The Ducati DesertX has already built a reputation for being one of the best off-road-focused premium middleweight ADVs. That didn’t stop Ducati from pushing the platform even further last year with the debut of the DesertX Rally, and this bike has now been launched in India.
The big standout feature on the DesertX Rally is its suspension, which the company says is competition grade equipment from Kayaba, who also supplies the standard bike’s suspension. The fully adjustable 48mm closed cartridge USD fork now has 250mm of travel – up by 20mm.
Meanwhile, the new rear shock is fully adjustable as well and comes with high- and low-speed compression damping. Travel at the rear is also up by 20mm – now at 240mm – and ground clearance has subsequently increased to 280mm.
An obvious side effect of this is that the seat height has shot up as well, climbing from an already lofty 875mm to a dizzying 910mm. Completing the rally-raid theme is a high rise front fender and a cool-looking carbon-fibre sump guard.
Ducati has moved to stronger spoked wheels with tubed tyres; a shift that also helps reduce the chance of damage to the spokes, which extend to the edges of the rims on the standard DesertX and run tubeless tyres. Other niceties include machined adjustable brake and gear pedals as well as machined front fork clamps. The bike also gets an Ohlins steering damper.
With specs like these, the Ducati DesertX Rally is the closest thing you’ll find to a dirt bike that fell into the proverbial cauldron of magic potion, and it really does come across as an extremely capable machine. Weight has gone up by one kilo over the standard bike, and it now weighs 211kg without fuel. Factor in the 21-litre fuel tank and this bike will weigh around 225 kilos fully-fuelled. The rest is the same as the regular DesertX, including the multiple electronic rider assists and the 937cc L-twin engine that makes the same 110hp.
This is where things become problematic as the regular DesertX already feels a bit too expensive, at Rs 18.3 lakh, ex-showroom, for the engine it packs. The DesertX Rally takes things all the way up to Rs 23.7 lakh, which even makes it Rs 2.4 lakh pricier than the base Multistrada V4.
Clearly, this is one for the discerning customer with very deep pockets.