2023–2025 · Adventure · Buyer's Guide
The Superbike That Tours
The Multistrada V4 Rally builds a genuine continent-tourer around the 1158 cc V4 Granturismo, 170 hp at the crank and 89 lb-ft underneath it, wrapped in Ducati Skyhook Suspension with 7.9 in of travel at both ends and a 7.9 gal tank sized for real distance. The clever part is the reversed crankshaft. It spins opposite the wheels and cancels enough gyroscopic force that this heavyweight tips into a corner like something far lighter. Automatic rear-cylinder deactivation trims heat and fuel at low speed. This is Ducati's answer for riders who cover countries, not weekends.
On the road it carries a superbike's engine with a tourer's reach, planted and composed when you load it with luggage and a passenger and point it at a mountain pass. It suits the rider who measures trips in countries and touches gravel without chasing hardcore off-road lines. Two honest cautions come with it. The V4 wants revs, so lugging it in a tall gear in low-rpm traffic feels coarse, and the sweet spot sits higher than most loaded adventure bikes. At 573 lb wet with a 34.3 in seat, it also asks for confidence at walking pace before it rewards you everywhere else.
Spec sheets don't ride bikes, but they set the baseline.
| Power | 170 hp (125 kW) @ 10,750 rpm |
|---|---|
| Torque | 89 lb-ft (121 Nm) @ 8,750 rpm |
| Displacement | 1158 cc |
| Engine | V4 |
| Cooling | Liquid-cooled |
| Gearbox | 6-speed |
| Final drive | Chain |
| Front tire | 120/70 R19 |
| Rear tire | 170/60 R17 |
| Wheelbase | 61.9 in (1572 mm) |
| Ground clearance | 9.3 in (235 mm) |
| Front travel | 7.9 in (200 mm) |
| Rear travel | 7.9 in (200 mm) |
| Seat height | 34.3 in (870 mm) |
| Wet weight | 573 lb (260 kg) |
| Fuel capacity | 7.9 gal (30 L) |
| Fuel economy | 36 mpg (US) |
Equipment check
Chassis
Comfort
Connectivity
Drivetrain
Lighting
Safety
The named systems that set this bike apart — and what each one does for you.
Braking
Rider aids
Fire it up and the V4 has presence in its voice, a hard-edged character the touring bodywork never quite muffles. Out on the Sardinian gravel I ran it loaded with panniers, and a few taps through the suspension menu turned the ride from firm to genuinely plush. It soaked the loose surface and stayed settled instead of getting flustered. The Rally seat is a real step up for both rider and pillion on a long day, and the old gripe about heat cooking your inner thighs is meaningfully calmed by the rear bank shutting down in traffic. The electronics work away in the background without ever barging into what your hands are doing. Where it gets serious is slow, tight maneuvering, where the mass and tall seat keep you honest until momentum arrives.
My own 0–100 score for this bike against the class, area by area — the marker on each bar is the class average.
The V4 keeps its identity despite everything the touring build hangs on it, the long-travel suspension and big alloy tank included, and it still pulls with real appeal. My caveat is that its best work sits well up the tachometer. Ask it to lug from near-idle in a high gear and it goes coarse, and the deeper into that zone you push, the rougher its answer. At crawling speed the rear cylinder bank switches itself off, which pares back the old under-seat heat while throttle response stays clean.
The thing that matters most here is how little the weight shows up when I change direction. Credit the reversed crankshaft, spinning against the wheels and canceling a chunk of the gyroscopic resistance that would otherwise fight a lean. Load it with panniers, aim it into a bend, and it falls in with an ease the mass has no business allowing. Out on real mountain roads in Sardinia, fully packed, it held its line and felt properly resolved from the chassis up, not propped together by electronics doing overtime.
The stopping hardware matches the bike's premium billing rather than chasing a price. Up front sit Brembo Stylema calipers paired with large-diameter rotors, top-shelf kit for a machine positioned this way. You can feel that grade straight through the lever, a strong and precise response that reassures the instant you reach for it. Nothing about the setup suggests a shortcut was taken anywhere.
Comfort here comes down to how you set it up rather than a single baked-in character. The electronic suspension is the real story: step through the modes and the bike genuinely re-tunes itself, from a taut sport feel to a soft, absorptive one that copes with a beaten-up road. Riding the loose gravel in Sardinia showed me the friendly end of that range, where it stayed level and unbothered underneath me. The Rally hardware and seat also add up over a long day, and the relief registers for rider and pillion alike. Where I have to be honest is at low speed. The tall standard seat paired with a fully packed bike makes slow maneuvers tense, and you want a plan before you commit to one. The preload-drop function looks tailor-made for shorter legs, yet the height it actually surrenders is modest, and the optional lower seat does considerably more of the work.
What stands out here is restraint. The rider aids run the entire time I'm moving, but the calibration is fine enough that I never feel them step in, no sudden grab or jolt to pull me off my line. That quietness is the point. When the surface got sketchy I could lean on the bike and get nothing back but confidence, with none of the reminders that clumsier systems throw at you when they intervene.
A short test can't tell you how a bike holds up over the years, so I'll stick to the one honest figure I actually gathered. Across our riding group in Sardinia, fuel consumption settled at a level that's genuinely fair given how much power this engine makes and how much weight it hauls. That says nothing about long-term durability, but it does point to running costs staying sensible rather than punishing at the pump.
Two details grate on a machine meant for distance. The redesigned vented phone slot is a step forward, but drop a large handset in a protective case into it and there's no clearance left to seat the charging cable, which stings on a bike where the phone runs navigation for days on end. The keyless system also stops at the ignition. Every time I want into a side case I'm digging the physical key back out of my pocket, and that repeats all day on a tour.
None of this comes from a single ride. It's the sum of what riders have told me over the years: messages that land in my inbox, conversations in the pits that run long, the back-and-forth owners keep going well after the sale. Stack those voices and the Rally reads the same way each time. It's a bike people trust for serious mileage, prized most for its motor and its all-day comfort, nagged by a few electronic quirks and cockpit oversights.
The engine takes top billing. Owners keep describing a V4 that pulls cleanly from low in the rev range before it hardens into a real top-end howl, and they point to the unusually long interval between valve-clearance checks again and again as a sign upkeep stays cheap. Trust runs into the finish too. People report the bodywork and paint holding their shine through thousands of hard miles. The touring side draws steady approval. The big tank stretches the distance between fills, the seat suits short and tall riders alike with a passenger perch owners rank among the best in the class, and the adaptive damping reads the road and settles once weight rides over the rear. The wider set of rider aids gets credit for doing its job without ever making a fuss.
The loudest complaint is the fuel gauge. Riders say the range readout tumbles toward empty long before the tank actually needs filling, which leaves the low-fuel warning hard to take at face value. Heat comes up nearly as often. In hot, stop-and-go traffic the seat still warms the rider's inner thighs even with the rear cylinders dropping out, and the deflector flaps only take the edge off. The headlight draws regular fire for aiming too high, and the cornering lamps get called near useless, bothering oncoming traffic more than they help the rider. On bikes carrying the optional radar cruise, some owners find it eases the throttle in a way that unsettles them near slower vehicles, note it can miss a small van, and want it recalibrated after a knock or a dirty sensor cover. Two smaller misses round it out: the cockpit phone slot stays too tight for a modern handset and its cable, and the traction control feels intrusive to experienced riders even at its gentlest street setting.
LED main beam aims too high; cornering lights ineffective
LED main beam illuminates road too close and not far enough forward. Cornering lights are described as "pretty useless" and as disturbing oncoming traffic rather than improving rider visibility. Constant design issue, not mileage-dependent.
Rear wheel bearing vulnerable to water intrusion
Rear wheel bearings on the V4 Granturismo platform are vulnerable to water intrusion, particularly under pressure-washer use or wet-condition heavy use. The sibling V4 S has seen rear bearings flood and seize at approximately 50,000 km in extended use (also damaging the rim). Ducati introduced revised water-tight spacer sleeves; later replacements use the updated parts. Independent owner reports on V4 / V4 Rally describe failures as early as approximately 4,000 mi. No public statement that Ducati has redesigned the bearing system specifically for the Rally.
Range-to-empty estimator drops disproportionately fast
The 30-litre tank's last several litres are not represented well by the gauge. Multiple owners report the dash showing near-empty while refills only take approx. 19 litres, leaving an effective ≈11 L "phantom reserve" that never triggers the warning at the right moment.
Intermittent quickshifter glitches on certain gear transitions
Owners report intermittent quickshifter glitches, most often on 3→4 upshifts. Ducati issued software flash CR267 / SRV-TSB-24-004 (15 February 2024) to refine quickshifter calibration on Multistrada V4 STD/S/PP MY2021–2024. Rally inclusion confirmed via owner forum reports of the same dealer flash. Some users report improvement after the flash; others report the issue returning after extended idle periods.
ACC throttle backoff hesitation and unexpected downshifts
Adaptive Cruise Control backs off the throttle abruptly when approaching slower vehicles; downshifts during cornering can produce unexpected acceleration. Sensors fail to recognise small white vans reliably. Front radar requires recalibration after any fairing knock or radar-cover dirt. Riders adapt to the behaviour, but it is consistently flagged as a "live with it" trait, not a recall-grade defect.
Seat heating from rear cylinder bank in hot-weather stop-and-go traffic
Despite the rear-cylinder deactivation system, the seat directly above the rear cylinder bank becomes uncomfortably hot for the rider's inner thighs during summer slow-speed riding. The Rally's air-deflector flaps reduce but do not eliminate the heat path. Documented platform characteristic of the V4 Granturismo, not a defect.
Where this Ducati Multistrada V4 Rally pulls ahead of — or falls behind — its rivals on the numbers, and the typical bike in its class on character.
Power
Torque
Displacement
Wet weight
Seat height
Forget spec-sheet bragging. Here's who the Multistrada V4 Rally is actually built for.
You chase hard technical lines, and this isn't a light tool for them. It hides its 573 lb better than any bike this heavy should, but on real slickrock the mass and 34.3 in seat set your ceiling.
Made for Bar M / Kane Creek · Imperial Sand Dunes · Johnson Valley OHV Area
This is your lane. Skyhook flips from plush to sharp for the twisties, the brakes are honest, and the Rally seat keeps you and a passenger fresh across 300-mile days of good road.
Made for Black Hills · Blue Ridge Parkway · Cherohala Skyway
Built for exactly this. The 7.9 gal tank stretches the gaps between stops and the Rally comfort tune holds up two-up and loaded, as long as you respect the weight at low speed.
Made for Beartooth Highway · Blue Ridge Parkway · Going-to-the-Sun Road
If this one isn't quite the fit, these are the bikes worth riding back-to-back against it.
Any price note compares both bikes at the same age — the youngest age both have on the used market — against this Ducati Multistrada V4 Rally. “cheaper/pricier” is what that bike costs second-hand, not how worn it is.
