A week spent with a Monster 620 Dark, and test rides on a StreetFighter and a StreetFighter S.
First – where I am coming from is that I ride a first-generation Ducati 900 Monster, that I bought new when they came out in 1993, and have ridden daily since, for 163,000 miles so far. So that’s my main baseline for comparison. I also owned a Honda CBR600 for a few years as well, so that’s my Japanese bike baseline.
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A couple weeks ago, I had a little problem with the shifting mechanism on my Monster (which turned out to be very minor to fix, but it took me a little while to get to it). A friend of mine who rides a little 620 Monster was going out of town for business, so she was kind enough to lend me her bike while mine was awaiting repairs. This was about the closest to an entry-level bike as Ducati has made in a long time; I think they were in the $6K range new.
I was very pleasantly surprised. This is a really good bike. It definitely had less punch than my M900, but not by all that much. My 900 makes about 75hp; the 620 makes 60, and I think is geared a bit lower, so it had plenty of punch for all regular riding. It’s got enough performance for you to go a good deal faster on the road than it’s a good idea to go. The handling seemed very good; noticeably better than my bike’s.
In addition to the daily commutes, plus a visit to a client about 100 miles away on one day, during this week the biggest local Ducati dealer (GP Motorcycles, San Diego) was having a Grand Re-Opening open house to occasion their move to a new location. Part of the event was a ride in the morning; about 25 bikes, mostly Ducatis, a couple each of MV Agustas and Aprilias, a Triumph, a BMW, a Suzuki. The ride took in several good twisty roads in East County, then up Palomar Mountain (a very popular bike road these days), than back to the shop, about 170 miles total.
The 620 acquitted itself admirably on this ride. The handling really was very good. Ducati revised the Monster frame in 2002, basing it on the ST instead of the original 888-based frame. Also, the smaller Monsters have a 4.5” rear rim with a 160/60 tire instead of the 5.5” with a 180/55 as my bike has. I had read that the narrower tire helped, but was surprised by the amount; it turned in faster and felt more balanced. I had no trouble keeping up with the ride, mixing it up with (and sometimes feeling held up by) supposedly much faster bikes; the 620 kept high cornering speeds, and had good drive out of even the slowest corners.
The fastest group on the ride was the shop owner on a new Monster 1100S, and two guys on 1098s. They went and left the rest of us behind, stopping at each intersection/crossroads to let the rest of us catch up and know which way to go next. For much of the ride, though, I was the next bike after them, only a couple seconds behind, and leading the main group, and not holding up anyone behind me as far as I could tell. So I was quite impressed with its ability to hustle along if asked to.
I rode it about 800 miles in the week I had it, and got 50-55 mpg (the best mileage was on the shop ride, harder riding than the regular transportation riding, oddly enough). It’s got a 3.3 gallon tank, and on the ride the low fuel light came on at 160 miles, and I filled it up at 180 miles, which is a decent range.
I would recommend this bike to anyone who is more interested in riding than in ego boosting; a very good bike all around.
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This weekend was the introduction of the new Ducati StreetFighter, which is basically a naked bike version of the 1098 superbike. 155hp, about 370lbs dry, lots of attitude. I had seen it at the Cycle World show in Long Beach, back in December, and was not super impressed style-wise. This is what I wrote back then:
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The big news at the Ducati booth was the world premiere showing to the public of the StreetFighter. For any who don’t know, Ducati’s naked bike line has been the Monster for a long time. It began with the basic air-cooled 2V/cyl engine, and later the “S4” versions were added using the water-cooled 4V/cyl engines from the 916 through 999 lines. These were cool, but never quite aesthetically gelled – too many hoses and radiators to fit well in the Monster style frame. Ducati has decided to split the line now. The Monster will continue, but only with the air-cooled engines. The naked 4V/cyl bikes will get their own style, and become the StreetFighter line. So this is the first of those, basically a naked 1098. They did a pretty good job of capturing the street fighter style, and a quite impressive job of cleaning up the mechanicals and hiding a lot of the hoses and gubbins in a little chin spoiler setup so it looks pretty clean. There’s not much on the market now that would be a direct competitor, really. Perhaps the MV Agusta Brutale. It’s got a lot of ‘tude, like a Triumph Speed Triple on steroids. I don’t think it quite grabs me, but it is cool, and I’d certainly like to ride one at some point.
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So now comes the chance to do that. I went to GP Motorcycles in the early afternoon, and took a spin on the standard StreetFighter, then went one town over to Moto Forza in Escondido where they were having a more formal test ride setup. There I took another ride on a standard HyperMotard first, then the StreetFighter S.
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StreetFighter impressions:
Holy shit.
Might as well smear my driver’s license in seal blubber, tape it to my helmet, and jump in the polar bear enclosure at the zoo. This bike is a moving violation, that doesn’t even wait to happen; it just happens.
Getting on, the bike is a little tall. Not quite as tall as the HyperMotard, and certainly not unmanageable, but quite a bit taller than my Monster. The bike’s stance is sort of canted forward like a hot rod – low in the front, high in the tail, with the rider pretty far forward. The instrument panel is small and low down on top of the headlight, so the bike visually disappears before you. You look forward and just see the world rushing at you. You look down at the instruments, and you can actually see the tip of your front fender and tire right out there leading the way.
The main impression of this bike is that it is confidence-inspiring. The riding position is comfortable, the controls all work very easily and precisely, and the performance happens effortlessly. Everything is low effort. The steering with the wide bar is light. The clutch is light. The shifting action is very light and smooth; I was particularly impressed with it. The braking is one finger, maybe two in a panic stop. This would be a great chick bike; it rewards finesse, not being manhandled.
Even on a first ride, being extra careful due to unfamiliarity, it was much faster than I generally go. I went up a little twisty stretch that I am very familiar with; it’s on my usual way home from work, so I ride it most days. The second corner is the trickiest, slightly off-camber, and tightens a bit as it goes. It is marked 30mph; on my bike I take it comfortably at about 60, at 70 I am starting to drag boots and muffler. On the StreetFighter, I swept around it at what felt like a comfortably slow pace, with plenty of reserve, glanced down at the speedo and saw it was at 80. No drama, no worries, just smooth ridiculous speed. It was like that everywhere. Effortlessly, on an unfamiliar bike, going 20mph faster than I usually go, perfectly easily and safely. Astounding.
This bike was fitted with the Termignoni exhaust, which gave it a rich deep rumble, a bit loud, but not really obnoxious. I did stop by my house to show it to my wife, and she said she heard me 3 blocks away, and knew it had to be me – nothing else sounds like a Ducati. She thought it looked pretty sweet (this one was white), but noted that the passenger perch looked a bit less than sumptuous.
Although the style still doesn’t really grab me, it is not a bad looking bike. It seems it would be competent all around, much like my Monster – good for general usage, comfortable enough for traveling (one-up), fantastic at fun blasting. You could get some soft luggage on it. The mirrors actually give you a good view behind. It’s really well thought out all around. The standard model comes in red or white, with a black frame; I’d definitely take the red. I had been a bit skeptical of the idea of trying to contain that level of superbike performance in a naked standard style bike, but they have done an excellent job.
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HyperMotard:
I had test ridden one of these once before and really liked it. I still do. It’s clearly not going to beat the StreetFighter in a race, but it does perform really well. The big air/oil-cooled twin has a ton of grunt, and really sounds and feels it. This bike takes a different riding style than the StreetFighter; much more active, more manhandling, more effort. But this is also a hell of a lot of fun. This bike still puts a grin on my face like no other bike I’ve tested. The shifting is a little clonky, but otherwise everything works smoothly. The passenger area is much improved over the Monster or StreetFighter, and there would be more room for luggage as well.
I’d have to say, for my money, this would still be top of my list if I was to buy a new bike.
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StreetFighter S
This differs from the standard mainly in having higher standard suspension (Ohlins instead of Showa at both ends), as well as having the electronic traction control (DTC) system. Neither of these changes were strongly apparent on the street. We were riding fairly briskly, but I think you’d need to be hitting it pretty hard for the Ohlins or the DTC to really show up as making a difference. This bike had the stock exhaust, which was definitely more civilized than the Termis were. The S comes in red or black, with a bronze colored frame; it looks really good in the black.
The impression of effortlessness and confidence-inspiring was reinforced. Again, it just felt like the bike naturally wanted to do the right thing, all the time. It never felt like I was wrestling the bike, or like I had to “tame” it. It just went fast, smoothly and easily.
I would probably not spend the extra for the S version, given that I am not really a very hard rider, unless I was rich enough that the $3K difference didn’t matter much to me. Either way, though, I think this bike is a fine machine, and stands to be a big success for Ducati.
PhilB
Experiences at both ends of the Ducati spectrum
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