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Air-Cooled Engines Returning to the Ducati Monster Line

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Ducati’s 2017 line seems to be getting the full monty this week, with yet again more spy photos emerging of the Italian company’s upcoming motorcycles. Today’s installment sees us looking at the Ducati Monster line, which appears to be getting a third variant for 2017.

As you can see from the photo above, the Ducati Monster lineup will see the addition of an air-cooled model, likely one that shares the same 803cc lump that is found in the Ducati Scrambler.

This so-called Ducati Monster 803 will slot in below the other Monster models, which will likely include a Ducati Monster 939 and an updated Ducati Monster 1200.

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Bikes

2016 Ducati Monster 1200 R Mega Gallery

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Just in case you didn’t know, the Ducati Monster 1200 R debuted today, and with 160hp, it’s officially Ducati’s most powerful naked bike…ever.

Ducati hopes that the changes to the motor and chassis will make the Monster 1200 R more skilled on the track – something that Monster 1200 S doesn’t really do well – and it shows from the photos.

Speaking of photos we have 74 mega-huge – yup, that’s a word now – photos ones for you to enjoy, after the jump of course.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Is this a worthy successor to the Ducati Streetfighter 1098? How does the Monster 1200 R stack-up to the KTM 1290 Super Duke R and Aprilia Tuono V4 1100 RR, in your mind?

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Bikes

Ducati Monster 1200 R – Powerfully Naked

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As promised, the Ducati Monster 1200 R debuted today, making this new top-of-the-line Monster the most powerful naked bike ever from the Bologna brand.

Helping Ducati with that powerful claim is the use of the 160hp Testastretta 11° DS engine on the Monster 1200R, which is an interesting choice, as it’s not the DVT units found on the new Ducati Multistrada 1200.

Helping Testastretta motor are large oval throttle bodies, 58mm exhaust ports, and a compression ratio of 13:1. The Monster 1200 R is still EURO 4 homologated though, making the machine both powerful and friendly to the environment.

Other noticeable enhancements for the “R” model are the new tail and front section designs, along with revised chassis that includes higher-spec Öhlins suspension, fore and aft.

For good measure, the wheels are forged aluminum Marchesini units, which should help make the 456 lbs (curb) mass of the motorcycle move a little more easily.

Available in either “Ducati” Red or “Thrilling” Black, the 2016 Ducati Monster 1200 R will be available at dealers in early 2016, says Ducati North America.

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Bikes

Honda Grom + Ducati Monster = Gromcati

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Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali has made it pretty clear that he has no plans to take Ducati into the realm of small-displacement motorcycles, and he has flat-out squashed the chances Ducati making a scooter.

This could make thigns difficult for the Italian brand, especially as the hot regions for growth in the motorcycle industry are teeming with machines under 500cc in engine displacement — markets like Southeast Asia, India, China, and the countries of South America.

So what are Ducati fans in these countries to do? Well, where there is a will, there is a way…and for some Thai riders, that will manifests itself in a big way. Taking one perfectly good Honda Grom monkey bike, add in some impressively downsized Ducati Monster bodywork, and well…we introduce to you the Gromcati.

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Bikes

Ducati Monster 821 – A Midsummer Dream from Bologna

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Once we saw the unveiling of the Ducati Monster 1200 at EICMA last year, we knew it was only a matter of time before Bologna wedged its new 821cc liquid-cooled motor into a mid-size Monster machine.

That feeling was fueled further by spy photos the 821cc Monster making their way onto the internet, and now we have confirmation of the mid-sized Monster, as Borgo Panigale has officially launched its Ducati Monster 821.

Borrowing the 821cc Testastretta 11° engine (112hp and 65.9 lbs•ft) found on the newly revised Ducati Hypermotard, and its cousin the Ducati Hyperstrada, the Monster 821 continues Ducati’s trend to repurpose powerplants for multiple product families.

The Ducati Monster 821 also continues Bologna’s new trend of building its lower-spec midrange motorcycles with double-sided swingarms, to help further stratify and differentiate its models.

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This Is Pretty Much What the Monster 800 Will Look Like

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With the advent of the Ducati Monster 1200, it was only a matter of time before Ducati’s middleweight liquid-cooled “Monster 800” would be spotted, and unsurprisingly the machines have a great deal in common.

The one big difference seems to be that the 821cc Monster gets a double-sided swingarm, which has become Ducati’s new way of differentiating between its big and medium displacement models of the same machine, see entry for Ducati 899 Panigale.

With the spied Ducati Monster 800 looking ready for primetime, and Audi’s ownership of Ducati seeing new models debuting outside of EICMA and INTERMOT, a pre-fall launch isn’t out of the question — in fact it’s been the norm with 2015 model year bikes for a variety of brands.

Giving us an excellent glimpse into what the Ducati Monster 800 would look like, Luca Bar has again used his Photoshop skills to render up images of the still unreleased “baby” Monster. Seriously, if there wasn’t Luca’s logo on these photos, we could probably pass them off as five-fingered studio shots. Nice work Luca!

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Bikes

2015 Ducati Monster 800 Spotted

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It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that with the debut of the Ducati Monster 1200, that another liquid-cooled Monster was around the corner, to fill in the middleweight segment. With Ducati already having the 821cc Testastretta 11° engine in the Hypermotard line, that engine will get double-duty with the 2015 Ducati Monster 800.

Spotted by the BikeSocial website run by Bennetts, an insurance company in the UK, we get our first glimpse of the Monster 800 in the wild. Visually the 821cc machine is almost identical to its 1,200cc counterpart, but the new Monster clearly has a double-sided swingarm holding onto its rear tire.

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Reviews

Ride Review: Ducati Monster 1200 S

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Over the last 20 years Ducati sold more than 275,000 Monsters, and now the Italians introduce an all-new 1,200cc version, which will make it not only the most powerful but also the heaviest Monster of the past couple of decades.

The 461 lbs (wet with a 90% tank of gas) beast will replace the aging Streetfighter 1098, and Ducati hopes it will sell a whole lot better. Mind you, there is currently a fierce competition in the Super-Naked segment so time will tell if they succeed.

We rode the Monster 1200 S model on the press introduction in Tenerife, so it’s worth noting that this bike has $2,500 worth of upgrades over the base model, such as Öhlins suspension, Brembo monoblocs, and lighter aluminum alloy wheels. It also does away with the 10hp restriction of the non-S version, bringing the total output to 145hp.

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2014 Ducati Monster 1200 – Water-Cooling an Icon

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With the Ducati 1199 Superleggera already shown ahead of the 2013 EICMA show, the big news from Milan for Ducati is the long-rumored 2014 Ducati Monster 1200.

Saying goodbye to the Monster’s air-cooled v-twin, the Monster 1200 takes a page of history from the Ducati S4/S4R, and uses Ducati’s water-cooled Testastretta 11° motor (as seen on the Ducati Multistrada 1200 and Ducati Diavel) for its locomotion.

Surely to ruffle a few feathers with the hardcore Ducatisti, the water-cooled engine isn’t the only big innovation for the Ducati Monster 1200, as the motorcycle is the continuation of Ducati’s chassis philosophy, as seen on the Ducati 1199 Panigale. As such, both the steel trellis main frame, and steel subframe, attach directly to the Testastretta 11° engine’s cylinder heads.

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Are You The Ducati Monster 1200?

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At the German Auto Show, the Boys from Bologna debuted the Ducati 899 Panigale, a “super-mid” version of the Italian company’s superbike platform. A bit too big to be a supersport class machine, the 899 Panigale should however be fun on the track, in a vein that is similar to the Suzuki GSX-R750 and MV Agusta F3 800.

That premise will have to remain as conjecture for us though, as while Ducati’s chosen few are currently gathered in Bologna right now for the press launch of the 2013 Ducati 899 Panigale, Asphalt & Rubber was not among those who crossed the pond for the launch and test ride. Not to worry though, we should start hearing the initial impressions from journalists shortly.

Meanwhile, we can turn our attention to the machines that Ducati has yet to debut to the public, though will be shortly. A&R broke the news last week about the upcoming Ducati 1199 Panigale R Superleggera, and we have already seen spy photos of the Ducati Scrambler (said to be a 2015 model, if it gets the production nod), and a liquid-cooled Ducati Monster 1200.

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Spy Shots: A New Water-Cooled 1198cc Ducati Monster?

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Oh the ever *cough* elusive motorcycle spy photo, how we love to hate thee. No brand has been a greater “victim” of its pre-production motorcycle being caught by eagle-eyed photographers than Ducati, so it should come as no surprise then that first machine on the pre-EICMA buzz machine should be one from the Bologna brand — though cynicism, it is an interesting machine that has been spied.

Having the clear lines of the Ducati Monster line, our subject today has the curious oddity of being equipped with what appears to be a water-cooled Testastretta 11° motor, which is fitted with an exhaust that looks suspiciously like the lump found in the Ducati Diavel.

If the interwebs are correct, and this new Monster is indeed a 1198cc beast, then that means that we likely have a modern take on the Ducati Monster S4 on our hands, which should good for 150 hp of street terror.

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