Monster 900 questions?

[edcase]

Looking at a mint 3k miles 95 plate at the weekend. Any problems with this bike in general?

thanks,
ed

[macca]

Cant recall any monster specific issues but there were a few cylinder head stud issues around the early/mid 90s on the 900 engine. The original studs (silver coloured?) used to work harden from the different heat expansion rate of the cylinders compared to the studs and eventually snap. My old SL snapped studs from front and rear pots (at different times) luckily in warrenty so were replaced at ducatis cost. The new more stretch capable studs are supposed to be black if I remember rightly. Note Ducati had a policy at the time of only replacing the studs on the cylinder that had a snapped one, even though it was fairly easy to assume the other pot would likely fail from using the same batch of studs.
With the low mileage it may be possible that the studs havent had enough stress cycles to fail yet, with now added burden of having 12 years to seize in place. Mine failed in the winter when the temp change from start up to running was greater so if the bike has only had summer use this may have avoided the stud issue, though i could be talking complete tosh on this bit, just my theory.

[edcase]

Hmm, good to know, thanks.