Ducati is getting into dirt bikes. Next year, Ducati will field a factory motocross team ahead of a foray into production off-road bikes. It signed nine-time motocross world champion Tony Cairoli as a development rider, and eight-time Italian champion Alessandro Lupino will ride for the factory team in 2024. In bikes, as with cars, dirt is where the action is.
So, in a way, the $17,995 DesertX is a sort of sneak preview of Ducati’s off-road future, a two-wheeled cousin to cars like the Porsche 911 Dakar and Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato (if you haven’t kept up on your corporate org charts, Ducati is part of the Audi Group). It borrows the 110-hp, 937-cc V-twin used in street bikes like the the Monster Plus and Supersport 950 and bolts it into an off-road chassis. The basic color scheme is silk white, but for an extra $500 you can get the DesertX done up in black, red and gray RR22 livery that shouts out the Audi RS Q e-tron Dakar racer. Clearly, Ducati would really like the Audi Q8 owners of the world to think of this as a companion piece in the garage.
Like its four-wheeled counterparts, the qualities that make the DesertX a hero off-road—long-travel suspension, rugged wheels and tires, big power—also make it a blast on the street. The DesertX is a bike that you aim at the potholes just for kicks, with an upright riding position that’s all-day comfortable. This thing is built to rack up a lot of miles—maintenance intervals are scheduled more than 9000 miles apart.
The DesertX’s knobby Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR tires look the part and ride on spoked wheels, 21 inches at the front and 18 inches at the rear. (A variety of other tires is available, but that’s the default rubber.) The KYB suspension uses an inverted front fork that’s adjustable for preload, compression, and rebound, and has 9.1 inches of travel. The equally adjustable rear suspension delivers 8.7 inches of travel. All this limberness and 9.8 inches of ground clearance adds up to a giraffe of a bike, with a 34.4-inch seat height in the standard setting. If you’re six feet tall and long of limb, you can probably get your feet down flat, but anyone shorter will be up on tippy-toes at a stop. Ducati is obviously aware of this conundrum since it offers both a lower seat and lowered suspension as options, but even combining both of those only reduces the seat height to 33.3 inches. Fortunately, first gear is so short that you can putter along at a walking pace without putting a foot down, sort of like you’re riding the world’s biggest trials bike.
PIRELLI SCORPION RALLY TIRES ARE STANDARD, BUT PLENTY OF OTHER OPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE.
There are six ride modes, with four for pavement and two for dirt. The pavement modes include Sport, Touring, Urban and Wet. Touring mode drops output to 95 horsepower, and Urban mode brings it down to 75 horses, in both cases with an attendant rise in rider-assist intervention. Enduro riding mode likewise cuts output to 75 horsepower, which Ducati says “facilitates riding for novice riders”—although if you’re a novice rider somewhere out in the Kalahari atop a 937-cc Ducati, you’ve made some unwise life decisions.
Enduro mode’s evil counterpart is Rally mode, which unleashes full power and subdues the nannies. The anti-lock-brake system can also be tailored to just about any situation and rider ability, from full-on to completely off, or even just active on the front wheel only to enable rear-end slides. In addition to all that, there are eight individual settings for traction control, four for wheelie control, and three for engine braking. And you can activate or disable the Ducati quick-shift system, which allows clutchless shifts without backing off the throttle. Got all that?
Given the nature of the Testastretta engine’s power delivery, the easy way to limit horsepower is to simply keep the revs low. Attaining peak horsepower requires a trip to 9250 rpm, and the peak 68 pound-foot of torque arrives at 6500 rpm. This engine enjoys rpm, and sometimes you’ll hear it lugging and think you’re about to stall but then see the tach sitting at 3000 rpm. It’s a little bit grouchy at only 3000 rpm, the DesertX. But it’s so smooth as it approaches redline—and it’s still pulling so hard—that it’s easy to blunder into the rev limiter before you’re attuned to the sonic signature of 9000 rpm.
A side effect of that high-rpm entertainment is that you can watch predicted range drop in a hurry if you’re indulgent with the throttle. Good thing for the big, 5.5-gallon fuel tank that can be plumbed to a rear-mounted 2.1-gallon accessory tank. If you need to find your way to the nearest gas station—or unpaved road—the five-inch touchscreen display can be paired to a phone for optional turn-by-turn navigation.
WHAT’s an italian speed demon without some gratuitous carbon fiber?
In a way, Ducati is working backward with the DesertX: This is the bike you get when you’ve ridden dirt your entire life and want to cover vast unpaved distances at high speed, but the company is just getting around to building the ladder that leads to a machine like this. Buried near the end of Ducati’s motocross announcement is a telling line: “New young motorcyclists will be able to get close to the Borgo Panigale brand and thus enter the large community of Ducatisti.” In other words, kids can’t ride street-legal motorcycles, but they can ride dirt bikes. Cultivate brand loyalty early, and the 250-cc dirt bike you sell today might lead to a DesertX in some distant tomorrow.
A TEASER OF DUCATIS TO COME.
Specifications
Specifications
2024 Ducati DesertX
Vehicle Type: mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 0-door motorcycle
PRICE
Base: $17,995
ENGINE
DOHC 8-valve V-twin, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection
Displacement: 57 in3, 937 cm3
Power: 110 hp @ 9250 rpm
Torque: 68 lb-ft @ 6500 rpm
TRANSMISSION
6-speed manual
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 63.3 in
Length: 94.1 in
Width: 37.8 in
Height: 56.1 in
Curb Weight (C/D est): 500 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST)
60 mph: 3.6 sec
100 mph: 8.6 sec
1/4-Mile: 11.8 sec
Top Speed: 135 mph
Senior Editor
Ezra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He’s now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive.