Greetings All

[Flip]

Originally Posted by tricky1962

After decades of full four finger braking under normal circumstances I know I'm going to have trouble with modern brakes (as it was I occassionally kangaroo'd to a halt at a junction on the test ride :-)), so I will need ABS and after all why not?

Welcome along...

I think you'll pretty soon get used to modern brakes and then have more trouble adjusting back to the T500's if going from my 1997 Monster to my 180mm Twin SLS Grimeca equipped 1965 Mach 1 race bike is anything to go by and that is with proper race compound shoes and tyres and I won't even get started on my 1978 Vespa P200E's horrible drums.

Obviously my 900 pre-dates the latest Euro compliant offerings but I can confirm as others have said that the gearboxes do need a firm foot between shifts so as not to find a load of neutrals but they do shift easily once they have a few miles on them (mine has a tad over 32,000 with all bar the first 900 or so done by me) and I have no problems finding neutral either when rolling or after coming to a standstill but a top tip is to go all the way down the box and then snick it up into neutral just before coming to a halt.

Again, as touched on already the relatively big lumpy V (or L is you prefer) Twin definitely doesn't like to be laboured and they do tend to be over-geared to comply with the 'drive by' noise tests to keep the revs down thus reducing the exhaust volume so going up a few teeth on the rear sprocket (far better than going down one on the front) will make it easier to keep the motor in a sweet spot, as will learning to ride the torque wave rather than hunting revs for power but they do take a bit of getting used to.

May I ask, was it just your experience of that test ride putting doubt in your mind over that particular bike or was there other things (neutral light obviously) putting you off it?

For your information the Ducati Roadshow is setting up along the coast from you at Whiteways Café, Bury Hill courtesy of P&H Motorcycles as Crawley on the 31st August so might be worth popping along as they'll have demonstrators there and there's bound to be plenty of Ducati owners there to chat with which might help settle your mind.

https://www.phmotorcycles.co.uk/ducati-roadshow/

[Nickj]

On theme like any bike, maybe a bit more Monster need a little time to get the best from them
Oh and I couldn't pass this one up having a suitable pic to hand

Originally Posted by tricky1962

Oi NIckJ!

T500 on spannies - sorry but that is Mozart on two wheels
Alongside these Termi things obvs :-)

Hard to argue with that



There you go, T500 with spannies

[mickj]

Welcome to the forum Tricky, good luck with your hunt.