Ducati Monster: Your first look at the icon, rebooted
The Monster is one of Ducati's most important models, and luckily it looks like the next one may be good.
There are some big changes afoot in Bologna for the Monster, but the results look good.
Ducati is the brand that kicked off the whole "sports naked motorcycle" category way back in 1993 with its original Monster. Since then, the Monster has remained one of motorcycling's most beloved models and has gone through many iterations -- most of which were pretty good.
One of the Monster's constant features throughout its life span has been the famous Ducati steel trellis frame. It's iconic and practical, and while Ducati isn't the only brand to use the design, it's the brand most associated with it. But now, thanks to a pair of leaked design sketches sent to Roadshow by an unnamed source close to Ducati, we see that the trellis frame may have reached its end.
These sketches show a number of major updates to the model, but the classic Monster DNA is still there.
This isn't especially surprising in and of itself, given that the big V4-powered Panigale and Streetfighter models don't use a trellis at all, relying on a cast aluminum spar design instead. The sketches of this forthcoming Monster, which we expect to be revealed in the next month or so, given the EICMA show's postponement, seem to show the same kind of spar design.
But even as some things change, other things remain the same, like the Monster's iconic round, low-mounted headlight design. We're glad to see this not go the way of the Streetfighter, with its more insectoid nose. At least as far as we can tell, the riding position seems to be typical Monster too -- that is to say, a relatively upright position with high and rear-biased footpegs.
There's honestly not a lot else that we can infer based on the sketches. Still, given that it's a Ducati, we expect it'll have big Brembo brakes, probably some kind of Showa suspension (based on the Monster 821) and a delightful L-twin engine -- possibly a detuned version of the 955-cc unit found in the Panigale V2 that's been rejiggered for more torque.
