DUCATI’S LITTLE MONSTER

You have to hand it to Ducati. For a company that prides itself on its heritage and and uses it so much in its corporate image, its engineers aren’t afraid to leave the past in the past and embrace the future. I mean, whoever thought that Ducati would one day drop its signature trellis frame in 2011 which brought so much success on track? Then the unthinkable happened in in 2018, when it dropped the other thing that’s been a constant in Ducati sportsbikes since, well, the beginning – the 90-degree L-Twin engine. The V4 era arrived, and V-Twin Ducati sportsbikes became a thing the company used to make once upon a time.

But then, some things don’t change. The 2021 Ducati Monster uses the engine from Ducati’s 900 Supersport and tweaked “front frame” from a Panigale superbike, with features such as a round headlight, aggressive looks, exposed engine, and basic suspension and brakes to keep the cost down. Sound familiar? That’s because it is.

The very first Ducati Monster produced in 1993 was also made from the 900 Supersport engine, a tweaked frame from the then range-topping 851 superbike that had a round headlight, aggressive looks, exposed engine, and basic suspension and brakes to keep the cost down. In the past 28 years, the Monster has taken on several forms and sold more than 350,000 units. In 2021 the Monster has gone full circle and returned to the exact same formula that conceived it.

There isn’t any bling R or S level spec Monsters, although there is a Plus, which gets you a fly screen and pillion seat cover. The reintroduction of the Ducati Streetfighter into the range, this time with the V4 engine, has taken all the pressure off the Monster 1200 to try and compete in the high-performance naked bike sector,