Three Paths To Adventure

Three Paths to Adventure

CW COMPARISON

BMW RI2000S vs. Buell XB12X Ulysses vs. Ducati Multistrada 1OOO DS

DON CANET

AS BIKES BECOME increasingly nicheoriented, the growing adventure-touring category specializes in versatility, offering motorcycles capable of reaching the farthest destinations upon the widest range of roads. The soon-to-be-launched Buell XB12X Ulysses has its sights set right in the heart of this growing market segment. To see how it stacks up against the class benchmarks, the BMW R1200GS and Ducati Multistrada 1000 DS, we saddled up and hit the city streets, highways and the nastiest paved and graded-dirt backroads in Southern California.

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It may be “The Swiss Army Knife of Motorcycles,” but it’s still a contraption, very mechanical and oddly styled. As Executive Editor Brian Catterson noted, “It’s weird in motion with all sorts of bizarre torque reactions making the bike move this way and that.” None of that seemed to slow the pace set by our young and swift Off-Road Editor Ryan Dudek, however, as he hustled the big GS over the nastiest stretches of potholed and gravel-strewn two-track we encountered.

We all agreed that despite its cobbled looks and uninspiring exhaust note, the GS sure works! It offers robust power, peaking at 83 horses and 72 foot-pounds of torque, but at 505 pounds dry, it also weighs 48 pounds more than the Ducati and 34 more than the Buell.

That said, the Beemer has a nice, low center of gravity that masks its weight, only feeling heavy in the really tight, dirty corners. Through faster sweeping curves, though, it was on rails. The servo-assisted anti-lock brakes are a bit grabby, and while the ABS functions well enough on the road, once the asphalt gets choppy and dirty, it seems to cut in too early. On the plus side, the ABS system can be turned off.

Catterson rode an R1200GS at BMW’s Enduro Park in Germany last summer and said he had a blast doing things off-road that at first seemed impossible on such a big bike: steep uphills and downhills, tight singletrack, etc. He points out that you just have to stand up on the cleated metal footpegs and take things slowly: “It’s not a dirtbike, it’s a twowheeled Jeep.”

The fact remains, few riders will venture into such technical situations. As a road bike, the Beemer shines with its host of amenities: adjustable-height seat, adjustable windscreen (so you can move the buffeting around!), heated handgrips, electrical outlet and detachable hard saddlebags.

Of these three, this well-proven pack mule is the best off-roader, remaining our bike of choice when venturing far from the beaten path. Quality, comfort and convenience carry their price, however, as at $15,260 the BMW is the most expensive of the three machines here.

At the opposite end of the adventure-bike category resides the more sport-focused Ducati Multistrada. Introduced in 2003, this Italian V-Twin’s sportier “S” sibling was named Best Sport-Tourer in this year’s Ten Best Bikes feature. Sharing the same snappy-revving, 992cc, 82-hp, air-cooled mill as the S-model gives the Ducati a far different feel than that of the heavier-flywheeled, slower-revving B-brands in this comparison. This quick response, however, conspires with the bike’s more road-biased sport radiais to raise stress levels when chasing the other pair off the paved path.

Feeling notably smaller and lighter than the BMW and lower than the Buell, the Ducati quickly became our weapon of choice on sportbike-friendly roads. In this environment it offers exceptional feedback, stability, light control operation and the best brake feel of the bunch. Even though its 62 foot-pounds of torque fall short of the others, less weight and snappy revs see the Ducati first to the finish in a quarter-mile sprint-.2-second quicker than the BMW and .3 ahead of the Buell.

Firm suspension and a brick-like saddlerelative to the other bikes tested-limit the Multistrada’s comfort range. While its sporty rearset footpeg position coupled with high, wide bars (that feel strangely low in this group) offer a very roomy riding position, the sportbike-style, smooth metal pegs touched down earlier than even those of the rangy and softly suspended BMW. Moreover, the Multistrada’s handlebar bend feels unnatural and oddly angled when coming off either of the other bikes; we find the S-model’s tapered bars much more to our liking. The bike’s unique split fairing design allows a generous amount of steering lock and decent wind protection, but also produced the most buffeting at head height.

At slower speeds and reduced wind noise, we all enjoyed the engine’s mechanical music with its dry-clutch rattle and booming exhaust note. There’s no arguing the $11,995 Multistrada is an oddly styled Duckling, yet it’s birds of a feather among this gangly group.

Hot on the heels of the supermoto-inspired Buell XB9SX CityX, the longer-travel XB12X Ulysses is touted as offering viable onand off-road capability-as you no doubt gathered from reading the preceding road test. And it does, to a point. But let’s not get too carried away here, because the Buell does have some limitations.

First and foremost, there’s a reason that off-road bikesfrom dual-sports to speedway racers-all have plenty of steering lock, and the Ulysses could use more of that-even on the street.

Due to its lofty seat height (we weren’t able to test the lower seat option), slow-speed maneuvers and U-tums can be awkward if you run up against the steering stops and need to dab a foot to maintain balance. Even the big BMW is more confidence-inspiring at parking-lot speeds. Considering that many clip-on-equipped sportbikes possess more side-to-side steering sweep than the XB12X, getting the bike “slideways” down a graded dirt road isn’t advisable. Too bad, really, as the air-cooled, 1200cc V-Twin lays down a flat-track-tractable power delivery that entices such play. In fact, production bikes will be even more so. After our 84-hp pre-prod testbike went back to Buell, routine teardown showe`d mangled header gaskets robbing 2-plus hp per jug. Figure an honest 88-90 horsepower at the rear wheel, then.

Catterson summed it up best in describing the Ulysses’ engine. “It’s like straddling a big yo-yo,” he noted. “The giant millwheel of a flywheel dominates. Talk about your anti-engine-braking system-roll off the throttle and the bike just keeps on going!” He went on to suggest this could be problematic in a slippery comer that tightens up, especially when coupled with the initially grabby front brake.

Well, leave it to me to prove Brian’s theory valid, as I locked the front wheel over a difficult-to-see gravel patch entering a downhill right. Oops! The bike slapped the ground fairly hard and slid to a halt from about 20 mph, putting the Ulysses’ crashworthiness to the test. Impressively, the bike and I were both right back up and on our way as damage was minor: a scuffed right handguard, footrest and front tumsignal lens, a bent handlebar, a broken mirror and a chewed-up frame protector.

It would cost just a few hundred bucks to return the bike to mint condition, which is no doubt less than it would cost if the BMW or Ducati had been crashed. Not to mention the average sportbike.

The aggressive tread pattem of the Ulysses’ Dunlop D616 tires works well on gravel-strewn roads and would appear to offer good wet-weather performance, although now that it’s finally stopped raining in SoCal we didn’t have an opportunity to find out. We did find the front tire’s centerline groove to cause a mild “swimming” motion at highway speeds where the other two bikes felt rock-steady. And not just on rain grooves, either.

While the Buell’s windscreen offers the least protection of this trio, it also causes less buffeting, which means we like it best. We also like the comfy and spacious saddle; we can only hope the optional low seat is as good. The ample seat-to-peg distance affords plenty of leg room, but the footpegs’ knurled-metal finish and odd angle make standing up off-road a slippery proposition.

What we have here are three different approaches to diversified motorcycling. The irony is that there are now niches developing within this supposedly nicheless category. Which bike is best depends on your intended use:

The BMW is a more capable adventure-tourer, the Ducati a sportier sportbike, while the Buell specializes in not specializing, and therefore offers the broadest appeal. It’s a jack of all trails, master of some. Œ