Backtrack Tuesdays: Buell Ulysses vs Ducati Multistrada Published in: Bikes A Harley-powered dual sport bike? The Buell Ulysses may stretch the definition of adventure touring designed, as Milwaukee says, for "90 percent road, 10 percent offroad" use. But nonetheless, it is the first Buell effort to court at least a portion of the backroad riders who include some dirt in their travel diet. First, a caveat: The Ulysses owner's manual specifies that the motorcycle is not legal for off-road use where a spark arrestor is required. Dirt roads, even fairly gnarled ones, are no problem on the Ulysses, but single-track trail work would prove a large chore even for a strong and talented rider. Once lost to the seductive sirens of gravity and fate, the brave Ulysses would quickly be beyond salvation. When 500-some pounds head downhill, only the quickest response will do. You would, as Barney Fife used to say, have to nip it in the buuud. So the solution to that potential hazard is simple enough; don't make impossible demands of the bike or rider. (And don't get caught if you're out of bounds.) A sport-tourer, by my definition, has to provide limited service in the dirt. If not, it's too much tour and not enough sport. For example, a bike like the Ducati ST4 or BMW R1150R would not be happy for long on a jeep trail. For me, sport-touring is represented by bikes like the Ulysses, Multistrada, BMW HP2 and the KTM Adventure 950R. I reckon what it comes down to is the feeling that there's a good deal more adventure to be had off-road than on. The Ulysses is billed as an "adventure sportbike," which is fair enough; a street scrambler in other words. Labels and buzzwords, like everything else, change. But this is hardly your average, street-legal desert sled in modern trim. The XB12X is a bundle of techno-expertise from around the world, with only the venerable Harley V-twin as the home-grown component. The frame, which doubles as the fuel tank, is from Verlicchi of Italy, fabricator of numerous Ducati chassis. Likewise the swingarm, which doubles as the oil tank, and the Showa suspension originate in Japan; wheels come from China; and add an Australian exhaust system and luggage from Germany. This multi-nationalism has obvious benefits in terms of both performance and reliability. Erik Buell designs his bikes to meet specific and precise requirements, then hires the best specialists to build the pieces. Not that the Buell was without annoyances; first among them was the loud cooling fan, which runs constantly below highway speeds on a warm day. The lack of steering lock ranked number two, which requires some back-and-forth to turn around in a narrow space, or you can lean it over, put yer foot down, and spin half a donut. The third item was the clever alloy backrest that folds onto the passenger seat when not in use; nice design, but it was a bear to unlatch to change the position. And the funky ignition switch placement on the left side of the headlight shell. And ... No, really... overall the Ulysses is a remarkably good (first) effort and an encouraging sign of things to come from the Harley skunkworks in East Troy. Just for grins, we put the Ulysses up against the Ducati Multistrada S, for which Bologna claims no off-road capabilities. Still, both machines are fundamentally street scramblers, and both offer luggage options to cover the sport touring category. So the obvious questions were under what conditions would the Buell have more to offer, and vice-versa and back again. So to find out, we set off to ride Highway One from Morro Bay to Half Moon Bay, CA and that would provide a fix on the sporttouring profiles. Then, on the return trip we would cut inland to Alice's Restaurant, fly south on Skyline Drive, and somehow find ourselves misplaced on a longer/rougher-than-expected dirt road in the mountains above Watsonville. That would establish the dualie-adventure credentials. About 700 miles round-trip. Tell you what, by the time we got to JJ's Homemade Burgers in San Juan Capistrano, we was hungry. As it turned out, both co-rider, Dennis Pegelow, and I ended up spending the most saddle time on the bike we each preferred. For him it was the Buell, and vice-versa, but it didn't begin that way. Before the ride, with about 100 miles on each bike, I favored the Ulysses for its easy power, moderately comfortable seat, all-round composure, and luggage capacity. Plus, at a slow-to-moderate pace in the dirt, it took less physical effort than the Multistrada. This, I thought, is my idea of a sport-touring bike. The Ducati, on the other hand, was shaky below 4,000 rpm, buzzy for another thou, and had one of the worst seats ever to sail forth from Italy, a land known for brutal seats. It had a bunch of extraneous bodywork styled to cover the mechanical bits, trendy mirrors with built-in turn signals, and did I mention the seat? And this was the new-improved, better-than-the-original seat! What the Multistrada did have was a dandy power-to-weight ratio, delicious mid-range grunt, nimble steering, Ohlins suspension, and that certain Italian sauce. And that's what got me in the end, so to speak. See, I'm a dirt rider at heart. When it comes to sporting dualies, if the paved-to-unpaved equation is close to 50-50, I'm willing to sacrifice some highway comfort for added agility in the dirt. According to the specs, the Multistrada is only 15 pounds lighter than the Buell, but underway it feels more like 50. This owes largely to the Ducati's lower center of gravity. The American machine steers heavier but by no means heavily when underway, unless you are crawling around at low speed such as trails or tight traffic. The Ulysses just pays a penality for its higher roll center. (Remember, the engine has been elevated to accommodate the underslung muffler, so the Harley twin's crankshaft sits a good half-foot higher than the Ducati's.) Still, the Buell can carve with alacrity in sweepers and the steady rush of torque transfers wonderfully to the tarmac. Exit speeds are exhilarating, wheelies are on-demand. But the Buell definitely demands a more robust push to set its appointed arc, and once dialed in it rails in convincing fashion. Two factors contribute nicely to this stability; suspension and tires. We changed the Ulysses' fork and shock settings by the manual, but by the time it would work well on both pavement and dirt, we had notched in about 400 pounds (rider and gear) worth of pre-load, compression, and rebound damping. The Ducati, conversely, had to be softened up significantly to work off-road. The Buell's specially-built Dunlops worked uncommonly well on varietal surfaces and the Ducati's Pirelli Scorpions are also good all-round rubbers. But it is power delivery and suspension compliance that point up the real differences between these bikes. Both engines make about 80 horsepower at the rear wheel, but it's the torque figures that tell the tale. The Ducati is pulling about 58 foot-pounders at 6,000 rpm, while the Harley pumps up 65 to 70 between 3,000 and 5,000 revs. So, while the Buell is comfortable at 20-30 mph on a cobbled dirt road, the Multistrada is buckboarding along below its natural powerband. On the other hand, when the speeds rise and the Ducati's engine and suspension reach their happy zone, the Ulysses becomes a pitching, heaving handful. Thus it was no surprise that Dennis came to prefer the Buell. So as a versatile multi-purpose platform for adventurous touring, the Buell takes the honors here. It will take the rider farther, in greater comfort and carrying more gear, than the Ducati. The Multistrada surely prevails as a street scratcher, especially on the twisty tarmac, but its comfort zone is more narrowly designed. Makes one wonder what a Sportster-based street scrambler would do, doesn't it? Originally published October 2006. http://ift.tt/2lDu3QP
from Totally Motorbikes http://ift.tt/2kQNCkh
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