Bike Reviews
Ducati Desmo450 MX first ride review: This one’s for the serious enthusiast only
We get astride the Ducati Desmo450MX, the company’s first motocross motorcycle and here’s how we got on
The off-road riding culture in India has really been booming over the last few years. More manufacturers have been taking notice of this and launching more off-road focussed machines in the country. Kawasaki has had its KX line of motorcycles for some time, KTM brought in its SX range ranging from 50cc all the way up to 450cc. Indian brands have also been making motorcycles that cater to the adventure and off-road rider. The latest brand to join the bandwagon is Ducati with the Desmo450 MX, taking on the likes of the KTM 450 SX-F and the Kawasaki KX450. The Ducati Desmo450 MX is the very first motocross motorcycle to come from the stables at Borgo, Panigale in Italy. The bike boasts of all the specifications that would make a hardcore off-road / motocross rider weak in the knees. Ducati invited us to have a go on the Desmo450 MX, but what I’m not is even moderately equipped to ride a motorcycle of this calibre. This is what the bike is like to ride when you put an absolute off-road noob on it.
Ducati Desmo450 MX design
Right off the bat, the Desmo450 MX has all the visual tell-tale signs that it is a no-nonsense motocross machine that isn’t at all fond of tarmac. Tall fender, 21-inch front and 19-inch rear wheel wearing knobby Pirelli Scorpion MX32 Mid-Soft tyres. The body panels are all finished in red and are accented beautifully with white lettering and darker red graphics. The seat runs all the way from the rear fender up to the mouth of the tank. The handlebar is upright, clutch and brake levers are shorter than you’re accustomed to with a road bike. Given that this is a motocross bike and is far from road-legal, you have none of the paraphernalia that goes along with homologating a motorcycle for road use. No mirrors, no headlight or taillight, no indicators or obnoxious saree-guard.
Heck, there isn’t even an instrument cluster. Just a tiny hour counter tucked behind the triple-tree. More on that later. So effectively an MX motorcycle. But given that it’s a Ducati, a lot of effort has been made to identify it as such with the colour and the lines. The race number holder in the front is sleek and there’s just something about the bike that gives it away as a Ducati.
Since the Desmo450 MX isnt road legal, it does away with the need for a typical cluster and gets an hour counter instead – Shot by Shivprasad Deshmane for evo India
Ducati Desmo450 MX engine, frame and chassis
Powering the Desmo450 MX is a brand new 449.6cc, liquid-cooled, single-cylinder engine that makes 62.6bhp at 9400rpm and 53.5Nm of torque at 7500rpm. Unlike trail riding or off-roading with your big ADV, motocross is mostly fast riding. That being said, the engineers at Ducati have tuned the engine to have strong low-end and mid-range performance as well. The engine is mated to a 5-speed gearbox with Ducati Quick Shift for clutchless upshifting only. The powerplant is placed in a superlightweight perimeter frame that’s made up of only 11 elements to minimise the need for welding. Oh and guess what, it weighs only 8.96kg. The cast aluminium swingarm weighs around 3.5kg and the engine itself, without fluids tips the scales at 26.8kg. With that plus all the other components added, the entire bike weighs only 104.8kg, that is without fuel but all fluids topped. With the 7.2-litre fuel tank brimmed, you’re talking about a kerb weight of around 110kg.
That’s bonkers. Coming to the rest of the chassis, you have a fully-adjustable Showa 49mm USD fork which enables 310mm of front wheel travel and a fully-adjustable Showa monoshock with 301mm of travel. The 21-19-inch wheels are Takasago Excel units, meant to be hardy but lightweight, an absolute must given the sort of abuse they will undergo. Braking is taken care of by a Brembo twin-piston calliper chomping on to a 260mm Galfer rotor at the front and a Brembo single-piston calliper with a 240mm Galfer rotor at the rear. In terms of electronics, the bike gets the aforementioned upshift only quickshifter, a multi-level traction control system, and two ride modes. The parameters of all of these electronics are customisable via a companion app, but you can switch between ride modes and switch TC and QS on or off via the multi-function pad near the kill-switch on the left switch cube.
Actually swinging a leg over the 970mm seat height filled me with a fair bit of fear. It would be the first time that I would be riding a motocross bike, let alone review one. The kind folks at Ducati and the instructors at BigRock Dirt Park recommended that we be in ride mode one to begin with and that was a welcome suggestion. Even in this mode, the front wheel hardly wanted to stay down. The throttle gets decidedly more aggressive in ride mode two. There’s no two ways of putting this. The Desmo450 MX is a violent creature and rewards being ridden violently. Taking a corner at slower speeds, the bike feels squirmy and unstable, will the gods of courage to lend you some and open the throttle more than the few millimeters, and the tyres begin to hook and catapult you ahead to the next jump or turn or wall if you opened the throttle too much.
The bike is ridiculously narrow, as it is light, standing and riding is easy in theory given the way the ergonomics are shaped, but the second you add any throttle all of that goes for a toss. Unless you’re someone who knows what they’re doing, all the fundamentals go straight out the window. You forget to grip the motorcycle with your legs, you use all your might to just hold on to the handlebar and pray that you don’t open the throttle too much while you try to land a microscopic jump. All of this leads to fatigue, a lot of it. But when you take a step back, learn to put your head forward, arch your back out, grip with your legs and keep your arms loose, things start to click.
You start to experience what the bike is truly capable of. Albeit to probably 2 per cent of its capability. But what fun. The few places that I managed to properly open the throttle, and take a jump with some speed, you realise that the bike is built for so much abuse. I weigh nearly as much as the bike and not once did I feel like I was working the suspension hard enough. I don’t really want to comment on the brakes too much because I was never fast enough to use them. But for the sake of testing, while on the straights I did try to get on the brakes and they are quite nice to modulate. You wouldn’t want to grab a handful, especially off-road given that there’s no ABS, but it’s nice to know that you can bank on them.
It's very narrow and super lightweight with a perimeter frame that's just 8.96kg; the overall weight of the Desmo450 MX is 104.8kg without fuel – Shot by Shivprasad Deshmane for evo India
Ducati Desmo450 MX service intervals
This is a motocross machine and there’s no getting away from the fact that MX machines need a lot of maintenance a lot sooner than on other machines. The Ducati is no different. The engine oil is to be changed every 15 hours, valve clearance checks and piston replacement comes up in 45 hours of riding while an engine overhaul will need to be conducted at 90 hours of riding. That is not a lot but still more than some other manufacturers. Bear in mind, the higher your pace and skill levels, these numbers might vary. But one thing Ducati has done really well is train its service staff and stock all the parts needed to carry out all this maintenance at the four dealerships at which it will sell the Desmo450 MX – Pune, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.
Ducati Desmo450 MX verdict
The Ducati Desmo450 MX is not a motorcycle that anyone should buy. And no, I don't mean this like you hear about beginner riders being told not to buy superbikes. I mean that this is a very niche motorcycle, one that requires a very specific skill set to ride. One that needs serious commitment to buy and ride, given the tight service intervals and the fact that it is not road-legal and that you would need means to transport it to your riding site. Bikes like the Desmo450 MX and the Kawasaki and KTM 450s are bikes that even pro off-roaders find themselves struggling to tame. You need to work your way up from 125s, 250s and such. But when you do reach the level, the Ducati Desmo450 MX promises to be a very rewarding machine, one that will take you to serious heights, and I mean that physically and metaphorically. It is expensive. At ₹17.24 lakh (ex-showroom), it is a big chunk more expensive than the KTMs and Kawasakis. But then again, aren’t all Ducatis?
