#monster

Many a Ducatisti bid a sad farewell to the air-cooled Monster when Ducati introduced the liquid-cooled 1200 and 821. Those same traditionalists might be happy to learn Ducati is developing a new Monster using an air-cooled engine.

VerticalScope’s VP of Sales, Jason Brilant, has lived a variation of this scenario first-hand. While riding on a rural highway in the Allegheny National Forest, he encountered gravel on the road and low-sided his 2012 Ducati Monster 1100 EVO at about 50-60 mph and slid into a grassy ditch. Jason and his bike were banged up but not badly broken, and he was able to ride his cosmetically injured Duc the 220 miles back to his Toronto home. Functionally, the only impairment was a broken gear-shift lever that eventually and painfully wore its way through his boot during the ride home.

Dubbed The Greatest of All Time, or simply, the GOAT, Valentino Rossi is a living legend in the world of MotoGP. Fans can’t get enough of him, and frankly, neither can we. Thankfully, Rossi is also sponsored by Monster Energy drinks, who have funded the making of a five-part series entitled: Valentino Rossi: The Doctor. In this, the fourth of five episodes (you can catch episode 1 here,  episode 2 here, and episode 3 here), we step away slightly from Valentino the racer, and learn more about Valentino, the person. As we get to know more about Valentino, we see how his jovial personality carries over onto the racetrack. Check out Monster’s description of the video below, then keep scrolling to view the episode.

For this holiday edition of our weekly Church feature, we turn to 2006, and a motorcycle many surely wanted Santa to bring them: the Ducati Monster S4Rs. By this point, Ducati had figured out that plucking the engine from their full-fledged superbikes and stuffing them into the Monster chassis was a recipe for success, and the S4Rs was no different. Though the 999 may not have been the 916 successor Ducati were hoping for, its engine was nonetheless a wickedly exciting thing, and its use in Monster trim would be no less thrilling. How thrilling? Once again, here’s Yossef Schvetz to tell you. And once you’re done reading the story, be sure to check out the photo gallery for more images.  

For this week’s Church feature, we check back in with our pal Yossef Schvetz. The year is 2005 and his travels find him somewhere in Italy, pondering the ideal motorcycle for this particular adventure. A 450 Supermoto would be an ideal mount for the twisty pass he’s occupying, but the drone to get to this magical area would be torture. The remedy, he reckons, is Ducati’s Monster S2R. An interesting choice considering there are faster, more brutish Monsters in Ducati’s lineup. Well, Yossef has a reason behind his particular mount. Let’s have him take it from here. For more pictures, be sure to check out the original story’s photo gallery.

For 2015, the Ducati Monster family – which includes the Monster 1200 and Monster 821 – doubles in size with the addition of the Monster 821 Stripe and Monster 1200 Stripe, both introduced today at EICMA 2014.

There’s no reason not to be outside, behind the handlebars if you’re a female motorcycle enthusiast. It’s estimated that more than 12 percent of motorcycle riders are female – and this number is going up. For some, riding a bike is a high-adrenaline alternative that saves on gas, but for others, it’s a way of life and a passion that brings them inner peace, freedom and empowerment.

Ducati’s venerable Monster was lauded for its simplicity. A major contributing factor to this praise comes from being equipped with relatively simple air-cooled engines. Later, the decision was made to deliver even more power from Ducati’s popular seller, and the boys in Bologna wedged liquid-cooled L-Twins into the Monster.

The stage is being set for the most important motorcycle exposition of the year, the EICMA show in Milan, Italy. EICMA is so large and so important that we’re making the trek to the Continent to give it our full coverage, including video updates from the media-only days, November 5 and 6.