Staff blog: Bad back stops play

I did my back in a couple of weeks ago so riding the Ducati Multistrada 1200 S Touring was put on hold while my life revolved around physiotherapy, 500mg Naproxen tablets twice a day, paracetamol every four hours, ice packs every two hours and then more physio.

While it would be great to admit I did my back damage while performing a double backflip alongside Travis Pastrana the reality is a lot more mundane! I bent down to pick something up from the floor while I was bathing my young children and when I stood back up again it went ping. Damn painful but not long-term serious.

I knew I was going to miss the Multistrada but just how much I would miss getting to ride it for one week while my back healed and a further week while I was away in America at the launch of the new Indian Chief range shocked me. By the time I returned to the UK I was simply gagging ride the bike again.

The mileage is now getting very close to the bike needing the first 7500 mile service which means I will be taking it to Ducati UK for them to work on the bike. There are no issues that need sorting although the wear to the gearchange rubber may mean they want to change it but as it costs a reasonable £1.84 from a Ducati dealer there’s no harm in that. If it was my bike I wouldn’t bother until the wear got worse.

Getting back into the groove on the Multistrada was easy. It was certainly a different riding experience to the three Indian Chief bikes I had been riding in America; the lightest of which weighs in at a thumping 354 kg. The extra grunt and power from the 1198cc V-twin was also surprising; it felt a bit like a superbike engined minimoto in comparison.
The Indian did have a lesson for the Ducati though.

The simplicity of the keyless ignition was something Ducati could learn from with just a single big button to press rather than fannying around with the switchgear slider and then pressing a button as you do on the ‘Strada.

I will update the blog once the bike has been serviced.

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