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On the short uphill straights, no amount of throttle-cable stretching managed to leave an impression on these middleweights. Having plenty of torque is always helpful when exiting slow hairpins, yet not enough to really put me in a position to show'em who's boss; these guys were good. The uphill stretch was well paved, the mild winter sun managed to dry all the wet patches and the road was as good as it gets; perfect conditions.

Alas, the way down on the other side of the mountain was in much worse shape, or maybe better, depending on who you asked, with wet spots lurking under the tree's shadows, some gravel thrown in and quite bumpy too. "Well", you might say, "same conditions for everybody, no?" Well, not exactly...

A few turns into the nasty downhill bit and the 636 simply lets me through as if he's standing still, another stretch and the GSX-R guy gives up as well. Hey guys -- everything OK? Up ahead, the CBR rider is seemingly doing all he can to put on a decent show but after two scary moments in one wet curve with nasty bumps, he declares defeat. At the road's exit I stop to wait: it's almost a sin to not pull out a cigarette, break it in half and light it in order to put on the full "It's half an hour that I'm waiting for you guys" show.

As they pull over I can already hear the cursing:

"What a s%$*y stretch!" says GSX-R guy.

"Yeah , there was gravel all over!" responds Signore636.

"Almost lost the front on those bumps, did you see it?" says CBR while massaging his wrists, looking like the downhill braking loads almost killed him. I bow slightly, acknowledging their pain and ride on towards another direction, a bit shocked at just how unruffled the Multistrada was over the same tarmac. What a heartache indeed, isn't there justice is in this world? I for one never said there was any...

It's been almost four years since I last rode a Multistrada in anger and the treasured memories of following Paul Smart at the Multi's launch in Sardinia are still vivid in my mind. As much as I enjoyed that ride, riding a bike on sinfully perfect roads is one thing, but putting it through its paces in a myriad of conditions is quite another. The other journos and I left that Sardinia launch quite elated by the Multi's capabilities but after a first year of relatively good sales, Ducati's mutant ninja failed to leave an impression on the market and became a bit of an oddity.

On the other hand, during the last three years I've come across a few Multistrada owners and never found one that wasn't deeply attached to his steed; I'm talking about "will never sell it!" levels of attachment. Strange, isn't it? So I've been dying to take a Multi for a proper test for a while now and with perfect timing, Ducati has released the first seriously upgraded Multistrada with a 100cc-bigger engine and other small touches. Will ten days in its company be enough to understand the spell that the Multi has cast over its devotees or at least show me why it fails to click with the public at large so far?

First, the upgrades. Displacement gets bumped up from 992 to 1,078cc courtesy of a simple bore job, and a wet clutch now handles power-disengagement duties while being quieter than the rattly old dry unit to boot. The exposed foam seat was the target of some reproach in the old model. Though my own personal cushions felt OK after a day's ride during the press launch, the unit has been replaced by an upholstered one with a seemingly different shape. It's worth adding that at some point in time the Multi got a taller screen that supposedly increased the wind protection, another problem point of the first model.

Some features are worth pointing out to whoever missed the Multi altogether. The Multistrada was first shown in 2001 and caused massive eyebrow raising as well as some favorable comments. By slotting the air-cooled twin into a Supermoto-like frame that's stiff as a concrete block thanks to heavy triangulation, Ducati created one of their weirdest scoots (that crown still belongs without doubt to the ill-fated TL600). The main debate point wasn't so much about the very idea of a do-it-all Duc but rather the polarizing design. "A scooter face with a Mike Hailwood Replica tail," I wrote at the time and I wasn't the harshest critic by a mile.

In Italy, though still not a common sight, we did get used to seeing the thing but still, Terblanche's design decisions mean it's a scoot that you either love or hate. My girlfriend for the last year has already seen me straddling a myriad of bikes. Not really knowledgeable yet, she has still developed some fine taste in the period, really liking the Derbi Mulhacen and the Ducati GT1000, for instance. Over the phone she was excited: "Are you coming to pick me up with a red 1100 Ducati? Wow!" Unsurprisingly, as soon as I pulled into her parking lot, her tone changed: "What the $%!@ is this? A Ducati? Are you sure? Well, it's really strange; I don't like it at all." Don't expect to pull the birds with this one, oh no.

A scooter face with a Mike Hailwood tail"...sounds like some of Al's old girlfriends

However, I am a bit more complicated than that. I do like plain and direct beauty but also find plenty of appeal in strange, even weird stuff. Is a Leatherman multi tool a thing of beauty? Or how about a mountain climber with a big backpack and all his wares hanging from a belt, or a WRC rally car with its huge headlights sticking out like frog eyes and a 10-inch gap between the wheels and the bodywork? Hey, I even like Damien Hirst's sectioned cows, see? None of these are really beautiful objects but the inherent functionality and efficacy imbedded in them turns me on immensely. Seen in that

The Multistrada's efficacy has many faces, one of them is as an insect killer. Say what? See, in my daily life in Milan I have to often deal with plenty of annoying buzzing and humming insects called scooters. They come in a variety of sizes and displacements and usually their riders feel like they must show you they are as fast as a proper bike in the city traffic and always try to steal a yard or two from you when you are waiting in a traffic light. The light turns green, a light touch of the throttle and the Multi simply squashes these little creatures effortlessly, and it's great fun putting them in their place. From lower than ever revs, the 1100 engine kicks the Multi forward while making you wave the front in the air even if you don't intend to. I stretch it to a relaxed 5,000 rpm, hook in second gear and the Multi's delightful rhino gallop makes my grin even wider.

This shouldn't really be surprising. Open your tuning manual of choice and you'll read that -- if all the other parameters remain the same (throttle bodies, valve size, etc.) -- a mere bore job will simply fatten the torque curve while repositioning its peak lower down the rev range. Compared to the first Multistrada, torque gets bumped up -- and how! -- from 61.5 to 76 foot-pounds at a meager 4,650 rpm. By the way, maximum power is up from the previous model's 85hp to 95. When there aren't any insects or bigger creatures around, you can simply release the clutch and the Multi moves on a mere whiff of gas with the needle buried at 1000 rpm; that's how torquey it is now.