Kind of hard to tell, but the seat looks like it climbs a quarter of the way up the tank. We called this a "weggie" in high school. I'm just glad Ducati did not try to turn the Multi into a GS1200 competitor. However, its going to be a tall order to fill as a crossover bike. You have to satisfy not only the Multi crowd but also capture the ST crowd. I don't think Ducati is going to replace the ST anytime soon so the new Multi will have to do. I hope its a great road performer, that would be my hot button to buy one. I love the current Multi and the simplicity of the 2v powerplant, I'm sure the 1098 will be impressive in the throttle department, but to me the 2v is more than sufficient and I believe the 4v is going to be costly to maintain because sport tour riders tend to put way more miles on their bikes than sport bike owners. This fact has discouraged many from buying the Ducati, especially in the sport tour category. Unless you do your own valves/maintenance, I wouldn't buy one. Ducati would be better off offering a V4 in the sport tour and tour bike, but that would be like a leak in the dike for them. The Vtwin has been their niche for years and they only developed a V4 because they had to (Motogp). I see that rationale as being the same when talking about a reasonably trouble and maintenance free touring bike. Its time for Ducati to make the V4 because the Vtwin as a sport/tour machine is impractical and not cost effective based solely on the miles issue.
