Thank you for your valuable and highly entertaining review of the Multistrada, which I read as part of my research before buying a used 2003. The bike is so fun and easy to ride that I feel as if I must be cheating--no suffering for my art here.

I also must say that your writing is inspirational as well. After your comments regarding the "hamsters engaged in a farting contest in a tin bucket" and likening the Multistrada's exhaust note to "gruffer mammals"--hedgehogs, the bike found its "pet" name--Spiny Norman. If you were ever a fan of Monty Python, you might remember the criminal Pirahna Brothers, one of whom, Dinsdale, occasionally halucinated an 8' tall hedgehog named Spiny Norman that would call out to him in a most baleful voice. Given the "space deco" design elements of the Multistrada, naming it for a halucination seems somewhat poetic.

Yes, I do understand that naming bikes is a bit childish, but, well, they are there for fun. Now, if we could have a similar epiphany for my husband's ST4S...

Thanks!