my collection of old motorcycling memories, an Italian succubus that stole my heart for 97,000 surprisingly dependable, but extremely quirky, kilometres. As for Ducati, well, their impossibly contorted riding positions, exhausting maintenance requirements (I’m thinking desmodromic valve actuation here) and always-questionable build quality meant I never got around to parking anything from Borgo Panigale in my garage. 

NOW A DESIRABLE MACHINE

So imagine my surprise in determining that the reason I now lust after the company’s Multistrada V4 Rally is a result of the very reasons I avoided them previously. To wit: Ducati now has the most sophisticated adaptive cruise control system in motorcycling. And, by sophisticated I mean that the Italian adventure tourer’s radar-controlled cruise control fairly emulates how you and I ride in almost every situation. It slows down at the appropriate time. Not too late, not too soon. More importantly — because this is where other systems, like BMW’s, fall down — it speeds up at the appropriate time and rate as well. 

Unlike the Beemer system which, in a passing situation, waits until you’ve completely cleared the current lane before speeding up, the Duke system feels more natural, accelerating sooner in anticipation that you’ll have a clear road ahead. It’ll even keep cruise controlling when you up — or down! — shift through the gears. I liked it so much, I used it pretty much constantly on the highway, something I’ve never done with any comparable adaptive system. 

ASTONISHING LINEAR POWER

Then there’s the engine. Now, for most the attraction of its 1,158-cc arranged in a compact(ish) V4, would be its…