They ran it at the Springfield mile. Troy Bayliss and Johnny Lewis. Bayliss didn't do much with it. Johnny made the main event but threw it down due to speed wobbles. I think he was in 10th place at the time.
I've actually been thinking about getting one for my wife. She had a Blast but we eventually sold it because she didn't ride enough. This would be a great in-town commuter for me and a weekend rider for her.
More miles, less maintenance. The enjoyment of riding, reliability and maximum containment of maintenance costs are among the main criteria that drive every engineering project in Ducati. We have spread out services to intervals of 15,000 miles and on some models the main Desmo Service is not necessary until 18,000 miles. Even the simplest services, the Oil Service, have been spaced out to 7,500 miles or 9,000 miles, values that represent an absolute reference for high performance engines.
Having worked at a Ducati dealer for a couple years, call me skeptical.
Unless the parts have gone down in price substantially, a routine engine rebuild is expensive. A blown engine is astronomical.
That said, if they can go that far without servicing they look a lot more appealing...though they are not particularly DIY friendly bikes to service.
I really do not like the new Monster. I much preferred the older chassis.
I've been to a couple of seminars at the local Ducati dealer that have been pretty informational. First one was on doing a major maintenance service on a Panigale. It really doesn't look that bad once you get down to the heads. They did say that they had about three hours in it to strip it down to the point where they wanted to do the seminar part. Another 3 1/2 - 4 hours to put it all back together again. This was all to remove body work, remove exhaust, radiator, etc. Not exactly an easy to work on bike for the shade tree wrench. Still nothing all that complicated, but it will be a weekend project for most home mechanics, assuming they can get the needed shims right away. They did say that many engines will go through 2-3 major service intervals without needing valve adjustments. I don't even want to think about what they charge to service a Panigale.
A naked bike would be much quicker to service. I believe most of those are still using engine platforms with shorter service intervals though. Ducati is certainly advancing on the service aspect, but the rest of the world isn't exactly static in this regard either.
The other seminar was a tear down and rebuild of a Panigale engine. That was pretty fascinating to me, not so much to see and touch the parts. Sure that was cool, but hearing them talk about what goes into the parts, and how they get some incredibly tight tolerances between parts, was a real eye opener. The Panigale is light years ahead of anything I've ham-fisted together. Having said that, assembly is still quite conventional, and straight forward. The real magic is in the manufacturing. Again, I'm sure you will see some of the same things going into other brands top tier platforms, but it was very cool to see it in person and hear it from the factory reps.
If I were to buy a Ducati, it would almost certainly be a naked, and I would almost certainly do the wrenching on it. I'm pretty sure it's only the engine going into the Panigale that has the very long service intervals though. The Monsters, and I'm pretty certain, the Scrambler... Not so much, but better than older Ducatis. Don't buy one thinking you are going to save money though!
I remember in '08 Ducati making a big deal over increasing the intervals from 6000 to 7500 miles. I told them then that if they get to 15000 like everyone else then they'd have something to crow about.
Scrambler doesn't look bad. I like the new monster way better than any before it.
I fell in love with the Streetfighter recently, but I know I would only get myself in trouble.
Some of the models are at 15k intervals now, if this one is at 7.5k, there isn't a ton of body work to remove. I have a buddy with a 848. Once we stripped it down to where the dealer wanted it, they did the valve shim service REALLY cheap.
If they'd reproduce the 350/450 single from the 60's I'd be the first in line to get one. I always thought the bevel-geared cam drive engine was one of the best looking engines of all time. KTM's success with the 390 ought to let Ducati know that there's a market out there.
I remember being at Daytona years ago and it was a sea of bumble bees and then here came Jimmy Adamo in his Ducati. There was no mistaking the sound of that one.