Borgo Panigale (Bologna, Italy) 15 November 2009 – The Ducati Multistrada 1200 is the best bike of the 2009 EICMA show. More than 20,000 fans voted for the bike by participating in the competition organized each year by the Italian “Motociclismo” magazine, who carried out a survey among the visitors with a form to fill out either at the show or online. The new Multistrada 1200 took more than 48% of the votes, followed by the MV AgustaF4 and the Aprilia RSV4. The prize giving took place at the end of the show, on the official Motolive stage (the area dedicated to EICMA’s external events) in the presence of Dr. Costantino Ruggero, the General Director of EICMA, and Piero Bacchetti, President and CEO of the Edisport publishing group. This was the final event at the end of an intense week that saw nearly 450,000 visitors fill the Halls of the Milano-Rho trade show district. The award only emphasizes the public’s enormous interest in the new jewel in the Borgo-Panigale crown, a further confirmation of the energy and resources that Ducati is dedicating to the constant development of new products. The new Ducati Multistrada 1200 thus reigns supreme. Not just a new bike, but a new concept of bike. From the moment the EICMA show opened, the area of the Ducati stand dedicated to this innovative machine was flooded with a constant tide of visitors, all eager to see the new product, the pride of the Italian motorcycle industry. The 1200 is a Multistrada with the emphasis on Multi, a sportbike which is powerful and fun but also easy to ride and whose first priority is the safety and comfort of its rider. Ducati wanted to produce a motorcycle to tackle any kind of journey and road surface, a motorcycle that used technology derived from the Bologna-made race bikes in MotoGP and World Superbike. A bike with no limits, that can transform itself to suit the rider’s demands, from a supersport to a tourer for long journeys with a passenger and luggage, to an everyday bike which can breeze through the daily commute and also tackle off-road routes with the agility of an enduro; in other words, four bikes in one! By combining three different engine maps (as standard on all versions), eight levels of Ducati Traction Control (as standard on all versions) and latest generation Öhlins suspensions, encompassing the exclusive DES (Ducati Electronic Suspensions) System, four different Riding Modes are created, each available at the touch of a button: SPORT, TOURING, URBAN and ENDURO. With a dry weight of just 189kg (417lb) the Multistrada 1200 is lighter than any other road enduro, touring or sport touring bike currently available. This weight saving is the result of applying new technologies to Ducati’s design and engineering of all major components. All it needed was a heart, the perfect engine to fulfill the potential of this new design. The obvious starting point was the World Championship-winning engine, the Testastretta, used on the Superbike 1198. Engineers in Bologna have succeeded in harnessing the immense power of this engine, making it smooth and adaptable to any situation. The new Testastretta 11° engine is thus born, and represents a milestone in combining performance with usability. Ducati have once again pushed the limits of motorcycle design to the limit, by adding Italian innovation to the elegance, style and technology which characterise the motorcycles that leave the Bologna factory. The Ducati Multistrada 1200 arrives on the market in Spring 2010.