2024 Ducati DesertX Rally First Ride Review

[MotoNews]

Published in: Bikes

The New Titan of Rally

Is the ADV world ready for a race-spec 110 hp Ducati rally motorcycle? We travel to Morocco to find out.

Marked by a streak of dust left along the barren landscape outside Marrakech, a twin-cylinder Ducati roars as a lone rider blasts across the rocky expanse. He heads toward the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, where he’ll spend the coming days navigating through Africa's longest mountain range. A romantic scene from the past, with a Dakar racer behind the handlebars? No, it’s in the modern day, with Antoine Meo test-riding the all-new Ducati DesertX Rally.

The face of rally-raid has changed substantially over the last three decades, with bikes getting smaller as organizers try to slow speeds down, for the sake of safety. The Dakar Rally itself has strayed to different continents. But the adventure bike segment is creeping back to the gilded age of rally racing, and competition-focused multi-cylinder motorcycles, with KTM currently leading the way. However, with only two years in the middleweight adventure market, Ducati has wasted little time bringing the DesertX into competitive territory, introducing the all-new 2024 DesertX Rally. Ducati styled this race-ready V-twin in the spirit of ’90s rally racing and invited us to Morocco, the stomping grounds of the original Titans of Rally, to meet this new generation of big-bore racer.

The framework is provided by the base model DesertX introduced in 2022. Powered by the same 937cc 11° L-twin Testastretta motor, the DesertX Rally churns out big power at a class-leading 110 hp and 68 lb.-ft. torque. The only minor changes from the base DesertX are the gear ratios in first and second, which are slightly lower for tackling technical terrain.

The major changes to the Rally are in the chassis department, most notably the all-new suspension from KYB. The 48mm closed-cartridge KYB fork comes directly from the motocross realm, complete with the Kashima coating on the upper internals and DLC coating on the lower tubes for ultra-smooth action. This fork is, of course, beefed up quite a bit to manage 9.84 inches (250mm) of travel on a nearly 500-lb. motorcycle. Ducati was keen to point out that this factory-supplied closed-cartridge fork is an industry first for a road-going motorcycle.

Speaking of weight, Ducati mentioned in passing that the DesertX Rally actually gains only two kilos over the base model, 4.4 lb. over the 492-lb. wet weight, putting the Rally at 496.4 lb. She’s a big girl, but as we say time and again, it’s the trail weight, not the scale weight, that truly matters. More on that below.

More chassis fortification comes in the form of a sleek carbon-fiber skid plate that fits high and tight, providing a sturdy ceiling for 11 inches of ground clearance. It almost looks like an aftermarket accessory, as do the aluminum machined foot controls, but it’s all standard fitment on this premium model. The high front fender gives the front end a moto-look, and if it weren’t for the superbike front brake (dual 320mm disc with Brembo four-piston calipers) you might call the front end lifted entirely from motocross. And for anyone wishing to mount the low front fender of the DesertX, this is still possible.

The fuel tank carries 5.5 gallons (21L), the same as the base model, but its bodywork is revised for a sportier look. Solid plastics with inlaid graphics instead of paint mean that scratches are less visible, and replacements are less expensive.

Out back, the shock is also KYB, beefier than the base model KYB, and tuned for sport performance. It is fully adjustable with high- and low-speed compression, rebound and a remote spring preload knob. Handling is further polished by an Öhlins steering damper, easy to adjust on the fly.

Heavy-duty tubed wheels are 21 inches front and 18 inches rear. The stock rubber is Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR. However, our test mounts in Morocco were shod with the more off-road-oriented Scorpion Rally tread.

Onboard electronics are displayed in a vertical dash unit. An aluminum utility bar sits overhead, ready for mounting your rally navigating accessory of choice. A 12V socket and a USB port offer accessory charging. The electronics suite contains just about every Ducati whiz-bang you could hope for: six ride modes, four power modes, Engine Brake Control (EBC), Cornering ABS, cruise control, Ducati Brake Light (DBL), Ducati Quick Shifter (DQS), Ducati Traction Control (DTC), Ducati Wheelie Control (DWC) and self-canceling turn signals.

Now that we have that out of the way let’s talk about the ride.

• We Could, But Should We?

 I’ll get right to it and say that Ducati is setting a new standard for enduro performance from an ADV bike. What business does a big V-twin have in the dirt? Little to none would have been my answer only a few years ago. But now, I stand agape at what I was just able to do in the Moroccan desert aboard this Italian beauty. It’s nothing short of an engineering masterstroke to make a 110-hp, 500-lb., 937cc twin handle like a 450 dual-sport bike—which it does, by the way. And whether or not that’s even a good idea is potentially up for debate. Even more surprising is to see this giant leap in off-road performance from a road racing company. How did Ducati get here so quickly?

Five-time enduro world champion Antoine Meo is helping the firm find its way off the tarmac and into the dirt. Meo was on hand at the Moroccan launch to explain more about his role in developing the DesertX Rally. “The DesertX [project] was a lot of pressure. [It’s Ducati’s] first real off-road bike, a new customer, so it was very important,” said Meo. “The engineers at Ducati had a lot of confidence in me; that’s sometimes difficult because I have a strange idea, but they gave me their 100% confidence and were all the time asking my opinion on choices. It was very cool.”

One of his “strange ideas” was the KYB closed-cartridge fork, a deviation for a road motorcycle, but standard equipment for off-road performance. Another point Meo emphasized during development was making the big Testastretta power manageable enough for the dirt.

“The spirit of Ducati is about power, performance, and adrenaline,” said Meo. “And I say we cannot make the most engine power for off-road, because it’s so difficult to manage. We need to have a strong engine, sure, but easy to manage.”

That manageability comes not only from the engine characteristics but from the chassis since pushing the limits of 500-lb. motorcycles in the dirt can (and historically did) have disastrous consequences in elite racing. It’s in this area that Meo thinks we have come a long way in the past 25 years. “I think we are a lot better now because the chassis is really good. The bikes are very easy to ride.”

• Throttle Twisting

But don’t let the word “manageable” fool you into thinking the DesertX Rally is nothing less than a filthy animal in the dirt. The Testastrettal L-twin engine pours on gobs of useable torque in a manner not quite as silky smooth as a parallel twin, but more of a rumble that puts a great ground-gripping pulse of traction on the ground —and I loved it. Try out Enduro mode for a slightly more sensible ride off-road (if this bike is capable of delicate sensibility) and Rally mode if you want to throw up a wall of dust that takes days to settle.

Both modes will shut off rear ABS and reduce front ABS to a minimum (Rally mode with lesser intrusion). Front ABS is never off completely—probably a good idea when you have a motocross front end with a superbike front brake. Grab a handful in a panic moment, and you might roll yourself into a complete somersault without ABS.

Both Rally and Enduro modes will also maintain a touch of TC (again, less in Rally mode), and help keep the dirt underneath you, a welcome safety net when you’re pushing the limits off-road. Enduro will keep things a bit tamer, but Rally mode will allow plenty of silliness in the dirt, drifting and sliding with the rear able to come around pretty far before TC cuts in.

Getting up to speed on the DesertX Rally is a beautiful thing. Simply point and shoot, and the KYB suspension floats across rough road like a magic carpet ride. Even through the desert dust, it was easy to hold the throttle on since it didn’t matter much where you put your wheels. I quickly learned that small rocks, ruts, and bumps were no match for this combination of weight and stability. Any hits big enough to send a kick to the front end are quickly managed by the steering damper, which brought things back online without any tank-slappy behavior like some mid-weight ADV bikes can tend to have.

As for the tradeoff with handling agility… what tradeoff? Prepare to be amazed at how well the front wheel sticks into turns, and how obediently the rear will follow.

We found ourselves making some tight maneuvers through slick hardpack, through rocky sections, and through sand washes. In all cases, the handling character was nothing short of excellent. Learn to trust the bike, and it will allow you to make quick decisions and sharp maneuvers; it will stick to off-cambers, carve into loose turns, and stay balanced over golf-ball-size rocks without a fuss. Get into the rocks, and the ability to pick lines is aided by the high and tight ground clearance.

But finding this trust is easier said than done since the first thing you’ll notice upon swinging a leg over the DesertX Rally is its height and relative top-heaviness. Seat height is 35.8 inches—not towering—but perhaps the seat width makes the reach to the ground a bit of a stretch. At 55-foot-8 with a 31-inch inseam, I could get one foot on the ground, but getting the kickstand up was a problem.

Once underway, any size concerns will quickly melt away, especially as speeds climb. Stand up and set sail, and you’ll find the DesertX Rally feeling slim and lightweight at your fingertips. If you’re a dirt bike rider, you’ll find yourself in familiar territory. In fact, it’s easy to forget you’re on an ADV bike at all, as it feels and behaves very much like a dual-sport, only with even better stability. A bike half the weight might be more easily flung to the ground by an errant strike on a fast dirt road, and this is where I could really put my trust into the DesertX Rally. It will bowl over potholes, square edges, rocks jutting out of blown-out roads like they’re not even there, allowing me to keep accelerating through the wafting walls of dust from the bikes in front of me. Was it the best idea? Probably not. But it was damn fun.

The only feature able to upset the DesertX Rally is a G-out or ditch. At one point, we were surprised by a drainage ditch across a road, no more than three feet across, and this was enough to bottom the shock—the only time I bottomed it. I can’t say I came close to bottoming the fork, which suggests I probably could have softened it a little for my lighter weight.

And how does it handle on the road? It’s a Ducati. Enough said?

In truth, we didn’t spend a whole lot of time on the tarmac, and the little we did was more broken asphalt, or pavement patched with gravel. It didn’t give us much of a chance to challenge the DesertX Rally’s road prowess, but slow, tight, and twisting switchbacks through some of the small towns outside Marrakech gave us a taste of getting the Desert X dipped into turns. With such high ground clearance and long-travel suspension, it’s tall and, yes, top-heavy. Add in the 21-inch front wheel, and it’s more of a task to get it cranked over, but when it does lean in, there’s plenty of space and excellent grip—not just from the tires, but once again from the stable chassis. The suspension may be essentially motocross-derived, but it’s still a Ducati, and the road-handling clout was not overlooked. However, if you’re looking for sport performance on the road, look elsewhere. The DesertX Rally belongs in the dirt. And for how good it is, it deserves to be.

Among my few complaints was the gear spacing, as I felt the jump from second to third was too tall. First and second are lower than the base model DesertX for better control in technical terrain, but I might have preferred them to redesign first through third, as the jump to third was a little tall. First is pretty low, and I found I rarely used it. When I did it felt too snatchy, and I preferred to lug it in second gear, even accelerating from single-digit speeds out of technical turns. With so much torque on tap and a wide spread of power, it’s very forgiving, but I’d still prefer to be in a more comfortable gear.

The QuickShifter is also something that could use some ironing out. It was a bit chunky at low speeds and proved to work best and smoothest at higher speeds and harder acceleration. Even at its smoothest, shifting gears provide you with a positive feel, no question whether you hit the shifter, and no need to stomp on it. Sometimes, when things are bucking around at speed, it’s good to have that positive feel so there’s no question you’re in the gear you want.

The rear brake is nice. It’s not as powerful and grabby as the front, but very progressive, making it easy to slide around and feel in control. And not just in control but giggling like an idiot and riding like a hooligan. The tip of the factory-looking billet aluminum brake pedal does a neat trick, too. You can modulate the position for a preferred feel, taller or shorter. It’s a big enough difference, too, especially because it has quite a bit of throw before you’re locking it up.

The user interface on the dash was another common area of complaint. I did not play around with the electronics much, mostly because it was pretty difficult to navigate. The UX could be easier to navigate, in my opinion. The display itself is nice, and I like the vertical screen. The screen surface could use some help in the dust—a dust-repellant coating would certainly make sense on a desert motorcycle.

My minor complaints hardly put a dent in the glowing review of the DesertX Rally. Kudos to Ducati for the outstanding venture into the ultra-competitive middleweight ADV category. They’ve not only reached the elite level right out of the gate but have kicked in the door to the race-ready multi-cylinder adventure bike class, where there was previously only one model, KTM’s limited run 890 R Rally. Only three years into the category Ducati is daring us to redefine rally competition. Perhaps it’s because Ducati can’t help but see a checkered flag in every motorcycle category. Whatever the case, here we go—the green flag has now been waved.

---

Antoine Meo put the DesertX Rally to the test at the 2023 Erzbergrodeo where he rode to the overall win in the Prologue. Meo even earned a front-row starting position for the hare scramble the next day (hence the No. 29 race number). It would have been interesting to see how far he could go, but Ducati wasn’t ready to bash up their DesertX Rally prototype just yet. If the idea of a race-ready 110-hp, 500-lb. off-road bike sounds like a terrible idea, you might not be wrong. And if you’re dying to ride one anyway, you’re definitely not alone.

---

2024 Ducati DesertX Rally Specifications

• Testastretta 11° 937 cc engine with 110 hp at 9,250 rpm and 92 Nm at 6,500 rpm
• Tubular steel trellis frame with cast aluminium double-sided swingarm
• Tank capacity 21 litres
• High front mudguard with split brake line *
• Spoked rims with billet hubs 21” x 2.15” and 18” x 4”, carbon steel spokes and high-strength Takasago Excel rims with inner tube *
• Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR tyres in sizes 90/90-21 at the front and 150/70 R18 at the rear (alternatively: Pirelli Scorpion Rally, Pirelli Scorpion Trail II)
• KYB Ø 48 mm closed cartridge fork, 250 mm travel, adjustable compression and rebound, Kashima Coating treatments on the fork tubes and DLC on the sliders *
• Fork clamps machined from solid *
• KYB shock absorber with 46 mm piston, 240 mm travel, adjustable in compression at high and low speeds, in rebound and preload *
• Ground clearance of 280 mm *
• Adjustable Öhlins steering damper fixed to the handlebar *
• 6 customizable Riding Modes (Sport, Touring, Urban, Wet, Enduro, Rally)
• 4 Power Modes on 3 power levels
• ABS Cornering Bosch adjustable on 3 levels
• Ducati Traction Control adjustable on 8 levels
• Ducati Wheelie Control
• Engine Brake Control
• Ducati Cruise Control
• 5" colour TFT instrumentation with Ducati Link App support and turn-by-turn navigation
• Utility Bar
• Ducati Brake Light
• Ducati Quick Shift Up & Down (DQS)
• Full LED lighting system
• Dedicated Iron Giant livery *
• Adjustable brake and gear pedals machined from solid *

*Equipment and features exclusive to DesertX Rally

---

Jean Turner is a freelance journalist/photographer in the powersports industry. She has been riding and racing motocross and enduro for over 18 years, during which she has worked for a number of publications such as Cycle News, Dirt Rider magazine, Dirt Bike magazine, Racer X, Motocross Action Magazine, and international publications in Europe, Japan, and Australia. Turner grew up riding in the Southern California desert with her family and now travels the world as a media correspondent, covering and shooting motorcycle races, manufacturer intros, and off-road/adventure tours. Follow her travels and stories on Instagram @kalamity_jean.

Read more ...

View the full article