2027 Ducati Desmo450 EDS Review — First Ride

Hey, this is Blake Connor. I'm here for Motorcycle.com in Mammoth Lakes, California to ride Ducati's brand new 450 EDS dual sport machine. Now, this is a super interesting model for Ducati because, first of all, until they came out with their MX bike a couple years ago, Ducati hadn't really had a dirt-worthy motorcycle since the 70s. And if you look back even farther, you know, Ducati had made some ISDT bikes back in the 50s and 60s, but it had been a long time since Ducati had made an actual dirt bike so now that Ducati has entered the dirt side of the market with their MX model and their off-road model this EDS was the logical next progression to have a dual sport model which if you look at Ducati's on-road heritage makes a lot of sense so let's take a look at some of the features of this EDS and we'll tell you what we think about it So hey we're going to talk about how the Ducati 450 EDS is as a dual sport and so today we've done a decent amount of asphalt and the one thing that I think is the best about it is the tall sixth gear. So you shift up to sixth gear and it's much taller than on the other two the MX or the um off-road version of the same bike and just that taller long gear really makes the highway cruising really nice so super smooth um you're not revving the thing out it just feels totally nice on the road so guys who are gonna buy this bike to really do that sort of riding are gonna really enjoy the bike as a dual sport for starters let's take a look at the engine so the Desmo EDS engine is a little bit different than the MX model and the off-road model so on this model the dual sport model it's got a smaller 42 millimeter throttle body compared to the MX and the off-road model it's also got different cams which have less lift and a little bit different duration so that's a little bit different it also has a completely different piston which lowers the compression down quite a bit so it's got lower compression than those bikes and then one of the other big changes is that instead of having a five-speed transmission on the MX bike or on the off-road bike the dual sport bike has a six-speed transmission and those gear ratios are a little bit different too so there's a little bit shorter of a first gear and then on the sixth gear it's pretty tall so today out on the road we saw you know 90 miles per hour on a sixth gear so for those who are really going to dual sport on this and actually do some transfer sections on the road then that six-speed transmission is really key so that's a basic overview of the engine and then we'll go into a little bit of the electronics so what's unique about this model in particular is that as we had it it basically is in a stock state and it doesn't have any advanced ride modes or anything like that but if you buy their one of three different race kit upgrades you get a little control unit and then all of a sudden you unlock different features you can unlock four ride modes traction control and different throttle maps you can get a quick shifter all sorts of things but you take that step and then all of a sudden you've made the bike an off-road only bike so that's kind of interesting but you do have the ability to unlock those the lowest priced race kit option which is basically just an ECU upgrade it's $260 and then progressively you can go on to a slip on Akrapovic pipe and then you can go up to a full Akrapovic titanium pipe which also drops 20 pounds on the bike which is pretty significant. So that's an overview of the the electronics and then let's talk a little bit about the chassis. So the EDS like its cousins in the rest of the motocross family has a aluminum perimeter frame and in the case of the EDS you've got an 18 inch rear and a 21 front. Interestingly this bike comes with Metzeler Karoo tires which is you know more of an ADV tire so that's kind of an interesting choice. I think most people that are going to actually ride this off-road are going to want to upgrade those tires to something a little bit more aggressive. It's really an ADV tire and overall I'm not real sure that people who are going to ride this bike more off-road are going to want to stick with that tire because it's really not that aggressive today we did a bunch of sand and the tire was just really spinning it it's not like a real knobby so it's kind of funny that Ducati went with that tire but i think you know if you're gonna just ride around on fire roads and stuff that's totally fine but for real dirt or sand or loose stuff, I think people will want to change the tires out right away. It comes with a Brembo brake package, a twin piston Brembo in the front with Galfer rotors, and then a single piston in the back with the Galfer rotor. Really nice setup with that stuff. You've got really nice adjustable levers, and then overall I would say the Showa suspension today, it's got a fully adjustable Showa suspension and the linked Showa shock at the rear and overall I would say that those pieces are really really nice. I think I think everybody's gonna find a happy compromise with what they want to do with the bike and get those settings pretty good. I like the linked rear shock it was really good today it didn't deflect or do anything weird when you would hit some kickers and stuff so that's a basic overview of the of the chassis. The Showa suspension super good in this stuff just just plush enough to not be harsh but really good in the sand whoops or harder edge stuff really nice suspension setup now let's take a look at some of the nice features on this bike that comes standard I would say that the plastic is really really nice the graphics are embedded into the plastic really really beautiful looking the bike comes with handguards comes with a skid plate, comes with the mirrors that you can fold in for off-road use, has a lot of nice features. There's a nice little LED dash that can you can scroll through and get to the information that you want, two trip meters, see your speed, all the basic information there. So it's kind of got you know all the basic stuff and then LED lighting front and rear. The headlight is really slick looking, menacing, really nice looking. So we spent all day today on this bike and did about 55 miles, a lot of sand, a lot of rocks, a lot of dirt, and the thing that I think impressed me the most is the engine. The engine is really, really nice. It's really tractable. First gear is pretty short. Get it up into second and third and fourth and the thing just pulls really nice and even when you got up into fifth and sixth gear the engine pulled really nice through the rev range so overall i think the engine is really impressive and i'd be really curious to see what it does when you actually unlock it and add the extra power because that would be an even better package but overall i think engine performance wise really really nice the chassis super happy you know with the way it worked today on the stuff that we did maneuverable nice good brakes you can definitely you know appreciate the suspension in those situations that we're in today I thought overall it was pretty plush at the speed I was going for sure it was really nice so no complaints with that I think that overall I think Ducati has come out and right away made a serious contender in the dual sport market it's such a unique market You've got, you know, a couple of European manufacturers and a couple of Japanese manufacturers that are making an actual dual sport that is a little bit more aggressive. But I would say that this Ducati, performance-wise, is as good as any of them right out of the gate as far as a dual sport that's got a plate and headlights and stuff. I think right out of the gate, it's a really solid motorcycle. And I think people that are maybe a Ducati owner, maybe they own a Ducati sport bike instead of buying a KTM. or buying a Husky or a Beta, those owners are going to look at a Ducati and go, hey, I already own a Ducati. This is the bike for me. And they're not going to be disappointed at all with this motorcycle. So overall, I think we had a really fun day out on the trail. I think Ducati, right out of the gate, has made an excellent motorcycle that should be taken very serious in the dual sport world. And I think that they're going to sell a lot of these. So let us what you think if you like what you see please comment like and subscribe and thanks for watching