Moleys Going to PeterBogHorror

[captain soup]

Originally Posted by half man, half mole

Recently, there was a request on the Monster Owners Club site from Ride magazine for an S2R 1000 owner to come forward to join them on test. I was lucky enough to be selected so tomorrow I will be in Peterborough with one Rides editors, Simon Weir, to compare 'Christine' with a new M1100S. It's planned to be a days back to back riding and I've been promised a burger for lunch .

As this will be my first time on the new generation of Monsters, it should prove to be an interesting experience. The article should appear in the Christmas edition.

Roll on tomorrow .

You lucky lucky boy, have fun.

[Ducati Girl]

Woohoo Moley, enjoy your 15 minutes of fame! I will ensure to buy that edition, so long as you autograph it for me?

[NeanAndChris]

Great to see you today at JHP Moly and all the best with you trip on the 1100. That post about Neans struggle with the new motorcycle test I told you about is really to big and involved to cut and paste here, but it can be viewed on the Jinlun owners club site, unfortunatly you gota make an acount on there to view it, but if anyones interested in looking this is the link http://www.jinlun-owners.co.uk/ Neans and my handles are a little defferent there though! Neans is scentedshower and mines Loadbragle, the post is named DSA Module 1 crash.

[The Dieselinator]

Much as I'm a tart and like to see my bikes in the press, I'm not sure I'd like my pride and joy evaluated by a professional tester. May make you view the bike in a different light after.

Sure Christine is a peach though

[998gsb]

Will you be speeding, popping wheelies, burnouts and donuts then...?

[half man, half mole]

Well that was a long but interesting day.



Review to follow......

[stevel]

Originally Posted by The Dieselinator

Much as I'm a tart and like to see my bikes in the press, I'm not sure I'd like my pride and joy evaluated by a professional tester. May make you view the bike in a different light after.

Sure Christine is a peach though

Pete, that reminded of the classic example of this - the bloke who bought a D16RR from Duc Glasgow, did about 15 miles on it and handed it over to MCN to ride round the streets
Still haven't understood why the **** someone would do that???

[half man, half mole]

What a great experience .

I landed at the Ride offices at ten on Wednesday morning after riding the ninety odd miles to get there and was met by Simon Weir. What a top chap, a RoSPA instructor who seemed quite enthusiastic about Ducatis, and Monsters in particular. He immediately put me at my ease and so we set out to enjoy ourselves.

First order of the day was a short ride with me on Christine and Simon following on the 1100S just to make sure I wasn't a complete lunatic. It was like doing your test all over again but I was on their insurance for the day, after all. After that formality was out of the way, we swapped bikes so we could do a back to back comparison.

First thoughts were, despite the 1100S being much more modern in design and appearance, it still felt very similar to the S2R 1000. The engine, despite having a little extra capacity, felt remarkably unchanged although a little smoother. Could that be due to me being used to the power delivery with Arrows and an open airbox? Despite having Ohlins all round, I really couldn't notice much difference with the suspension although I am a steady (or slow) road rider. Simon was of the opinion that they only really come into their own when you start to push things a bit more. The bars were a little wider, the riding position felt a little more upright, and the display was, if anything, harder to take in at a glance. The brakes were most disappointing, with this bike seemingly having two settings - on or off. This was very disconcerting when I first used them . The bike felt a little more compact than mine and more suited to the 'vertically challenged' rider.

We did a fair few miles, over twisties and a few dual carriage way stretches before stopping for lunch to compare notes. Then on for another ride, a few photos taken of the bikes, both on the move and parked up, to compare the various similarities and changes. That was quite amusing as the photographer, to his amazement, kept finding more and more bits of carbon on Christine. Then we swapped back to complete the comparison over another hundred miles or so before returning to base and another trek home through rush hour traffic for me.

My conclusions is that I like the new Monster more than I did initially, having been slightly put off by how modern some of it looked. I now appreciate the marque has had to evolve and Ducati have done a pretty good job at this . They have kept the things that make it 'at a glance' a Ducati, such as the air cooled engine, the trellis look frame and so on whilst bringing some of the less important bits such as the headlight, clocks, etc into the 21st Century. They have not so much brought out a brand new Monster (such as happened when the 749 appeared after the 748) but this can be considered to be the continuing evolution of the marque.

A big thank you to Simon for making it a great day, and the article should be appearing in the Christmas edition of 'Ride'.

So will I be trading Christine in for a new, younger model?

I think you already know the answer to that one .

[NewBVTwin]

Glad you had a good day. Hope the free burger was everything you hoped it would be.

Sounds like theyve put the 1098 stoppers on the new monster then. They feel pretty savage till you get used to them.

Can you remember where the twisties you speak of actually were?

[Steve GD]

Nice write-up, Mike.....looking forward to seeing the article when it appears. Just hope Christine isn't feeling jealous

[Rudolph Hart]

Nice report Mike. Looking forward to seeing the article in Ride.