Commuting in London on a Monster?

Colleague has a M750 for sale at around £1700.

Was thinking of buying it to commute into London. Is this sensible?
Will it take the abuse?

Or better to buy a boring Jap bike to do the job.

Experienced advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[craigie]

How far would your commute be each day?

I commute on my M750 to London every summer (fair weather rider )
24 miles each way I had to go up 2 teeth on rear sprocket though, unless you want a left arm like arnie

I used to commute on my M900 about 40 minutes each way most of the year (except for ice when I once took a rather foolish shortcut down a steep hill...) The clutch is the biggest pain because it's heavy but the M750 is much better and with a sprocket change, as per Carrot's advice, you should be OK - but even better, just buy the bike - it'll make you smile a lot....

BTW that avatar is WONDERFUL Carrot!!!!!

[Headhunter]

As you've put London down as your location I'm guessing you wouldn't be doing more than 20-30 miles each way?

IMO I think a 600 upwards could handle this quite easily.

I commute in everyday on a 620ie no matter what the skies say and the only thing I'm concerned about is the high servicing costs (unless you can do the majority yourself and I'm a learnin') plus the occasional times when Ducati bikes tend to play up, but I've found this to be more the case with those that aren't ridden as often.

If high servicing costs are not an issue keep a jap bike for the weekends and the straights and buy the Duke but possibly go for an injected model.

Bodybag on here use to do some crazy miles commuting (still does I think) and I'm sure he can give you some insight.

Cheers Benson made me hoot

[Nickj]

Should be OK, I'm doing over a 1000 a month and the IE's fine with it... More fun as they're scabby county A class roads and the traffic is good enough to make quite reasonable progress.
Go for it

I commute into London everyday, whatever weather. 90 mile round trip each day. I'd say just watch out for w@*nkers driving mini cabs, however loud your pipes are they still find you invisible and that doesn't matter if your on a rice burner or an italian stallion
Buy it and be lucky

Originally Posted by mystic

I commute into London everyday, whatever weather. 90 mile round trip each day. I'd say just watch out for w@*nkers driving mini cabs, however loud your pipes are they still find you invisible and that doesn't matter if your on a rice burner or an italian stallion
Buy it and be lucky

My commute is Slough to Soho. I see three types of bikes parked in the bays near work. Nice pretty bikes that are ridiculously clean, dirty well used jap bikes that looks like they can go on for miles, and scooters.

I really find filtering scary. Cars and Vans just want to kill you because they don't want you to get pass.

Servicing cost would be an issue if it was really high. I am toying with the idea of replacing my travelcard with a bike. So want to keep within the cost of the travelcard.

I don't know about you but I don't very excited about taking my train ticket for a rip on a sunny weekend

I guess most of your journey will be on the M4,
You can rip straight down the bus lane from Hayes to Chiswick.
Great fun watching all the car drivers faces!

I commute in from Carshalton to Oval everyday - Termi's would help when filtering but the most courteous drivers for me are vans and lorries, they seem to have a respect for bikes that Yummy Mummies in chelsea tractors don't! You're right about the travelcard too, can't take it out for a blatt at the weekends or trade it in for a sexier model a couple of years down the line!
Can't recommend it enough especially now it's lighter in the evenings.

Lucati

Originally Posted by tonny006

I guess most of your journey will be on the M4,
You can rip straight down the bus lane from Hayes to Chiswick.
Great fun watching all the car drivers faces!

That bus lane rocks!

[Seb_uk]

Go for it - Ducati's can handle the mileage just as well as jap bikes, people who say otherwise have either never ridden one or only ever do twenty miles on a sunny weekend! I've done nearly 9000 miles since last May on my 695, most of them commuting between Colchester and Brentwood on the A12 which is about a 90mile round trip. Just keep on top of the service intervals and you should be fine.

[Gadget]

My 600 has nearly 36000 miles on and is still going strong. I commute to Westminster every day when I am working. The more you use it the better. The 750 should be a hoot round town.