Ducati has updated the Multistrada V4 Pikes Peak for 2027, although anyone expecting another horsepower war may be disappointed.
The big change this time is paint.
Normally that wouldn’t be much of a story, but the Pikes Peak has always occupied a slightly strange and entertaining corner of the adventure-bike world. It looks vaguely like something built to cross continents, then Ducati equips it as though somebody might decide to attack a racetrack halfway through the journey.
The new livery makes that contradiction even more obvious.
Designed by Centro Stile Ducati together with Drudi Performance, the 2027 graphics take their inspiration directly from Ducati’s Desmosedici GP and Panigale V4 R factory race bikes. The result was unveiled on September 24 as part of Ducati’s centenary-year celebrations.
Underneath, the basic Pikes Peak formula remains wonderfully excessive.
Unlike the more adventure-focused members of the Multistrada family, it runs 17-inch wheels front and rear, uses a single-sided swingarm and gets a much more road-biased chassis setup. The riding position and luggage capability still make long-distance touring possible, but the hardware is clearly interested in what happens once the road becomes interesting.
That’s what separates it from simply being a Multistrada with expensive graphics.
The Pikes Peak name comes from the famous American hill climb where Ducati enjoyed considerable success with earlier Multistradas. The production bike has gradually evolved away from being an adventure motorcycle with sporty intentions and toward something closer to a superbike wearing sensible shoes.
For 2027, Ducati has also expanded customization through its Ducati Factory Made program. Customers can select ergonomic options, carbon-fiber components and different colors for several technical pieces, allowing the finished bike to become considerably more personal – and presumably considerably more expensive.
There is an obvious criticism. A new paint scheme doesn’t fundamentally improve the motorcycle.
Anyone who bought the previous Pikes Peak hasn’t suddenly found themselves riding obsolete machinery because the new one resembles Ducati’s MotoGP bike a little more closely.
But perhaps that’s fine.
Motorcycle manufacturers have spent years convincing us that every model-year change needs more electronics, another riding mode or a slightly larger TFT display. Sometimes a genuinely good motorcycle doesn’t need engineering surgery simply to justify another year in the catalogue.
The Pikes Peak was already the peculiar Multistrada.
It already had the superbike attitude, 17-inch wheels and road-focused setup that made it different from the rest of the family.
For 2027, Ducati has simply decided it should look even more like the racing machinery that inspired that attitude.
Not every update needs another ten horsepower.
Particularly when nobody was complaining about the motorcycle being too sensible in the first place.
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