The Meaning of Enduro!

With the release of the hotly-anticipated 2010 Ducati Multistrada 1200, many have overlooked the significance of what this means for Ducati as a company, as a slew of visual and technical details have taken center stage in the round of debates on the intrawebs.  But consider this if you will:  Ducati has stepped WAY out of their comfort zone here and is attempting to take the beatdown stick to the establishment "Adventure Touring" segment of motorcycling.  Namely, Ducati is using the term "Enduro" in the marketing of the new bike, which a very significant word.  The mud-encrusted goggles of the hard-core offroad rider who commutes on his (what is essentially a) dirt bike are all afog as he screams "THAT'S not an enduro!  It has a 17" front wheel!".  For that guy who is an honest-to-goodness off-road rider, yes, this may not be the bike for him.  But how many "Adventure" bikes ever see serious enough off-road duty that a 19" front wheel and knobbies are required?  I think not many in the grand scheme of things.  And Ducati must be thinking along the same lines.  Ducati has decided to elbow into the "Adventure Touring" segment with a bike that is a highly sporty, multi-road capable machine, simply by using the word "Enduro" and introducing some technical innovations to make the bike more "friendly" on loose surfaces, but on a decidedly road-oriented platform.  Pretty smart, really.  Do they anticipate riders climbing a sand dune in the Baja on it?  I think not.  But if they would have just called it a Sport-Touring bike, then a whole large segment of the market (and motorcycle press) would have paid no attention to it.  If this is just a Sport-Touring bike, then it's clearly not a competitor for the other Adventure Touring bikes on the market (BMW GS, KTM Adventure, etc.), rather it's only a competitor for the other Sport-Touring bikes (Honda VFR, Yamaha FJR, etc.).  Many of those other Adventure bikes are marketed primarily based upon their off-road prowess, even though most of their owners never go farther off-road than a gravel or dirt path, which they most certainly don't need a 19" front wheel and knobbies to handle.  Their entire marketing identity of those other bikes is "Off-road", every image you see of the bikes are in the woods, crossing a stream, jumping a berm, etc. even though in reality they're used mostly for sport-touring and not offroad riding.  If this new Multi is just a sport-touring bike it's not allowed to play in this segment, the marketing materials would show a rider dragging his knee around the corner on a racetrack instead, it would be a high performance sport-touring bike.  But this one has the word "Enduro" clearly visible in the multi-mode selection menu on the dash!  So guess what, now it gets invited to both parties!  Just from the clever use of one word!  Ducati clearly intended this as a shot across the bow to challenge the status quo of the mighty Adventure Touring bikes and their owners, the majority of whom are really commuters and tourers who like technology, not hard-core off-road riders.  How much performance and fun on the road are those riders giving up to have the true off-road capability beneath them when they rarely (if ever) use it?  Ducati has decided to challenge the very essence of what Adventure Touring even means.  There's technology aplenty aboard the new Multi 1200, and Ducati is offering a level of performance that many of these riders have never experienced (but many secretly yearn for, whether they know it yet or not!).  Ducati knows this, and all it will take is one demo ride, one twist of the Testastretta-linked fly-by-wire throttle catapulting the svelte beast forward and it will be all over but the choice of color.  Those of us "in the know" for what that feels like, already know how it's going to go and what the look will be on the face of those riders as they climb off the demo bike and exclaim "Wow!".  Yeah, "Wow", I know what you mean, welcome to the party Sir, stay as long as you'd like.  Nice job Ducati, 2010 will be a fun year!