Quote:
Originally Posted by Chief_For_Life58
I have a 2011 ducati monster 696. I dont really have many complaints? What are peoples complaints? I dont ride it for long periods. Just to work and misc rides. Work roundtrip is like 30 minutes. I wouldnt want to ride it for long periods or rely on it as my main mode of transportation. Not comfortable enough. Shifting isnt super smooth but again its enjoyable enough for what it is. Cheap - easy to maneuver - looks good.
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yep.
*edit...Nevermind...BD covered it before my post**
I think Big Daddy's comment was from the older generation Ducati's that were known to have frequent and costly maintenance intervals, that made them almost cost prohibitive to ride if you didn't have deep pockets. Beyond the initial cost of buying a beautiful Italian bike, we're talking probably $1k service every 5k miles if the shop were to do it (check valve clearances / adjust, timing belt replacement etc).
Once they went to 7500/15k intervals for the belts & valves (starting with the 696/1100 2v motors I 'think'), things started to improve from a $ maintenance standpoint. Now they're up to 18k on the 821, 939, and 1200 motors. Which, compared to where Ducati was at 15 years ago or so, is amazing to me. The cost of the dealer doing these major intervals is still expensive, but the frequency is much much less / more in the ball park of the Japanese bikes etc in terms of frequency of valve clearance checks/adjustments (I'm not sure what the Japanese manufacturers are for their I4 motors, but I would 'guess' probably around that 20k-24k range? Big Daddy probably has a better handle on that).
But, if you had a 2v air cooled Ducati, the maintenance is alot easier than a 4v S4R (if we're talking that same time frame of 2004 to say around 2009)
I test rode a 696 and 1100 back when they still had the 2v motors and both were a blast to ride. especially the 11100
the 696 might be too small for my frame in terms of weight/ suspension. but nothing a new shock with correct spring weight/rate wouldn't fix. power wise, it was a blast. The usable power / street-ability (If that's a word) of the Monsters are what make them a hoot to ride and can be picked up relatively dirt cheap $.