#xdiavel

Ducati revealed a new limited edition XDiavel produced in conjunction with Italian furniture and interior design house Poltrona Frau. The 2022 Ducati XDiavel Nera will be available in a numbered run of 500 units, priced at US$29,795. That’s a hefty $4,200 premium over the XDiavel S.

Ducati has updated its XDiavel range to meet Euro 5, adding two new variants for 2021: XDiavel Dark and XDiavel Black Star (pictured above). The good news: the Euro 5 update adds 8 hp to the XDiavel’s claimed power figures. The bad news: only countries where the emission standard is in place will get the update, meaning countries like the U.S. will not see a performance increase. Further bad news: the XDiavel Black Star will not be offered in North America.

From these photos that were slipped under the MO office door, Ducati appears to be bringing the 2019 Diavel more in line with the XDiavel. It’s been some time since the standard Diavel received any attention from Ducati, so the timing of the 2019 revamp makes sense.

Bruiser cruisers: the name pretty much says it all. These bikes combine the best performance that cruisers offer and wrap it in a package dripping with attitude to spare. For this comparison, we decided to stick with the V-Twin engine configuration. Why? Because the V-Twin is the just about the official engine configuration of cruiserdom – that and the fact that no Yamaha V-Max was available for testing. So, for this test we have the 2018 Ducati XDiavel facing off against the new for 2018 Harley-Davidson Fat Bob. Both of these bikes have eye-catching good looks that exude function as well as style.

The Multistrada is getting a bigger engine for 2018, as the California Air Resources Board has released documents certifying a 2018 Ducati Multistrada 1260.

Okay, get out your pitchforks! Indian’s won Best Cruiser for the second year in a row with a Scout. This year, however, the kid brother, the Scout Sixty, takes home the prize. How could that be? The Sixty is only a sleeved down version of the bigger Scout with less shiny parts, right? Well, that would be half right. The other half is that, for a MSRP of $8,999 (or $300 more for white and red color options), Scout Sixty riders get a motorcycle that twists out 95% of big brother’s torque at a 20% discount. The horsepower curves are quite close to each other up until about 5,000 rpm, in the meat of the torque curve where cruisers spend nearly all of their time.

The spinning steel drum does not lie: Ducati claims 156 horsepower at 9500 rpm for the XDiavel’s new 1262cc DVT (Desmo Variable Timing) L-Twin, and the MotoGP Werks Dynojet bears that out. The old rule of thumb is that rear-wheel hp (what the dyno measures) is generally about 10% less than crankshaft hp (what the manufacturers claim) on a chain-driven bike, and if that still applies then the Ducati is actually a few horses ahead of the game. Compared to the old Diavel, which never felt anything like slow, you’re looking at 10% more horsepower and 9% more torque.

What do the Diavel and the XDiavel have in common? According to Ducati, aside from six letters in their names, only brake calipers and tires. So, despite the similarities of the names – and even in profile – Ducati calls the 2016 XDiavel the company’s first true cruiser. Don’t think of this as a boardroom construction meant to fill in a particular check mark on a manufacturer’s list of necessary products. As Claudio Domenicali, the Ducati Motor Holding SpA Chief Executive Officer, said just this morning over breakfast, Ducati doesn’t focus-group its bikes to death. Instead, the company builds the bikes it wants, the bikes that scratch a creative itch, and lets the chips fall where they may.

Struggling to figure out how to make inroads into the U.S. cruiser market, with the new XDiavel, Ducati has finally decided that if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. That’s not entirely true of course, because the new XDiavel retains plenty of performance. But it’s also the first Ducati ever with belt final drive, and the first ever where any Ducati official (Domenicali) has made a big deal of embracing the appeal of Low Speed Riding.