In their June 2010 issue, SuperBike magazine have spoken to Andrea Forni, Ducati’s technical director, who discusses the Italian company’s thinking behind the brilliant new Multistrada. The surprising bit in this conversation is that rather than the bike’s power output, handling, or even high-tech electronics, what Forni is really ‘proud’ of is its exhaust system.

‘Maybe the exhaust system. We spent a lot of time on getting the sound right. We also worked with a firm of consultants who use special software used for sound design, to model shapes of silencers,’ says Forni, when asked what part of the Multistrada he’s most proud of. ‘I researched the harmonics of violins and other instruments for the first time and it turns out that the most pleasing sounds for people to hear are low-frequency notes. We are lucky because Ducati engines have always made lots of sounds like this,’ he adds.

Another interesting bit of information that Forni gives out is that Ducati are likely to move to a ride-by-wire throttle control system for the 1198 superbike as well, and as with the Multistrada, this system is likely to come from Mikuni. With the S1000RR, BMW seem to have taken the lead with the use of high-tech electronics on a street-legal superbike,