We don’t generally focus on pure off-road kit like the mental modern motocross machines – but we’ll make an exception for this: the new Ducati Desmo450 MX. It’s been racing in the various MXGP series for a while now in prototype form, but is now available to buy.
It’s a handsome beast, though the nature of an MX race bike means it looks fairly similar to the rest of the sector: single-cylinder lump; twin spar aluminium frame; long-travel fully-adjustable Showa suspension with 49mm USD front forks; rear monoshock; and around a foot of wheel travel.
Most of the special Ducati features are inside the engine and electronics. The new 449.6cc single-cylinder engine features desmodromic valves, as the name suggests, and it makes a heady 63.5bhp @ 9400rpm, matching the legendary 500 two-stroke motors of old.
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The price for that (and the 11,900rpm redline) is a busy maintenance schedule: oil and filter at 15 hours, new piston at 45 hours, with a valve clearance check while you’re in there, and a full engine rebuild at 90 hours. That sounds mad to a road rider, but it isn’t really unusual on an MX racebike. Bore and stroke is 96×62.1mm, 40mm intake valves are titanium with 33mm steel sodium-cooled exhaust valves, compression ratio is 13.5:1, there’s a 44mm Mikuni throttle body with Keihin injector, and a five-speed gearbox.
Ducati says it’s given the Desmo450 MX a unique electronics package with an IMU-assisted traction control set up, easily bypassed by dipping the clutch when you want to freely spin it up, and two power modes. There’s also adjustable engine brake control, launch control and an up-only quickshifter as stock. Brembo brakes, Galfer discs, Pirelli Scorpion MX32 tyres, Takasago Excel wheels and a DID chain round off the spec list, and it weighs 104.8kg wet without fuel in the 7.2 litre tank.
Priced at £11,245, the Desmo450 MX is on sale now.
