Ducati Monster 1100 Review - Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3
By, Trevor Hedge

The Monster line-up has been a huge sales success for Ducati spanning over 15 years.

The stripped down machine allowed a legion of new customers to enjoy ‘The Ducati Experience’ through competitively priced entry level models right through to highly specified versions with almost Superbike levels of engine and suspension performance. (Click Here for a quick rundown on the lineage of the Monster)

In a somewhat brave move Ducati has now consolidated the eclectic Monster line-up into only three models. All of which are new.

Gone are the range topping four-valve Monsters. That void now filled by an all new model dubbed the Streetfighter.

The M696, M1100 and M1100S form the three pronged Monster attack for 2009. All are powered by air-cooled engines with two valves per cylinder and with the emphasis clearly placed on the ‘light is right’ philosophy.

The new patriarch of the Monster family is the 1100S and we recently put the 168kg light and 1078cc might of the new beast to the test across some of Sydney’s infamous motorcycling roads.

In this day and age 95 horsepower doesn’t sound all that muscular or impressive. The Japanese produce 600cc sportsbikes, around half the capacity of the Ducati, but still with more outright horsepower. What those bikes don’t produce however is a bulging muscular range of useable torque that drives hard from as low as 2000rpm.

Only a few years ago twin-cylinder Ducati engines would shake and shudder if asked to take a lot of throttle from under 4000rpm. But Ducati have used the precise metering available through fuel injection to overcome those deficiencies inherent in the layout to make that prodigious bottom end torque useable without your fillings being rattled out of your teeth and the chain threatening to jump off the sprockets.

The result is that always fabled bottom end grunt is now actually a real world reality. Lean back a little, crack the throttle in first gear and the front wheel will start rising, almost lazily, from around 2500rpm.

The Monster 1100S is fitted with very tall gearing so it's a good job that the engine is well behaved at low rpm. 100 km/h equates to little more than 3000rpm but the engine does not complain when asked to overtake from that speed and revs smoothly right through to a rev-limiter that cuts the fun around 8500rpm. That limiter makes the last third of the 12,000rpm tachometer redundant.

Ducati Monster 1100 Review - Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3