Here’s The Ducati DesertX Rally

[advrider]

Ducati has followed through on its hype campaign with the release of the DesertX Rally. While Ducati is fairly new to the idea of building dirt-oriented ADVs, they appear to be going all-in, adding trick suspension and tough wheels to the already-impressive DesertX platform.

New fork and shock

From a performance perspective, the most important new feature is a fork and shock built by Kayaba. The closed-cartridge fork is adjustable for rebound and compression, and has 250 mm of travel. That’s 20 mm more travel than the standard DesertX. The shock also gains 20 mm of travel, for 240 mm total. It is fully adjustable, and Kayaba used a large 46 mm piston in the internal hydraulics to better control the fluid when taking a beating off-road.

Ducati had to put a new mounting point on the swingarm to fit the new shock.

Other new parts

As soon as you upgrade one part to make for better performance in the dirt, you’ve got to consider if the rest of the bike can handle the beating. Ducati reckoned it was smart to upgrade the DesertX’s wheels, so we now see a set of aluminum hubs, steel spokes and Takasago Excel rims. Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR tires are standard.

To help stabilize the machine, there’s also a new Ohlins steering damper directly mounted to the handlebars to settle the front end down, offering a more stable off-road ride. Ducati also put a high-mount front fender on the bike so mud and junk doesn’t get stuck there when you’re off-pavement.

The DesertX Rally also gets a red/white/gray paint job that commemorates the Ducati’s performance at the Erzbergrodeo this year.

The base bike

Of course, most of the machine is the standard DesertX. Same 110-horsepower 937cc Testastretta L-twin engine. The frame is the same, the electronics package. Same Sport, Touring, Urban, Wet, Enduro and Rally riding modes.  For an overview of how the base model runs, see Costa’s review here. Maybe we’ll have the DesertX Rally in for a review once test ride season gets underway for 2024.

 

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