I just thought I would share my experiences today with test riding the 1100 S Monster. First off, I love Ducati. I was looking at a 800 monster prior to my purchase of the Max. But, it was not to be. Stopped by the local Ducati dealer today and they had the entire line up out front and they were doing demo rides. I picked the Monster (of course). The bike is a masterpiece of art. Stunning to look at. When I first mounted her though I first thought that the ergos are whack! You are laying on the bike and your head seams to be just above the headlight. You cannot see the speedo or tach unless you take your eyes of the road and look down. The dry clutch is all or nothing, on or off. I embarrased myself by killing it when I first pulled away. I quicky learned to give it copious amounts of throttle first, then let out the clutch, unlike Max which is clutch out than throttle. Power! The thing weighs under 400 lbs, even with only 95 or so HP, and my fat ass, almost any throttle input in first gear resulted in the front end reaching for the sky. Fun! I spent most of the ride popping wheelies in first. Super easy. On the road the thing vibrates worse than mine, even with the solid engine mounts. Through the handlebars you can really feel the twins breathing. In any gear above first, rolling the throttle to WOT makes things go by quick and w/o panic and at any RPM. The thing seemed to have great power everywhere.
Going down the road it would be a good race, I think, with the Max, but not stop light to stop light as first gear on the Duck is just about useless unless you wanna uni-cycle it. Much like any modern bike the handling was excellent (kept over-leaning the bike), and the brembo brakes were actually overkill. Touch the front lever with even just one finger and the thing acts like it hit a break wall. I had to resist the urge to endo it! I never touched the rear brake, and I suppose you would never need to, unless the front master exploded.
The rear seat is a brick, but didn't find it overly uncomfortable compared to the Max. I suppose part of it had to do with my mind being overly-concentrated on the fact that all of my weight was crushing my wrists. Overall I do not think that it could ever take the daily riding duties as well as my Max, but it would be a helluva lot of fun to have in the garage as a weekend duty bike!
Going down the road it would be a good race, I think, with the Max, but not stop light to stop light as first gear on the Duck is just about useless unless you wanna uni-cycle it. Much like any modern bike the handling was excellent (kept over-leaning the bike), and the brembo brakes were actually overkill. Touch the front lever with even just one finger and the thing acts like it hit a break wall. I had to resist the urge to endo it! I never touched the rear brake, and I suppose you would never need to, unless the front master exploded.
The rear seat is a brick, but didn't find it overly uncomfortable compared to the Max. I suppose part of it had to do with my mind being overly-concentrated on the fact that all of my weight was crushing my wrists. Overall I do not think that it could ever take the daily riding duties as well as my Max, but it would be a helluva lot of fun to have in the garage as a weekend duty bike!
