Ducati Monster Forum

Name: Mike
Location: Detroit Metro
Bike(s): '94 Yamaha XJ600 (deceased, parting out)
How long you've been riding: 5ish years off and on

Don't own a Duc yet. Fairly certain I will come Winter/Spring '11. Been a HUGE fan of the Monster since I first looked at em as a potential first bike years ago. At the time I didn't know anything about maintaining a bike but knew I couldn't let someone else touch my vehicle :) Now that I've got a few years of riding and motorcycle related mechanical knowledge under my belt I'm fairly confident that I can treat a Monster the way it needs to be treated ;)

So I've started to doing some research on my future purchase, found this place... as well as what you guys refer to as "that other place" or "the other side" and have been reading LOTS on modifying Monsters. Can't seem to find much on general maintenance and repair tho. I've heard and read about some of the Ducati specific special tools but havn't seen much from the DIYers out there as to how much can be done without them.

So,
HI!

and
Can I hear from some of the DIY guys regarding typical repair of these machines? Would like to know what sort of costs are associated with ownership aside from the financing and the factory req'd check ups.

Mike

Welcome Mike, good luck in your search!  Any idea on which models you are looking at?

You should be able to find quite a bit of information on maintenance and repair in our Tech (http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?board=4.0) and Tutorials (http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?board=54.0) sections.  The Tutorials section is a mix of mods and basic maintenance.

You'll find quite a variety of owners on the site, some do all their own work, some do the regular maintenance but take it to the shop for larger repairs, and some have a shop do all the work.  Some of the difficulty/costs will depend on what model you end up getting.  You might want to also post up this question in the General (http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?board=1.0) forum to get more responses.

Good luck again and definitely keep us updated. :)

I'm really hoping I'll be able to find a gently used '09 1100, I think I like the aluminum subframe on these newer models, tho I may immediately take mine off and clean up the casting marks if I get one :D Also, I seriously dig the dry clutch, the sound, the mod availability, the utter uniqueness of it. If the budget/availability doesn't play nice I'll probably go for a 796. I've never ridden an SSA bike and I really dig the look of those wheels.


I just found the tech/tutorials sections and was heading back over to update this with a "I found em" :)

That link to videos @ ca-cycleworks.com + the alphabetical tutorial list is really priceless.

Thanks :) I've got a whole mess of craigslist searches, an ebay search and cycletrader search setup in my bookmarks that I check every few days trying to pay attention to price/availability for monsters around me. I'm also cleaning my garage out, looking for things to ebay, parting out my old motorcycle (bent valves after a timing chain tensioner failure  :'( ), all in an effort to not effect household finances. My girlfriend manages the books around here and I spend too much :D