P88
RIDE REVIEW I 2025 DUCATI MULTISTRADA V2 S
The new V2 has
shed over 40 pounds
compared to the
old 950, making it
extremely agile
in corners.
two horsepower gain and three
pounds-foot drop over the old
950. Crucially, however, this is
the lightest V-twin Ducati has
ever made, the engineers claim-
ing the unit that now has the
head
and the crankcase cast as
one unit weighing 121 pounds, a
drop of 12.79 pounds.
There's a bunch of stuff Duca
-
ti has done to get the engine
weight down, such as new
cyl-
inder liners, hollow stem intake
valves,
and a revised lubrication
system, but it's more interesting
to talk about what the feeling
is like at the twist grip, and for
that, two things stand out.
Ducati fitted a 20 percent
heavier flywheel to the smaller
capacity 890cc motor to make
it more tractable at lower rpm,
and they've combined this with
a new air-intake bypass circuit
that bleeds in a little bit of air to
smooth out the famously harsh
throttle response during ultra-
low rpm/speed riding.
New for 2025 is the $19,295
Ducati Multistrada V2 S, the
sport touring steed now shar
-
ing the same nomenclature as
the Streetfighter
and Panigale
V2, as well as the same all-new
motor. There is also the base
model Multistrada V2 for $4K
less, which gains most of the
things the V2 S does but doesn't
get the S's Skyhook electronic
suspension.
Ducati dropped the capac
-
ity from 937cc down to 890cc
and,
somewhat controversially,
dropped the trademark Desmo
-
dromic valve actuation system
that has powered every
Ducati
V-twin since God was a wee lad.
They've now moved instead to a
new variable valve timing (VVT)
system (the V4 on the bigger
Multistrada runs a desmo sys
-
tem but also has VVT).
Ducati is claiming 115
horsepower and 68 lb-ft of
torque with the new V2, which
represents an inconsequential
