Rarely does a motorcycle from a different genre dominate a certain racing series with absolute and utter disregard for any form of logic or discipline. Oddballs and novelty acts are welcomed by racing fraternities to up the entertainment ante, but rarely do they exceed expectations. Ducati cares little for any of this. Ducati just threw a dripping meatball at the world of reason. Ducati&rsquo;s hellbent on world domination and no form of discipline is going to stand in its way. It&rsquo;s not like the Multistrada 1200 wasn&rsquo;t already short of implicit perfection and visceral lunacy. Then came the Multistrada 1260, and now we have the Pikes Peak edition of that. But before we delve into the naughty little bits that make the Pikes Peak edition so special, let&rsquo;s explore how this new model came to be.For all motoring enthusiasts out there, the Pikes Peak International Hill climb, or as its more affectionately known, &lsquo;Race to the Clouds&rsquo;, is the holy grail of Hill Climb races. Originally, this race was part dirt and part asphalt, but due to civil regulations, it&rsquo;s now turned into a fully paved road. Here&rsquo;s where we hark back to my first statement in this story. Since this is a fully paved road, a highly specialised road racing bike should be the quickest one out here, right? Wrong. Ducati&rsquo;s managed to tweak just a few bits on what should technically be classified as an ADV bike, or a Sports Tourer in the least, and shattered the motorcycle record for this race. This new Pikes Peak edition of the Multistrada 1260 is the first motorcycle to clock a sub-ten-minute time of the course with just a few minor upgrades to the tyres, ECU, exhaust and brake pads. Oh, and it gets carbon fibre inserts instead of the headlights for further weight saving. Other than this, you can buy this bike in this very same trim straight out of your local Ducati dealership.<img src="http://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/1132/313628/5beb55df2048d/1542149564165.jpg"" owidth=830 oheight=1078" style="height:779px; width:600px" />The first and most obvious thing that sets the Pikes Peak edition apart from the normal Multistrada 1260s is the race livery it adorns. It also gets carbon fibre components for the front mudguard, forward fuel tank cover and side bulkheads of the fairing. Instead of the taller, clear touring windscreen, this special edition gets a shorter, carbon fibre plexiglass windscreen. And in keeping with the whole lighter bikes go faster theme, Ducati has chucked in a lightweight Termignoni exhaust system and forged aluminium wheels that are a whole 3 kg lighter than the five-spoke alloys on the normal and S variant. The Multistrada 1260 S gets Ducati&rsquo;s semi-active skyhook suspension, but the Pikes Peak gets fully mechanically adjustable Ohlins inverted forks at the front, while the rear setup is shod with a stiffer Ohlins TTX monoshock. But honestly, it&rsquo;s the commonly shared 1262cc Testastretta DVT engine that gives this bike the major slice of its character.Now that you&rsquo;ve had your fill of technical jargon, let&rsquo;s delve into the kind of motorcycle this is to ride. Ducati has already created a high-energy, carea-damn beast that&rsquo;s ready to keep your pulse so quick it almost sounds like you&rsquo;re flat-lining. So in terms of how this motorcycle behaves on the road, you&rsquo;d maybe find a slight difference in the suspension setup. But that&rsquo;s hardly close to the limit of what this bike&rsquo;s capable of; unfiltered, raw lunacy. It&rsquo;s only when you&rsquo;re properly finding the upper limit of this bike that you will truly appreciate what it can do. I&rsquo;d even go as far as saying this would be one hell of a track bike that&rsquo;d probably give most of your compadres that are crouched down in fetal mode a proper run for their money. Of course you&rsquo;d also be supremely more comfortable than them.Since I&rsquo;m not really one for reason myself, and there happened to be that extremely tempting Enduro mode just sitting there and tantalising me, I decided to get the Pikes Peak a little dirty. Truth be told, with that 17-inch front wheel, it&rsquo;s not some all-trick pony, but it can do a bit of light trails. Take that, you delusional sport bike lovers. I obviously didn&rsquo;t feel too guilty taking it off-road because there weren&rsquo;t really any flowing corners around, and I convinced myself I was keeping the bike true to the original dirt section of the Pikes Peak race.<img src="http://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/1132/313628/5beb55df2048d/1542149578704.jpg"" owidth=783 oheight=425" style="height:326px; width:600px" />If you&rsquo;re in the market for this absolute monster, you better have those elite skills in place to make riding this bike worth your money. At 21.42 lakh (ex-showroom, India) it&rsquo;s about 3.36 lakh more than the 1260 S. But, like with all Ducatis, if the heart wants what the heart wants, you will eventually submit at some point. Especially with a bike this special. If you do, I wish you endless hours of unfettered lunacy and many starry eyed grins.

Into The Clouds

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