Test Ride Road Ducati Monster SP
This agile and minimalist Ducati was in many ways a parts bin special, produced from Ducati stock cluttering up the storeroom shelves – but it worked. Thankfully for Ducati its sales success helped sustain Ducati through some difficult financial times. When Carl Fogarty won the World Superbike Championship on the exciting new 916, it was Monster sales that funded his campaign. And the rest, as they say, is history.
I’ve been lucky enough to have ridden almost every incarnation of Monster from air- to water-cooled and rode my own early Monster 600 to Italy when I was young enough to know no better. Now all those trellis frames and air-cooled engines are long gone because Ducati only produces one Monster, an entry-level naked that was launched in 2021 that uses the 111hp/82kw 937cc Testastretta V-twin. At least it was until now, and the much-anticipated arrival of the Monster SP which is new for
