Left Reno-Lake Tahoe Int'l Airport Thursday Morning for: Waiting for me curbside at Sea-Tac and with a hot latte for me in the van. Waiting for me inside the showroom. Damn right it's sold! I honestly can say that the team at Ducati of Seattle was wonderful. Zach Gordan got me a great deal on a leftover 14 MTS ST that I'm happy with. along with the financing, pretty much zero down. Everything was done over the phone and email. Paperwork was sent to me for me to sign and return, it was easy peasy. Tyson and Joel helped me take delivery of the bike, bike was topped off with a full tank of fuel and after a brief tutorial on how to operate the bike, got some free swag and I was on my way back to Reno. Essentially, the entire 225 mile ride down to Salem, where I spent the night was in a torrential downpour. The wind was horrific and then add the element of darkness along with the traffic, I would have to say it was one of the more challenging rides. I arrived in Portland just in time for the 6 O'clock rush hour traffic. It was stop n go at the top of the Fremont Bridge, add the windgust and I thought I was going get knocked over. I'm 5'8 so it's not like I can flat foot the MTS. My Frogg Togg rain suit, Daytona Roadstar GTX Boots and Motoport Winter Kevlar gloves failed miserably against this storm. However, the MTS just ate the rain up like it was thirsty for water. It handled great, had zero issue as far as performance in very, very wet conditions. Me with my Ducati Jacket that I bought at Motocorsa a couple of years ago. The folks down there were also great, as they always took the time to show case the MTS for me, year after year, but the timing was never right. My parking spot last night at the hotel in Salem. Took me another 10 hours today, total mileage was about 750 miles. No rain, but just damn cold. LOL... the palms of my hands are burned from the heated grips that I had on at Max level for the entire 10 hours today. Only disappointing point about the MTS is it's fuel range, it stinks! I'm use to my FZ6 getting almost 300 miles on a tank.
Nice writeup. What is the Multistrada range? My Ape is 75 mikes from fill up to light, couldn't he anywhere as bad as that?
What an adventure. Glad things went smoothly despite the challenging weather. Enjoy the bike; it's a looker.
As far as the mpg, I don't have a large enough sample, and I don't know whether the MPG improves as the engine breaks in. I started entering my figures into my fuel app around 300 miles, I forgot to start it from the first fuel stop. But I got anywhere from 42 -50 mpg. I was rolling on and off the throttle quite a bit trying to vary my speed much as possible on the slab, including shifting. I'm sure there are a lot of factors involved, but the bottom line is that the tank is too small. Unfortunately, more fuel adds more weight, but for a bike to be designed to go long distance, it should get at least 200 to 250 on a single tank. On the other hand, a sport bike designed for the track, or simply pure performance, I can understand the range to be relatively low. I'm the type of rider who does not like to stop, and if I didn't have to stop for fuel or piss, I don't think I would ever stop. I left Salem at 730 in the morning, only stopped for fuel and one pee break. Not a single bite to eat or drink.
