For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.
-Leonardo da Vinci
This is how i felt since i tasted what a Ferrari is…
Got back home and at least once a day i keep thinking about it.
I was like a drug addict.
So i needed to find at least, a replacement/substitute.
The answer was under my nose that whole time all these years - it came while i was looking in my garage for some stuff and I saw Adrian’s mighty R1.
That’s it - I need a motorbike !
The quest began to find my own version, something that represents me.
Thus a DUCATI was the only one for me.
Why?
Quite simply they are the equivalent of a Ferrari in the bike world.
Both Italian with racing pedigree and style.
I will get in the technical part later.
Next year came with another trip in the USA thus to secure funding.
But i didn’t had anymore patience to buy it after i got back home.
Looking on some Italian equivalent of crag’s list motorbike websites, i saw it.
Oh no !
I must to have it.
Found some trustworthy middlemen who took care of everything and i only had to give them the money at the bike delivery to my house so i had nothing to loose.
Excellent service from them !
Anybody from Romania who want’s a bike from Europe (i think they do more countries than Romania), these are the guys to talk to - [email protected]
I pulled the trigger - all of this while i was working and had a few minutes free there and there.
Then i called Adrian.
Man, you should get in our bank account by the next days xxxx $
Then by the end of next week you will get a new bike.
The money is for it.
Please take it to my garage.
Don’t let mom find out just yet.
Adrian was like - WTF ?!
Remember, i was in the USA, bought a bike from Italy to ship it to Romania.
So yeah, that’s how we roll.
He was so happy as well, finally we will have 2 bikes to travel - another expression of freedom for us.
Karma was on our side, that year it was exactly the 20th celebration of the Ducati Monster family !
Then the bike finally arrived to Adrian, one of the best days ever for me when he told me the news - i was so happy !
Adrian took it for a spin.
His bike, the R1 is a rocket ship so he knows what real power is - 145 HP pure madness on a bike.
Mine had ‘only’ 78 HP so both our expectations were ..mild.
These were his words:
Da’ hell did you buy, man ?!
Over 4ooo rpm i am afraid to rev it, i can’t think, the noise and how it growls is intoxicating !
It’s a monster !
So i was literally scared
And i got back home and this was waiting for me !
All the alarms went off, neighbors got out, what is that ?!
A 2000 Ducati Monster 900 S
Yes, that’s the name Monster.
Makes sense now, does it?
Yeah, it’s 15 years old - just look at it !
This is the bike that started the naked era way back in the 90s.
This is what people say about them.
Ducatis will always have a place in my garage.
I don’t care how impractical they seem on paper, or on the road.
They make you feel like a superhero, an extension of your abilities and that’s what riding a bike is all about.
A Ducati is an intoxicating sound on a V twin with 2 wheels.
It sounds absolutely fantastic leaning sideways on its stand dripping sex appeal.
The Monster is the original, unique “naked” motorcycle.
Launched to rave reviews in the 1990s, it has become a cult classic.
Today, more than ever, it is a modern motorcycling legend, the bike of choice of top designers, Hollywood stars and Formula One racing drivers.
This bike is awesome, easy to modulate brakes, easy effort on the clutch, perfect riding position.
Great overall bike, not the fastest in its class but certainly the coolest and best handling bike I have ever rode.
Plus, the lightweight of the Ducati air-cooled, Desmodue, L-twin engine makes this model a breeze to handle.
As a basis all Monsters are the same… sort of.
In the original idea they are the same.
Are they a sporty cruiser?
A layed back sport bike?
A naked street fighter?
All of the above.
They can really be whatever you want them to be.
That’s really the beauty of the monster.
It’s a naked bike - meaning that it has no fairings on the sides obstructing the view from that signature Ducati Trellis frame.
A design that’s lightweight, very stiff and great handling.
Significance: The first bike that blended open air urban comfort and sport bike handling with drop dead gorgeous styling and full-on hooligan capabilities.
So yeah, like a Ferrari, it’s all about the experience.
Remember i didn’t even rode one and i didn’t even had a shadow of a doubt that i wouldn’t fit or like them.
Things like you feel them.
In our world these is what it is all about.
Let’s get in the technical.
Why are they so special?
First - the engine
L2 Twin which is a torque monster.
Because they put it at 90 degrees so you get better cooling for both cylinders, not like a V where the air hits only the first one.
Plus it’s narrower (than a L4 for instance) and give you superior balance and compactness.
It’s built like an American HEMI, 2 valve per cylinder, hemispherical combustion chamber and the torque delivery is …flat !
(different model but it’s the same so you get the idea)
So no matter the gear or RPM, you will always have all the power on tap.
That’s why Ducati became nr. 1 so many years in the World Bike Championships.
A Ducati L-twin at 90 degrees, gives you the power in better cycles, half the pulses that a straight 4 thus combined with the low and mid level torque, it gives you the ability to accelerate in the corners where you win or loose the race.
Then another unique pure racing feature to all Ducati engines is that they have spring-less valvetrains.
Desmodromic they call it.
It gives you the ability to rev very high without the metal fatigue phenomenon that occurs once you push certain limits.
Remember, these where all stock features way back from the ’60.
Regarding the Monster,its engine family is with us for almost 20 years, way back from the ’80/’90 - again racing heritage.
Reliability?
I found a guy in the USA who had, get ready, over 300.ooo km on the original engine !
Opened it up, change the pistons rings and was ready to go again.
Ah and it was the carb models.
Fuel injection started with my year, 2000.
It’s the same displacement 904 cc, minor changes over 2 decades - pure mechanical harmony.
Then the Trellis opened frame (so you can see everything happening and the legendary agility and handling capabilities) mechanical simplicity (doesn’t get simpler then air cooled, twin cylinder, 2 valve per cyl, cam belt driven configuration), basically 4 bolts and the engine is out, Brembo 4 piston racing breaks, dry racing clutch, aluminium swing arm, Showa upside-down rebuildable racing forks (you got forks like this from ’92 on Monsters, Japaneses superbikes barely above 2005)
Mine is the ‘S’ model for ‘Special’, so i got Ohlins rear suspension - one of the best in the world.
Also came with carbon accessories and the pure madness and intoxicating Termignoni carbon mufflers.
So you see, Ducatis always have been ahead of their time.
Ah, who likes Formula 1, racing and Ayrton Senna?
Guess what he always had?
Ducatis.
Him on the same model as mine - 900 Monster.
How about that for a personal racing heritage touch.
Then my turn came to ride it.
Yeah, don’t have any on-board recordings yet, only thing I can say that every time I rode it it made life so simple, time became relative, because you are in harmony with the machine.
It’s more than that, it’s an extension of yourself.
The way this thing makes you feel and i not talking about speed, just cruising, it’s so agile - again Ferari like special.
I like them red but i got this one because the technical and options were maximum, this is the end of the line for this generation.
The Monster line has a lot of variations - when the time comes this is how i will paint it - one of these two.
I couldn’t believe that my quest for the replacement drug ‘for’ a Ferrari, was over !
Don’t have that many roadtrips with it because we had to came to UK very soon after this but the dragon quietly sleeps until it’s time to fly again.
Just listen to it …
