Motorcycle – Ducati Diavel V4 2023 | The beautiful brute of Bologna

As much a rolling table as a street brute, the new generation Ducati Diavel plays the fluidity card. The Italian brand calls it a “muscular cruiser”, a contradictory term that does nothing to help the average biker understand its role.

Resurgence of an old trend

If custom class motorcycles – Harleys and their ilk – only attract a limited clientele these days, they enjoyed immense popularity around fifteen years ago. The phenomenon pushed even the most incompatible brands with the category to try the genre, an exercise which led Ducati to produce the original Diavel in 2011. Resembling nothing else, the latter combined, more or less skillfully, an unusual style, powerful mechanics, custom-flavored ergonomics and a huge 240 mm rear tire. The new generation of the model uses roughly the same ingredients and the same approach, but offers a significantly more refined execution.

A vague identity at the beginning

The most direct route to understanding what the 2023 Diavel V4 is is around Ducati’s marketing terms. Besides a reasonably low saddle and footrests a few centimeters further forward than those of a road bike, the Diavel has nothing to do with the custom class. The first clue to what it offers is rather its magnificently “aggressive” style. Designed with a taste that only Italians seem to possess – it was voted “the most beautiful motorcycle” at the last EICMA show at the end of 2022 – the Diavel V4 is downright a piece of art from which emanates an almost palpable fury, anger and strength.

Closer, more beautiful

From its gaping front air intakes to its receding saddle, from its gigantic 168 horsepower V4 to the exhaust with quadruple tips, and from its oversized rear tire to its cartoonishly massive swinging arm, the Diavel V4 embraces this role of sculpture and invites the eye towards a thousand and one details without ever disappointing. Because it uses the architecture of the Bologna manufacturer’s sports models, no frame is visible, with the engine instead serving as a central attachment point. The fairing pieces are few and cover almost nothing of the bike, but contribute a lot to the Diavel V4’s stocky brute silhouette.

Aggressive outside, aggressive inside

From the start, the nature of the Diavel V4 becomes clear. Some will feel a hint of nostalgia noting the absence of a traditional V2, but even the most die-hard purists will melt when listening to the V-four borrowed from Ducati’s most high-performance machines. So loud that it seems illegal, it growls and snaps as soon as it comes to life, shakes and groans when you set off and roars like a furious beast in full acceleration. Even gear changes become an event thanks to the power-assisted shift system that shakes the bike and farts every time you move up a gear. There is perhaps no more characterful production mechanic.

Intoxicating accelerations

Capable of much more than rumbling and shaking, the V4 also offers phenomenal acceleration. If its approximately 170 horsepower is lower than the more than 200 of the most powerful motorcycles, it is still more than enough to make even a very experienced rider grit their teeth. One of the reasons behind the exhilarating aspect of the experience is the seated, upright riding position that forces the rider to hold on with their hands and dig their lower back into the rear seat at full throttle. From a stop, the front wheel quickly leaves the ground a few inches, then again when second gear is engaged. Hilarious.

Overall correct behavior

The most glaring weak point of the new generation of the Diavel remains the same as in the case of the original mount and lies in the effect on the behavior brought by the oversized rear tire. There’s a sort of occasional clumsiness or resistance to leaning at the start of a curve that you almost never feel on a modern production motorcycle. In defense of Ducati and its Diavel, great efforts have clearly been made to minimize the effect which, all in all, is not too disturbing in everyday life, partly because you get used to it quite a bit. easily.

Conclusion

Under full acceleration, the Diavel V4 is a brute, beautifully controlled by all the driver assistance systems included as standard. In normal use, the Italian is a small volcano of absolutely delicious auditory and tactile sensations, at least for lovers of temperamental mechanics. And when stationary, it is drawn in such an artistic and detailed way that it becomes a piece that we never tire of examining and that we rediscover with each new angle observed. Ducati should no longer classify it as a “muscular custom” and should also eliminate the last elements that link it to the custom class. This is an exhilarating sculpture on wheels that is almost impossible to categorize.