Ducati DesertX confirmed for December launch
Ducati is to unveil a brand-new model for 2022 (9 December) in the form of the new DesertX - a bike that pays homage to 1990s rally-raid machines and promises to be the most off-road-competent model in the company's range.
The DesertX name has already been previewed, along with the new bike's styling, in the Scrambler DesertX concept that Ducati showed back in 2019, but the production model will be a very different machine when it comes to its mechanical components.
Where the Scrambler DesertX concept was little more than a rebodied Scrambler, complete with the air-cooled engine that suggests, the showroom-ready DesertX drops both the 'Scrambler' name and no longer uses that bike as its basis.
Instead, it gets the 937 cc water-cooled, DOHC Testastretta V-twin that's used in the Monster, Supersport, Multistrada 950 and Hypermotard 950. That means significantly more performance than the original design could have offered.
The 937 cc Testastretta offers between 110 bhp and 114 bhp in its current homes, so the DesertX's power will be at around the same mark, making it more potent than the likes of Honda's Africa Twin. While the Multistrada 950 and Multistrada V4 combat the more road-oriented end of the adventure bike market, the DesertX will be a serious off-roader, with a 21 in front wheel and 18 in rear.
Ducati's teaser image of a disguised version of the bike shows that the DesertX's styling is taken straight from the 2019 Scrambler DesertX concept, with two round headlights for that classic 1990s Dakar bike style, with LED rings around them to bring it into the 2020s. It's not clear yet whether the bike has a brand-new frame or if it borrows the chassis from an existing Ducati, although the front lower triple clamp appears similar to that of the Multistrada 950, and the bike appears to use a dual-sided swingarm - again like the Multistrada 950 - so if Ducati is digging in the corporate parts bin, the Multistrada's chassis is the most likely one to be used.
