BMW R 1150 GS Adventure versus Ducati Multistrada 1260

Cheap never, well mostly

MW driving has never been a particularly cheap pleasure. Although many specimens are around 20 years old and have collected correspondingly many kilometers, these GS are still not a bargain. It must be at least 5,000 euros, top-maintained specimens like our test bike like to scratch at the five-digit. You can understand this: The BMW R 1150 GS, if you don't catch a rocked-out model, is an almost ideal companion for the very big tour.

If you can do without cornering and agility, the GS is the ideal travel moped, where the road can be three steps below perfect.
As I said, a buddy for the good and the bad days.

The Multi is at a crossroads

One has to pay the highest praise to the Ducati engineers that one hardly notices these extra pounds. And yet the multi is at a crossroads. The whole electrics are not only for safety because of the bearish engine, it must be to make the heavy vehicle manageable. The most striking example of this is the electronic parking brake. At the push of a button, the rear brake can be activated to pin the Duc to a hill for a start, thus facilitating uphill start-ups. The Multistrada 1260 S has nice but completely unnecessary things like the backlit switches on board. Impossible for serious use off-road would be the delicate blinkers in the hand protectors, which lead their meaning ad absurdum.

Ducati actually has the most sporty adventure bike in the range with the Multistrada 1260 S, because the competition from BMW or Triumph can't keep up (and probably won't). With her rousing style she won many friends in the Test team and gave us a lot of fun.

On the other hand, it is comfortable enough for the long tour, great to use and well crafted. That she can't get into the terrain – as a gift, she would only lie down next to all the other adventure bikes that were sunk by her riders there in a nod to reality.

The test bike was provided to us by Ducati-Hamburg.