Multistrada V4

[texscottyd]

10 hours ago, keithu said:

Talk me down from the cliff.

Nope, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Motorcycles are raw, emotional decisions... it’s not like buying a new toaster.   The Kawasaki H2 SX SE+ is also in that $25K range, and I want one SO badly.  The rational me recognizes that a Ninja 1000 is 95% of the bike for 50% of the price, but that still doesn’t sway me.  

You only live once:  Get the Multistrada V4!   

[johnmark101]

7 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

The V4 mill is heavy but is also the most amazing motor ever. It never stops putting a shit eating grin on your face.

I'd own this bike with that motor within a second if I could justify the price.

The bike would never see a day of offroad .

I am going to guess by your comments that you have ridden the new Multistrada V4 enough to be familiar with how amazing the motor really is???  Would you care to share your thoughts on the overall performance and handling?

No doubt that motor is probably a fantastic powerplant, but the price and the weight are deal breakers for me, especially the weight.  I could just about pull the trigger on a new Multistrada if it were not so heavy.  On long days of riding twisting roads the lightness of the Tracer GT really pays dividends in agility and reduction of fatigue toward the days end.  I spent two days riding in the mountains with a friend who has a 2018 Multistrada.  I had no problems keeping pace with him and in the tighter stuff like going up Blood Mountain I pulled away from him!!

In my humble opinion, a V4 is probably the perfect engine design for a motorcycle.  I was blown away by the performance of the V4 of the Aprilia when I took my friends RSV4 for a spin!!  Although I am very impressed with the Yamaha CP3 and it's excellent power delivery.  And the CP3 has plenty of power to keep this old man smiling.  

I find bikes like the Tracer GT and Kawasaki Z1000 SX to be much more value for the dollar, and they offer plenty of performance along with unbeatable reliability and more reasonable cost of ownership.

Just my two cents.    

 

 

[roadwarrior]

On 2/20/2021 at 6:45 AM, johnmark101 said:

I am going to guess by your comments that you have ridden the new Multistrada V4 enough to be familiar with how amazing the motor really is???  Would you care to share your thoughts on the overall performance and handling?

No doubt that motor is probably a fantastic powerplant, but the price and the weight are deal breakers for me, especially the weight.  I could just about pull the trigger on a new Multistrada if it were not so heavy.  On long days of riding twisting roads the lightness of the Tracer GT really pays dividends in agility and reduction of fatigue toward the days end.  I spent two days riding in the mountains with a friend who has a 2018 Multistrada.  I had no problems keeping pace with him and in the tighter stuff like going up Blood Mountain I pulled away from him!!

In my humble opinion, a V4 is probably the perfect engine design for a motorcycle.  I was blown away by the performance of the V4 of the Aprilia when I took my friends RSV4 for a spin!!  Although I am very impressed with the Yamaha CP3 and it's excellent power delivery.  And the CP3 has plenty of power to keep this old man smiling.  

I find bikes like the Tracer GT and Kawasaki Z1000 SX to be much more value for the dollar, and they offer plenty of performance along with unbeatable reliability and more reasonable cost of ownership.

Just my two cents.    

 

 

 

I don't have to ride the bike to know that a 170hp V4 motor would be a lot of fun.

 

[keithu]

On 2/19/2021 at 9:49 PM, texscottyd said:

Nope, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Motorcycles are raw, emotional decisions... it’s not like buying a new toaster.   The Kawasaki H2 SX SE+ is also in that $25K range, and I want one SO badly.  The rational me recognizes that a Ninja 1000 is 95% of the bike for 50% of the price, but that still doesn’t sway me.  

You only live once:  Get the Multistrada V4!   

But today we have specs on the H-D Pan America and they are pretty damned impressive: 150hp / 94 ft-lbs, 534lbs with 5.6 gallons of fuel, $17.3k for the base model and $20k with semi-active suspension and other bits. Dealerships in every town in America, many open Sundays. About the only thing I don't see that I would really want is a quick shifter. And frankly I prefer the looks of the Pan America over the Multistrada. That's the first time I've ever said that about any Harley-Davidson. 

[keithu]

Well, that's it. I'm totally over the Multistrada. Unless the Pan America turns out to be a turd I think that's the one. 

[Salish900]

16 minutes ago, keithu said:

Well, that's it. I'm totally over the Multistrada. Unless the Pan America turns out to be a turd I think that's the one. 

Well, I hope you get one and can come back and tell us about it! Bikes are certainly an emotional decision. But for some of us, a deeply rational one. I've owned two Kawasaki's and two Yamahas. One Aprilia. The Aprilia was an emotional decision, a gorgeous bike, great on paper. But it was built with poor quality parts and the engine was doomed to fail from it. I've gone back to Japanese and can't imagine not doing that unless I win the lottery. I have never in my life purchased an American made car because I grew up in the 70's and 80's when the only good American cars were the old ones, and all the new ones were trash in design and quality. I went from calling all Japanese cars by slang racist names, to seeing that they were better designed and far more durable. Have only owned them since. I just don't have the sort of extra cash that would let me buy something that is not as durable or reliable, most of the time. Like @keithu, this is the first HD I would ever even look at, but buying one is incredibly unlikely for reasons beyond the price or quality. It's hard to trust them, and I don't want to be a guinea pig with my wallet. But I hope for their sake the bike sells well, and for the future of American motorcycle manufacturing, that HD continues to try and make bikes other than the ones my dad rode back in 68. 

[keithu]

Not sure I want to be a guinea pig either. This would probably be a next-winter purchase for me, after the bike has been out for a while and teething problems are revealed. 

[Ride365]

My buddy has a 200 hp V4 Aprilia, and he was a total race twin fanatical until he owned a V4.......he said they are perfection in terms of everything beyond maintenance. LOL

[knyte]

Yikes.  Got to give it up for Ducati though, they're handing it well.

Ducati Begins an Engine Replacement Recall for the Multistrada V4 - Asphalt & Rubber

---

...

 

[Salish900]

9 minutes ago, knyte said:

Yikes.  Got to give it up for Ducati though, they're handing it well.

Ducati Begins an Engine Replacement Recall for the Multistrada V4 - Asphalt & Rubber

---

...

 

Good on them for owning up to it, but this quality control issue is exactly what Aprilia has. One faulty part in the whole engine and the engine is a chunk of useless metal in 10-20K. The ethos of the Italian bike is one thing, but for those of us without trust funds and daddy warbucks will not be swayed by the hype. I want my neighbor to have one. I want to look at them. I respect the idea. But owning? No way in hell. I'll make emotional decisions on bikes, but not on Italian bikes anymore. 

[Wintersdark]

6 minutes ago, Salish900 said:

Good on them for owning up to it, but this quality control issue is exactly what Aprilia has. One faulty part in the whole engine and the engine is a chunk of useless metal in 10-20K. The ethos of the Italian bike is one thing, but for those of us without trust funds and daddy warbucks will not be swayed by the hype. I want my neighbor to have one. I want to look at them. I respect the idea. But owning? No way in hell. I'll make emotional decisions on bikes, but not on Italian bikes anymore. 

I mean, I was all thinking "But maybe they've made more of an effort to get past reliability issues here, after all, they've moved past the desmo valves and such now...." when I got to that.  Engine replacement recall?  So clearly it's a Ducati. 

I'd be fine with it if money was no object, but that's obviously not the case.  If I'm spending 25k on a motorcycle, it's got to be a long term purchase and I'm going to expect 100k+ of good reliable miles.  Hell, I expect that out of my 12k Tracer.  

That said, it sure looks like a wild bike to ride.   That spec sheet is practically pornography.  

[Wintersdark]

On 2/22/2021 at 9:47 AM, keithu said:

But today we have specs on the H-D Pan America and they are pretty damned impressive: 150hp / 94 ft-lbs, 534lbs with 5.6 gallons of fuel, $17.3k for the base model and $20k with semi-active suspension and other bits. Dealerships in every town in America, many open Sundays. About the only thing I don't see that I would really want is a quick shifter. And frankly I prefer the looks of the Pan America over the Multistrada. That's the first time I've ever said that about any Harley-Davidson. 

I'm kind of shocked, to be honest.  The Pan America looks like it's actually going to be a good bike.   Not "Good at being a HD" but an actually objectively good bike, and while it's pretty spendy, the spec sheet does at least justify it.  

It's more ADV than I'm personally interested in - I like the form factor, but I'm not doing much of anything offroad, and definitely not on a 20k USD bike so a lot of the features aren't useful to me - but it's the first production Harley that I can say is a legitimately functionally impressive machine.

To be honest, this makes me sad, though.  Imagine what an utter beast the Bronx would have been. 

[keithu]

This one followed me home today.

I'm taking it a bit easy during break in, but it's obvious this is an incredibly capable motorcycle. The riding position is similar to the FJ-09, a good thing. But wind management and highway stability are way, way better. The adaptive cruise works very well, and the heated seat was much appreciated on the 42F ride home. It'll be an interesting project converting the V4S into a touring and LD rally bike.

I ended up not trading in my FJ-09. They wouldn't give me hardly anything for it so I'll sell it private party.

[fr8dog]

35 minutes ago, keithu said:

This one followed me home today.

I'm taking it a bit easy during break in, but it's obvious this is an incredibly capable motorcycle. The riding position is similar to the FJ-09, a good thing. But wind management and highway stability are way, way better. The adaptive cruise works very well, and the heated seat was much appreciated on the 42F ride home. It'll be an interesting project converting the V4S into a touring and LD rally bike.

I ended up not trading in my FJ-09. They wouldn't give me hardly anything for it so I'll sell it private party.

Nice!! My son had a 950 multi. I liked the wind mgmt and the feeling of sitting in it. The ergos were good for me. The fit and finish were awesome. I could stare at it all day. Go eat some miles!!!

[kilo3]

Dang that's sharp! Then I looked at MSRP, I'll go hug my tracer now.😁