If you’re of the persuasion that adventure bikes are immeasurably cooler with high front fenders, you’re in luck. Ducati has just announced the 2024 DesertX Rally—a souped-up version of the Ducati DesertX made for more aggressive off-road riding.
Thankfully there’s more to the Ducati DesertX Rally than just its livery and high fender. Falling in with the trend of getting highly skilled off-road riders to race big adventure bikes in gnarly competitions, Ducati has already fielded the DesertX Rally in the Erzbergrodeo, with five-time enduro world champ Antoine Méo winning the twin-cylinder class. So it boasts a smorgasbord of upgrades over the base model DesertX.
For starters, there’s 20 mm more suspension travel at each end, bringing the overall numbers to 250 mm at the front and 240 mm at the rear. The front end wears new billet aluminum triples, gripping a set of closed cartridge KYB forks that sport a Kashima coating on the uppers and a DLC coating on the lowers. There’s an Öhlins steering damper in play too.
Like the ‘regular’ DesertX, the Ducati DesertX Rally has an aluminum swingarm—but the pivot point sits in a different spot. A fully adjustable KYB shock features a bigger piston than the base model’s unit. With the suspension changes, the DesertX Rally’s ground clearance now sits at 280 mm.
Like its sibling, the DesertX Rally wears a 21” front wheel and an 18” rear wheel. But the Rally’s wheels are built with billet aluminum hubs, Excel rims, and Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR tires, and its rear wheel is half an inch narrower than before.
Visually, the DesertX Rally is recognizable by its striking, predominantly red livery, its one-piece enduro-inspired seat, and its forged carbon fiber sump guard. It also gets adjustable CNC-machined brake and gear levers.
The DesertX Rally shares the DesertX’s 937 cc twin-cylinder Testastretta engine, good for 110 hp at 9,250 rpm and 92 Nm at 6,500 rpm. It’s all packaged in a tubular steel trellis frame, with 21 liters [5.5 gallons] of fuel on board. All the lighting is LED, the dash is a 5” TFT unit, and there’s a full complement of electronic rider aids and riding modes, including a quick-shifter.
Optional extras include everything from small auxiliary fuel tank to aluminum luggage, LED spotlights, heated grips and a whole lot more. You can get two different Termignoni exhausts for it (one for race use and one for road use), and Ducati will even sell you matching rider gear—including an Arai Tour-X5 helmet.
The Ducati DesertX Rally is set to hit dealers from January 2024, with no word on pricing yet. We’ve liked the look of the DesertX since it first broke cover so the DesertX Rally has us tickled. It remains to be seen if the average Ducati buyer will ride it as hard as Antoine Méo has, though.
Source: Ducati
