Easter has just come and gone and I’ve had to quickly write this piece or DIE, or so Bill says, and who am I to argue after such a fun-filled weekend, and to be honest I’d like to live a while longer, thank you. And Bill said he’d rather give me this 2015 WR250F to play with instead of a sickly chocolate egg anyway – sweeeet.
Words: Clinton Pienaar Pics: Ducati Press
Variable Valve timing (DVT) and up-graded electronics increases the third generation Multistrada’s offering, and in the process transforms the bike.
The Paris to Dakar was once a race in Africa, for real men who smoked Camel cigarettes. Part of this adventure was not getting shot at by itchy trigger finger militia on the back of Toyota pickups. You could ride any bike you wanted to, size didn’t matter. But as time marched by, terrible high visiabilty jacket safety restrictions came into play; twin cylinder bikes where banned, single cylinder bikes came to be and then size restrictions came into play as well. Somewhere between the 900cc beasts of past and the 450s of today, this ‘little’ 690 engine had a window of opportunity to shine. Though short lived, this motor was certainly designed to race.
Seems like an obvious title, right? But when did you last hear of a mass-produced, liquid-cooled triple coming from the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’, er, never? Now that’s got you thinking, hasn’t it, and I bet you’re all fiddling around with that ‘sticky’ screen on your phone, right now, to hopefully disagree with me? Well, don’t waste your airtime because I’m as correct as a Nobel Prize mathematician medal holder but, unfortunately ten times, or possibly more, as dense.
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