TESTED: Ducati DesertX Rally

Bruce Wilson hits the deep, sandy stuff to see whether Ducati’s latest adventure bike should be on your wish list. 

It’s not every day I wipe blood from my lips, dirt from my eyes, and arch my back in agony. Then again, it’s not every day I return from hitting the desert on a 211 kilo, 110bhp pukka adventure bike, having had two days of utter off-roading extravagance. When the invite for Ducati’s DesertX Rally landed in my inbox, I was expecting good things but couldn’t have imagined the dirt-fuelled delights I’d indulge in crossing the Atlas Mountains and camping out among the camels.

It’s time admit that I’d never so much as sat on the road-inclined DesertX that was to form the core for the more ‘go anywhere, do anything’ Rally-spec machine that saw a solid handful of enhancements over its base model brethren. New forks, a new shock, and a whopping 910mm seat height weren’t the only features to join the party, made all the more utilitarian with an added skid pan, enhanced off-road electronic algorithms, and tubed tyres on lighter Excel rims. You’re probably starting to get the picture, but to hammer its off-road focus home, Ducati took things that bit further with a tall mounted front fender, MX-style graphics, and a cockpit mount above the vertically-placed 5in TFT dash to mimic the style and purposefulness of the kind of bike you see hitting the Dakar. Of course, with a 937cc V-twin motor and more torque than a small car, this thing promised to be nothing like the featherweight singles you see bounding through the desert, but that’s not to say it wouldn’t have the minerals to tackle 400km of unforgiving, unruly, and unrelenting trails in a place so arid not even weeds want to grow there. 

But before any such antics could get underway, first we had to leave the hospitable shelter of our five-star hotel, dodging tractors, trucks, and the maddest of scooter riders, swarming the streets of Marrakesh and the surrounding suburbs. The Ducati, with its lofty riding position and punchy motor, made light work of that first stretch, winning me over quickly with its comfy riding position and impressive agility, despite being kitted out with off-road inclined Pirelli Scorpion Rally rubber. 

Out of the traffic and on to the trails, the fun level cranked up – highlighted by the ever-growing dust clouds that only became thicker and higher as our confidence grew and the pace upped. My first impressions were that of a bike well-suited to the lighter-going kind of track we were tackling, interspersed with the odd pothole and drainage channel that doubled up as a plinth to get the Ducati airborne. 

Big rocks, sheer drops and unpredictable gulleys kept me on my toes, bouncing the living daylights out of my bones as I stood tall on the pegs, gripping the sturdy, broad bars for all they were worth. As much as I tried to read the ever-winding trail ahead, the dust was so thick it was often too late to change line or react before my bike’s 21in front wheel was taking the terrain on the chin, giving a workout to my heart rate and the plush-feeling KYB closed cartridge forks. 

The going was tough, the pace was quick, and the sound of the Ducati’s booming exhaust note was making me feel all funny inside. There was a lot to like about the V-twin, especially with the bike set in rally mode, the traction on level one, and the delivery in dynamic. The thing was a beast, pumping out ponies like the consummate powerhouse. But what else was I to expect from a motor that boasts a tasty 92Nm of torque? 

In rally mode, the rear ABS was completely disconnected, and the front’s tech intrusion was all but void. The bike’s powerful Brembo monoblocs did an ace job of hauling the bike up, offering good feel when doing so, but the finesse required when weaning down the pace on the loose stuff was something an algorithm could not predict. 

By this point in the ride, I’d not messed around overly with the bike’s electronics, feeling relatively content with the rally mode’s potency and the security of the TC that came with it. Talking to one of the other journos, who was the fastest in our group, he suggested I switched to enduro mode, keeping the power up at full but changing the throttle map from ‘dynamic’ to ‘smooth’. That kind of figured, but his suggestion to completely disengage the traction did make me question whether he was just wanting to see me crash. At that point, the trails had never felt more treacherous, so the idea of losing that bit of safety net made me think long and hard… for all of two seconds. In for a penny, in for a pound. It was mind-blowing to grasp how different this bike now felt, and I only wish I’d gone down this route sooner. For the next few hours, I found a new level of adoration for the big Ducati. I’m all for big power and big throttle, but on this kind of ride the smoother you were, the faster you went. It’s clear that Ducati’s tried to do its own thing with this steed, building on the firm foundations of a wannabe dirt devil (DesertX) and spec’ing it so well that it has become an actual fiend in this field. That feat alone is impressive – but it’s at a price. If it floats your boat, you’ll probably have to look long and hard down the back of a few sofas for a figure so high it makes the seat seem low. At £18,995 it ain’t cheap, but if you want to see the world, and be able to tackle pretty much whatever comes your way, there are much worse travel companions out there. 

WORDS: Bruce Wilson / PHOTOS:  Dangerous / AlexPhoto/Ducati