Test Ride
Ducati’s DesertX Rally
The Rally is truly a DesertX on steroids, a road-legal ready-to-race bike with beefed-up, long-travel KYB suspension and little in terms of componentry and intent to separate it from the machine that won the twin-cylinder class of the recent Iron Road Prologue at the Red Bull Erzbergrodeo in Austria. Its styling cues shift somewhat from desert raider to enduro – note the high-mount front mudguard – while paintless ‘mass-coloured’ plastics and a forged carbon bashplate signal a tougher, more durable machine expected to take a few hits.
Like the base DesertX, the Rally is powered by the eminently versatile 937cc Testastretta 11° L-twin, which produces 110hp at 9250rpm and 68lb-ft at 6500rpm. Ducati’s DQS quick shifter is standard and service intervals are every two years or every 15,000km, with valve clearance checks at 30,000km. On the electronics front, there are six riding modes perming from four power modes; three levels of engine braking; eight traction control settings; three levels of
