So, I was curious enough to do a test ride today. Came back with very mixed feelings about the bike. Coming from an F800GS there are some very obvious differences:

1. Power. Incredible power in Touring / Sport mode. Kind of lame and unexciting in Urban / Enduro. In Touring mode I'd have to get used to the roll-on power as it reacts very quick and accelerates like a kicked cat ... But as I don't care all too much for that kind of power, this is nothing important for me.
2. Rough. The engine feels rough, rattling, Ducati like. Vibrations are there but not annoying on the short test ride, might be different on a longer tour but I highly doubt this would be a problem even on long days. Nevertheless the engine is everything but smooth compared to the F800GS or V-Strom 650 or Tiger 1050.
3. The fueling at low rpm (< 4000) is the worst I have ever experienced in my life. It's so bad I can't believe it. Touring / Sport mode is unusable in that rpm range, Urban made it kind of usable above ~3300 but not even close to being good. This is incredibly bad for a $20k bike. The problem is that the bikes characteristics and my riding habits clash significantly here. Again, I admit, this is highly personal and relates to my riding style and my preferred roads (the tighter and smaller the better).

To explain the different modes: Touring and Sport put the engine into an agressive 150HP (PS) mode, Enduro and Urban are limited to 100HP, the suspension is also tweaked for the several modes, making it tighter or more comfortable depending on the needs for the current situation. While this is a neat idea it is a pain in the rear if something stops working and really expensive to repair. The suspension is from Öhlins, so it should actually be quite reliable, but sorry, being German I don't trust technology build or assembled in Italy as long as it's not an Espresso maker ... *insert big smile here*

Some other observations:

The seat to peg distance is nice and relaxed but the bike forces me into pretty much one single position as I can't slide back because of the passenger seat being in the way, I can't position my left foot properly, hit the center stand from all kinds of weird angles and just plain had to stay in one position. This position fits me very well, so it wasn't bad at all, but I wouldn't be able to do a longer ride as there is not enough change possible to relax a little bit with shifting positions. I'm 6' with a bit over 34" inseam and while the position feels relaxed and open for a short while, as soon as I started to move around I hit something in every single direction I tried ...

Wind management is a tiny fraction better than on the F800GS with stock windshield. Less buffeting, about the same noise level. I haven't played with shield height, it was in medium position with the standard shield which might have been sub-optimal for me.

Suspension is pretty firm, even in Urban and Touring mode, admitted I'm light (152lbs this morning). The bike feels very nimble while still staying very stable in turns. That is about the most positive difference to the F800GS that feels squirrely in the same turns at comparable speed (did the same route on my own F800GS after the test ride, to be able to compare better).

Overall it was a pretty big disappointment. If the fueling is something that can be corrected, dealers should think about doing this right away without demoing the bike in the uncorrected state. Part of my usage is commute where I have to ride a steady 30mph for most of the way, which is very annoying on the Multistrada. It's certainly an incredibly capable bike going fast, but it's equally incapable going slow. And that's just not what I can bear with on a day to day basis.

For me, this demo was a good way of finding out how not to spend money ... I was very happy when I got back on my F800GS and thought that this is a much better bike for me. It's a good result for a test ride as it doesn't leave you with a desire for change. Completely different from my test ride on the Tiger 1050 where I wanted to trade in my F right away ...