Ducati DesertX 100
Ducati is marking 100 years with Collezione 100, a series of limited edition models wearing liveries pulled from the brand's most memorable moments. The DesertX V2 100 draws from one of the strangest chapters in Ducati history, and it might be the most interesting bike in the collection because of it.
The livery comes from the 1981 Pantah Ice, a modified Pantah 500 that was stripped of its brakes, fitted with studded tyres, and sent onto frozen Alpine tracks as a between race spectacle during an Alfasud ice racing championship. It was never a competition machine. It was a showpiece, brightly coloured and completely impractical, and it sat in the Ducati Museum for years afterwards. The yellow bodywork with blue stripes on the DesertX 100 is a direct reference to that specific bike. It doesn't celebrate a race win. It celebrates the idea that Ducati could show up somewhere nobody expected and make it memorable.
Underneath the livery, the DesertX V2 100 runs Ducati's new 890cc V2 engine with variable valve timing on the intake side. 110 horsepower at 9,000 rpm and 68 lb ft of torque at 7,000 rpm from a unit that weighs 21 pounds less than the Superquadro it replaces. The torque delivery is generous at low revs, which matters more on an adventure bike than peak power numbers. Wet weight sits at 461 pounds without fuel.
The collector's edition details go beyond paint. Billet machined steering head and triple clamp carry a riveted plate with the bike's name and sequential number in Centenary Bronze. Front brake callipers get the same bronze finish. The fuel cap is machined from billet aluminium. The seat is Alcantara with an embroidered Ducati 100 logo. A high front mudguard and aluminium radiator grille sharpen the off road stance, and a headlight grille completes the look though it is not road approved.
