DUCATI MONSTER S4 (2001 - 2007) Review

Version: M4 s4 monster

Year: 2003

Annual servicing cost: £400

Plenty of grunt

Buying experience: $10000

Version: S4RS

Year: 2007

Visceral, raw and old skool. Looks amazing. I love it. I've had Ferrari drivers wind their windows down to ask me for a few blips of the throttle! Now I know why the previous owner had tears in his eyes when he sold it to me.

I brought my Monster S4 with just 5,500 miles on the clock, and it came with nearly £2000 worth of main dealer service bills – That should have been my first warning sign ! The bike has now cover nearly 16,000 miles in total and all I can is that it’s the most unreliable bike I have ever come across in my 25+ years of riding. The dealer network and serving costs, even from indies specialist is nothing short of a joke. Allow £650 plus for a belt service that needs to done every 2 years regardless of mileage is totally unrealistic in this modern day ( my old Fireblade didn’t did a spark plug change until 16K miles ) I would sell it tomorrow but the S4 has an immobilizer issue now that even…….Ducati UK can’t resolve ! Avoid avoid avoid at all cost to your wallet.

Excellent and fun bike with fantastic acceleration and handling. The ride position is agressive and adds to the desire for speed. You can reach 100 mph with acceptable windblast in a very few seconds so care and experience are required :-) Okay for touring - the tank's capacity is a bit small though. The colour scheme is just the business.

Superb motorcycle, quick, comfortable and just great fun to ride. Crap tank range but cant have everything. I just love riding it!!

i love my s4r it is what i like and want in a bike, iwas in the local malaga bike store for a new (helmet) and came away with a reciept for the s4r that blue with the offset stripe yummy, apart from the test bike mine was the first to come out the dealers, did i like the looks and comments i got (well a tad maybe)out of the bikes we ride and the ones for the tours it is still my fav steed, i love the power, and for me it handles as i want of it, my son on the other hand prefers the 620i or the buell,suits me!

My S2R 800 is my first 'big bike' having taken my test after about a year riding around on a Honda 125 Varadero. For me the Monster is ideal as it is perfectly manageable and well behaved but quite exciting enough for me at the moment without generating any fear of running away with you. It looks simply superb and the naked style ensures the airflow reminds you slow down! On the motorway or in town it has performed faultlessly and has considerably more to teach me over the coming months. Strengths: Styling, size (I'm 6'2" but its entirely comfortable), gearing and smoothness of engine response, big back wheel. Weaknesses: Turing circle is not great and a passenger peg just randomly fell off! Expensive Ducati servicing but such exclusivity and technology always comes at a price.