‘This is literally where the Monster comes alive…’
Blackstock gets used to the Ducati and heeds its encouragement
IN LAST MONTH’S acquaintance with the Monster, I mentioned the quiet voice as I rode it; “faster, faster…” Well, this month I got the chance to listen and see what would happen… On a warm day, I rode the same test route eight times testing products. I use this particular route as it has a bit of everything; high-speed dual carriageway, 30mph urban crawl, some tight and technical cross-country sections and my new favourites… fast, sweeping A- and B-roads.
This is where the Monster literally comes alive. Get the throttle open, use the engine’s midrange grunt then allow it to transition to top-end power and bang it through the gears using the two-way quickshifter. It powers away from slow corners with an urgency that makes me feel I need to get weight over the bars and still surprises me how it reacts to the slightest nudge of throttle.
But what really impressed me was the speed it can carry through bends; not the slow ones but faster, longer, sweeping bends where you can get it committed. It leans, grips, digs in and just goes round. There is no drama, no wobbles or shimmies — it’s rock solid and by the time you’re into the corner, the voice has stopped saying; “faster” and is now whispering; “We got this…”
Even when you need to change line, as one of the sweepers tightens part-way round, it does it with confidence and ability; another has a huge compression halfway through; again, no dramas. Every time I ride this route, the corner speed increases and the grin on my face gets wider.
But it’s not just sweepers where the Monster works. I did a 150-mile dual-carriageway and traffic-clogged motorway trip and was pleasantly surprised. Wind nose over the helmet was fine — no screen or fairing to cause turbulence so swooshy laminar flow all the way. The slightlyforward riding position means windblast is not too troublesome and for longer runs, it was fine. The glorious exhaust note let rush-hour M1 traffic know I was filtering as well…
However, what wasn’t fine was the vibrations in the bars. As it was warm, I was wearing thin, sporty ventilated gloves and it wasn’t long before my fingers started to tingle. I thought it might be down to the gloves themselves, so I tried a different pair and the same thing happened. A quick glance in the mirrors (which are largely useless anyway) confirmed my thoughts — the images were so blurred, they were almost no use at all; I could tell the difference between a black car and a white one but not if the latter had a pretty blue light on top.
I might try some heavier bar-end weights to see if that makes a difference. Or just suck it up and wear thicker gloves…