Anyone have a Ducati DesertX? My son just got one.

[oldGSfan]

Couldn't pass up a deal, 2023 DesertX 5200 miles, 3 year premium warranty and a bunch of extras. My son can sell his '22 Tenere and get within about 1K -2K of the purchase price. The Tenere is a really nice bike, but the Duc has 40 more HP (110), better brakes, suspension, cruise control, and so on. He's stoked. Downside is that the Italians can't come close to a Japanese transmission, and it's a leg roaster. Oh and the desmo service is expensive, but I have an angle on that with an expert that does it out of his home - half price of the stealership. That's 10K miles away though. Ducati reliability who knows, but I had a 2013 Multistrada (which I regret selling more than any other bike) and it was flawless. I had a GS1100E when I was 21. He's nearly 20 and rode my GS for about 150 miles the other day. He's a great rider having ridden thousands of miles on mountain bikes. Lucky kid!

[trevor]

Couldn't pass up a deal, 2023 DesertX 5200 miles, 3 year premium warranty and a bunch of extras. My son can sell his '22 Tenere and get within about 1K -2K of the purchase price. The Tenere is a really nice bike, but the Duc has 40 more HP (110), better brakes, suspension, cruise control, and so on. He's stoked. Downside is that the Italians can't come close to a Japanese transmission, and it's a leg roaster. Oh and the desmo service is expensive, but I have an angle on that with an expert that does it out of his home - half price of the stealership. That's 10K miles away though. Ducati reliability who knows, but I had a 2013 Multistrada (which I regret selling more than any other bike) and it was flawless. I had a GS1100E when I was 21. He's nearly 20 and rode my GS for about 150 miles the other day. He's a great rider having ridden thousands of miles on mountain bikes. Lucky kid!

Very cool bikes....was the Tenere a 700?

[oldGSfan]

Very cool bikes....was the Tenere a 700?

Yes, 700. Very good reliable engine, I've heard it is near the top.

[trevor]

Yes, 700. Very good reliable engine, I've heard it is near the top.

A good friend has one and rode it to Ontario and back to BC with me a couple of years ago...over 8000km trip....bike did great!

[Nessism]

That Ducati looks like a real horse! It's 500 lb wet. Ready to take on Baja.

[oldGSfan]

That Ducati looks like a real horse! It's 500 lb wet. Ready to take on Baja.

I'm thinking maybe don't sell the Tenere and just ride with my son till I can't no more.

The DesertX weight is measured 'wet' so it's really only 30 lbs more than the Tenere. Fuel carried lower like the KTM/Husky 901. Japanese bikes are weighed dry w/o ANY fluids, as I understand. Both handle fine on any road or trail, to my view. Tenere has much better throttle feel, has a cable not throttle-by-wire. That is the single demerit I can find on the Ducati. It sorta sucks but will get used to it. On road it's a nuisance, off road a liability.

I can wring the Tenere out max throttle in every gear and it's 'just' fast enough, and a great bike. The DesertX is a different story, the front wants to come up but it has all the anti-wheelie stuff in street mode at least. It's nearly as fast as my '13 Multistrada (3.5 0-60 vs 3.35), but feels faster, as I'm now officially a geezer.

We got a ton of extras, lowering kit, lower seat, screen - all which has to be reversed (a day's work) and I need sell the extra bits. Has 5K miles, 3 year premium extended warranty and was $11K. Pinching myself.

We're planning a trip ASAP while the weather is mint. Maybe Mt. Palomar to see the telescopes, he hasn't seen them. I hope the back side dirt roads are open.

[trevor]

My buddy I mentioned with the Tenere is actually looking at the Ducati now

[oldGSfan]

My buddy I mentioned with the Tenere is actually looking at the Ducati now

Yeah the Tenere is sort of a gateway drug to Ducati. Both have some cool P-D cred. Ducati has come a long way, the only real downside, having owned one, is the price of maintenance and mods. But I have ways around that. I know the president of SoCal Ducati Owners Club, he does the Desmo adjustment out of his garage and is meticulous. I mean obsessively precise, not what you get from your average tech. My Multi's service was half the price ($800, still ouch, vs nearly zilch for the Suzuki GS) at 16K miles, but I had to take all the bodywork off and haul the bike to his house. Then I sold it about 6 months later and am still smacking myself upside the head for selling it so cheap. Maybe this nre one makes up for it.

Just found a pic when i was stripping it down for service. Just before I got Mr. Turbo and got back into Suzukis after a 10 year hiatus.

[oldGSfan]

The Ducati was awesome but felt too expensive to drop. Sold it for a $2K profit, and for nearly the same $ of profit, my son found an '03 KTM EXC 450 with 100 hours on it from a friend of a friend - a mech engineer who is meticulous and has the bike set up well. It rips. Banked the rest of the $, good to have these days.

Not sure about that tire patch kit on the front fender. It has a 100 psi rim lock and runs tubeless. Need to get another set of wheels to run some 50/50s. It's a super light bike, which was just able to be registered before CA banned converting dirt bikes to street

He has street bikes galore (mine) to ride, a Honda ATC110 he can sell now for a few hundred profit, and a new YT E-MTB. He's lucky, I never had anything close.