It’s quite a glamorous life when you look at the life of a motorcycle road tester from the outside looking in, but let me give you a quick glimpse of what the 80km, four day ride was like, albeit it on (arguably) one of the most anticipated bikes of 2014. For those of you who don’t know where Tenerife is, it’s a small island off the West Coast ofAfrica. But how would you get there?
Well, the most cost effective way – and one of the quickest - is a flight to Paris, followed by a flight down to Spain and then a connecting one to Tenerife.
So, after 18 hours of flight time and a total of 8 hours spent waiting for connecting flights, when rain and then heavy rain is predicted for the entire time of your visit, you can just image how everybody’s mood slipped from day 1. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining because at least I got to ride 80kms on mostly wet roads and, thankfully, Tenerife has some long tunnels where I got to test the performance of such a powerful bike fully, hence the title of the story.
The Monster, in its various guises, has been around for over 20 years now and Ducati have sold over a quarter of a million of them. I can distinctly remember some naysayers way back then saying that it was the wrong direction for Ducati to go in and that Ducati should have stayed true to their racing heritage. How wrong they were because, fast forward 20 years, and you’ve got a Monster with more technology and speed than any motorcycle available at the time, and I’ll even include old Fogarty’s 916 World Superbike into that equation.
Ducati had also learned an invaluable lesson from their 999 direction blunder, and that was not to move too far away from their already popular recipe. And much like what Porsche has done with the 911 and BMW with the GS, Ducati have now done with the Monster. This bike now replaces the Evo 1100 but, in truth, it’s more like a replacement for the previous S4RS, a very, very special bike indeed and ahead of its time when you look back now. The silhouette of the new bike is very close to the previous incarnations and immediately recognisable as a Monster, but stand a little closer and there is absolutely nothing the same.
First off, this is a big bike, the wheel base has been increased to 1,511mm and, standing next to it and even sitting on it, it feels at least 10% bigger physically. The riding position for someone like me (fairly tall and lanky) is incredibly comfortable, the seat height being not too low or too high. You really sit ‘in’ the bike with your legs folded nicely into the tank.
Surprisingly the weight is not felt even though the size is physically bigger, with the bike weighing in at 182kgs dry as opposed to the previous 1100 Evo at 170kgs. In terms of the chassis, Ducati have copied the layout from the Panigale, where the engine is the centrepiece and everything else is bolted onto it from there.
The front monocoque is actually a beefy looking trellis unit and the forks and steering triple clamps hang from them (on the S model there is also beautiful gold Ohlins hanging off the triple clamps).
On the rear, the swingarm bolts directly to the lower engine casings as does the top of the rear shock to the rear cylinder head, and the sub-frame bolts onto the back of the engine. Visually the bike is very striking and my only gripe – and this is me nitpicking - is that the plumbing to get the water to the radiator on the left side of the bike is very untidy. It has to go somewhere but I’d like to think it could have been plumbed away more neatly which is something that you would definitely need to do after purchasing the bike.
Sitting on the bike and switching it on for the first time, the dash is striking and the full colour display (Thin Film Transistor instrumentation) comes in three very distinct layout options, namely Urban, Touring and Sport, and each come with its own set of priorities. All these little tweaks enhance the feeling of ownership and set this bike apart from the rest. One day all top of the range motorcycles will have similarly styled dashes because it’s the new way forward and it makes sitting in the riding position more informative, with everything at your fingertips.
The engine, taken directly from the new Multistrada, is the over-square Testastretta 11 degree DS 1198cc liquid cooled V Twin 8 valve Desmodromic unit.
Although slightly re-tweaked, to give more torque, there is a slight difference between the offering of the standard and the S models, the latter producing 10hp more to 145hp as opposed to the 135hp from the standard unit. This is achieved through mapping only and I’m sure there will be many an engine tuner out there that will find a ‘quick fix’ for the buyers of the lesser model. We only rode the S model but to me it felt like a strong 145hp. KTM claim 35hp more for their 1290 but only a comparative test will let us know where the claimed and actual figures lie.
The lesser hp figures and better torque figures are a result of slightly longer and narrower throttle bodies. The new Monster features a new oil bathed clutch with slipper function and super-light feel levers. It incorporates a progressive self servo mechanism that presses the plates together under drive. The feel from the clutch is surprisingly light and very controllable. This system reduces the pressure when the drive force is reversed and then acts like a slipper clutch on a race bike. The advantage – and you don’t have to be at racing pace to feel it - is that the down shifts are smoother.
Something that is really worth mentioning is the 30,000km service interval which is huge! What this means is that the normal weekend rider, travelling an average of a 1,000kms a month, would only need to service the bike almost every third year. Impressive!
The Monster, as is the case with all Ducatis, bristles with electronic technology so you’ve obviously now got traction control and ABS, which you can set into different modes and different engine power modes which gives you different engine characteristics. What I love about the Ducati system is that you can set it up the way you like it and, every time you get on the bike, that’s how it will stay until YOU change it and not some boring little white cloaked nerd trying to curb your fun from a laboratory 1,000 miles away. What I did find surprising is that there is no factory fitted quickshifter but the suspension is, again, fully adjustable, albeit manually.
So, is it still a Monster? Well, the answer is yes in no uncertain terms. It’s still a wheelie machine of note and the added torque makes it want to stand up completely on its own without the use of the clutch in first and second, although you can just feel that in third it’s going to go forever. The power curve is very linear and it translates into a bike with impeccable road manners. The sound of the exhaust is typically water-cooled Ducati and the bike loves to be short-shifted out of corners, which is not to say that it’s not rev happy, it’s just that it prefers a fast brisk ride to a full-on race, if you understand where I’m going with this? It is a road bike after all.
At the launch they emphasised the Monster as a touring motorcycle as well, and even though I’ve never seen this in any previous Monster model, it actually made sense once I saw it loaded with all the factory extras that are available.
What will make this bike appeal to the buyer is the lower seat height with plenty of 1200cc power, putting a very powerful motorcycle into the hands of a lot of shorter people which, on a global scale, will work fantastically for sales figures.
The fuel tank size of 17 litres also bodes well for longer distances. Has the new bigger, longer Monster lost the plot? I think not because, like with all things, we must move forward, even though I’m a traditionalist and loved the old air-cooled motor. This is a worthy replacement for the outgoing 1100 Evo model and even if I reckon that this is actually a replacement for the old S4RS, it ushers in a new phase for the Monster and, all of a sudden, after 21 years, the Monster is all grown up.
Quick facts on the new 1200 Monster and 1200S:
Engine and engine components are exactly the same; just the fuelling makes the difference in output. 135hp at 8,750rpm and 118Nm at 7,250rpm as opposed to 146hp at 8750rpm and 124hp at 7,250rpm.
Both models only require a service interval every 30,000kms.
The 1200 comes out with 43mm Kayaba forks and a Sachs unit on the rear which is adjustable in spring preload and rebound damping.
On the S model you get fully adjustable Ohlins front and back. The forks are also a beefier 48mm model.
Rims on the two also differ; the standard running on Panigale lookalike 10 spoke models while the S runs on triple Y-shaped spoke designs with more machining. Both are fitted with similar Pirelli Diablo Rosso Corsa IIs.
Both bikes come standard with the DSP (Ducati Safety Pack) which includes three levels of ABS and eight levels of DTC (Ducati Traction Control).
At the flick of a switch, the bike’s engine characteristics can also be set to Sport, Touring or Urban. Within these three settings you, as the rider, can change the levels of traction control, ABS settings and engine response. Once you have set them there it will remember your setting and will stay there until you change it. This is something all bikes with this new type of electronic wizardry should feature. You can customise your bike to how you like it and it stays there. In Urban mode you can set the bike down to 100hp and a mild throttle response which you might feel is a big reduction of 40% but it still shifts along quite nicely and smoothly at this setting.
The throttle, again like all new Ducatis, is RbW (Ride by Wire) and Ducati is the leading motorcycle manufacturer in terms of the feel and sensitivity they manage to get with this system.
The brakes differ again on the front with the standard Monster using twin radially mounted Brembo, four piston Monobloc M4- 32 callipers, gripping 320mm discs while the S model uses Superbike styled 330mm discs with the M50 callipers. At the back they are the same with a single 245mm disc.
Lighting on both bikes is the same; conventional halogen for main and LED position lights on either side for dims and daytime running lights. The S model just has LEDs for the turn signals as well.
Even though the standard bike offers so much, for the price difference, make mine an S. I can’t wait to have a group test with the 1290 KTM and 1000 R pitted against this bike, because it is surely going to be quite a fight for the title.
