Sell your soul?

[emily's driver]

Anyone seen the pictures on the Ducati website of the Desmosedici RR. If that isn't a bike worth selling your soul for I don't know what is. Perhaps my views are a little misplaced on a Monster forum after all but if they could only combine those looks into a 1200cc 999 replacement I would be seriously tempted. At £37,500 it's likely most won't see the light of day, save for the very lucky few as I suspect most will end up in private collections or bought as investments. My old dealer still has a Serie Oro F4 in his showroom and it has not even turned a wheel in anger since it was lovingly put together at the factory. Another colleague of mine bought a Serie Oro Benelli Tornado and has it in his lounge on a plinth FFS. Sad but true.

I am still finding the transition from years on full on Ducati sportsbikes to un-faired Monsters a little strange to come to terms with. Whilst the S4RS is a cracking bike I have yet to "gel" with it. I will give it the benefit of the doubt over this coming summer and take stock of what I have learnt about it. It's very agile and plenty fast but my main concern is that I cannot get comfortable on it as I am so used to sitting in the bike rather than on it (as was the case with 999S I had and the 748SPS, which was by far and away the most fun I have had on two wheels. Both bikes are a big departure from each other (last and current) so it is perhaps unfair to take the two in context with one another but time will tell if it's the kind of bike I wish to keep in the long term.

[sidrat]

i think the Desmosedici is ok, but not really pretty (i am probably the only person to think that!). However where can you possibly use 205bhp on the road? I am all for people having 205bhp and being able to go 200mph and long may it continue, but fun?? i think all monsters are fun thats their appeal to me, i can have fun from walking pace right up to being put in jail, i find most sports bike, my old 999 included only started to be fun when i should have been in jail!!

[Pugi]

However where can you possibly use 205bhp on the road?

Mainland Europe and the US.

[emily's driver]

i think the Desmosedici is ok, but not really pretty (i am probably the only person to think that!). However where can you possibly use 205bhp on the road? I am all for people having 205bhp and being able to go 200mph and long may it continue, but fun?? i think all monsters are fun thats their appeal to me, i can have fun from walking pace right up to being put in jail, i find most sports bike, my old 999 included only started to be fun when i should have been in jail!!

Well it's a definite improvement over the 999 which I don't think ever captured the public eye as the 916 did when it first appeared. Countless appearances in magazines and art exhibitions are testimony to that. So the Desmosedici RR, is at least part way by contrast, to achieving that same reaction from people. Perhaps they should let Alan Jenkins design the successor to the 999 due out next year and the long awaited Monster as well, since Pierre Terblanche has not done himself any favours or for the company so far. The good thing is that so much technology has been incorporated into the new bike which means a lot of it will ultimately filter down onto the more affordable bikes in the company's range, which has to be a good thing. Monsters aside (as well as the D16 RR) Ducati badly need a replacement for the 999 with some fresh iconic looks, which hopefully if the new Moto GP replica is anything to go by, might entice more people to buy into the brand.

Like most bikes, very few people exploit their full potential on the road and in this case it's highly unlikely you would be able to without a trip to casualty (or the morgue) and / or some time in the slammer. What I would like to see is a less stratospherically priced variant of it with similar power to a 1000cc four, in a newly styled package to replace the 999 / 749. I know there is one on the one way, but I hope it's not the weekly comic's prediction of a 999 with a 916 style facelift. 2007 / 8 will also see the new Monster break cover, if the articles I have read in the Italian press are anything to go by. As far as the fun aspect is concerned, I don't think it's the Monster per say that is responsible for it, it is just that the power the bike produces (especially in the S4RS) is more tractable and therefore useable from low to high speeds and over a broader band of the rev range. The 916 - 999 range never made any pretences to be suitable as a bike to be manhandled around town, as it was a pain in traffic and lumpy below 3000rpm, but get it out on an open road and it came alive. Trouble is that ruled out a large part of most journeys and that was what you had to live with. Saying that if you could put up with it's traits and foibles, it was a great bike to ride. I think the Monster's appeal lies in it's more rounded nature. Trouble is I hanker for both sides of the coin.

[Nonnie]

You want the moon on a stick you do.

Everywhere I go in this house, there are pictures of the Desmosidici, everywhere!

[Migsangel]

I sold my soul sometime ago...Do you think they'd take my self-respect, dignity, and shame instead?

[Chaos Inc.]

I might be considered slightly, mentally off balance, but I don't like the bike. To me it's just another sportsbike. If I was offered one the first thing I would do is sell it and buy some more monster to mess around with. The other possibility is that I always like hooligan machines as apposed to speed ones and the monster is a born streetfighter.

[MilesB]

I might be considered slightly, mentally off balance, but I don't like the bike. To me it's just another sportsbike. If I was offered one the first thing I would do is sell it and buy some more monster to mess around with. The other possibility is that I always like hooligan machines as apposed to speed ones and the monster is a born streetfighter.
You sound perfectly sane to me.
What is the point of a bike that powerfull - where are you going to use all that power - and how many people have the skill to do so ??

[Chaos Inc.]

You sound perfectly sane to me.
What is the point of a bike that powerfull - where are you going to use all that power - and how many people have the skill to do so ??

To be honest, what I would love to do just to see the expression of pain across the world is get one, tail chop the entire pillion seat, remove fairings and then adrenil snorting streetfighter it. Can you imagine the sweet howls of rage and pain that would eminate from around the globe.

[emily's driver]

You sound perfectly sane to me.
What is the point of a bike that powerfull - where are you going to use all that power - and how many people have the skill to do so ??

At the risk of re-iterating myself, I agree with the general concensus about too much for the public road, but was merely musing over the possibility of Ducati producing something of a tamer nature (most in line fours of a similar capacity are pumping out a more manageable 50BHP less, ie 999R, GXR1000) in a similarly styled package with a more real world price.