It’s ironic that the original Ducati Multistrada, a motorcycle named and designed for many roads, was in fact built for a single road. The Futa Pass, a serpentine route connecting Bologna and Florence through the Apennine Mountains, is no major thoroughfare. Yet Ducati looked at it as the strada writ small. In the Futa’s cracked asphalt and hairpin turns it saw the roads of the world.
It seems like part of the Italian character to focus on what’s close to home. Yet by concentrating on the local and the specific, it gives itself to the world by making things which are at once both self-assuredly Italian and universally resonant. Consider the delicacies of Ducati’s home region of Emilia-Romagna; the best parmesan in the world is made using milk from the Bianca Modenese cows of the Po River Valley, while prized prosciutto di Parma comes from a single native breed of pig whose authenticity is ensured through rigorous genetic testing.
If local flavor is part of the original Multistrada’s renown, what can we make of the latest Multistrada? Because Ducati is quite clear: Merely representing the Futa Pass is not enough for the 2021 Multistrada V4. The new Multi, the company says, is designed “to dominate all roads.” To legitimize this claim, Ducati points out the Multistrada V4 can circumnavigate the globe one and a half times (or 37,300 miles) before needing a major service. However, to achieve this feat, Ducati ditched its signature desmodromic valves for conventional valve springs. This is perhaps the Ducatisti’s equivalent of making carbonara with mere bacon instead of proper pork-jowl guinciale.
