Ducati Monster 1000 is reliable,fast enough for a bit of fun,good brakes.. perfect road bike

I took delivery of the Ducati Monster 1000 in June 2003 after waiting for about three months for delivery. I still remember a night, not long after I got it, standing in my garage with a beer, just looking at the bike. OK, I know its no 996, but it's still a damned good looking bike.

I'd come from an YZF600, via an '01 Bonneville (too slow in the end) to the Monster. I've actually replaced the bike with a Honda Blackbird (long story, but not because the Monster was bad). I used the bike for commuting during the week, although not every day, and for playing on the roads around Canberra on the weekends. In total I put about 6000km on it in the eight month I had it.

Now anyone familiar with the roads through the Cotter area near Canberra, will know their surfacing leaves something to be desired, but there is a great variety of corners, from nadgery tight stuff to very open sweepers. I'm not really into big speeds, preferring the tighter 55-80 km/h posted corners. I like to roll through a string of corners smoothly, rolling on and off the throttle, with minimal gear changes. I found the Monster fantastic at this and even with my dubious riding skills I was easily able to double the posted speed limits.

With the relatively upright riding position, it felt like a big dirt bike to me and made punting the thing through tight corners easy and fun. I found the suspension to be the best I'd sampled to that point, although backing off the rear compression dampening did help on lumpy Aussy roads. I found the seat to be really comfortable like the riding position; even my wife didn't mind the back seat. The tank was only about 16L, which limited touring range to about 250km, although, I never got caught out.

But the real centrepiece of the Monster was its engine - the then new 1000DS had great torque and not unreasonable power (about 90PS I believe). It provided me with the ability to punch out of corners bloody quickly (for me) without having to keep the revs up like on my previous YZF600. It was an absolute demon away from the lights. I really had to work on my clutch technique so as not to flip the thing, due to the fantastic low rev torque. A bit of advice on that subject; if you carry a pillion or gear on the back, beware of the speedo smacking you in the face away from the lights or out of slow corners. But I loved that engine.

The engine was much more involving than anything else I'd ridden, with the dry clutch rattle, induction honk and, once I fitted a pair of Staintune oval end-cans, the exhaust note was stunning. It may sound anti-social, but I did chuckle into my helmet a few times when I'd pass a parked car and set off its alarm. The overall sound of the bike made my hair stand up. Oh, and the delicious cammy burr on the over run still has me salivating. But I had to sell the Monster.

I've now got the Blackbird, and it's a fantastic bike - different to the Monster in most ways, but still great. But I do miss the Monster sometimes - its engine, the sound and the feel of the thing that really made an impression.