M S4RS

S4RS Story

The reason to buy this bike in 2006 is not so easy to explain...

On one hand I did want to own a Monster since ages but it was always a 2nd priority compared with collection bikes or race bikes. Then there was my old Paso - I did until 2005 still the most Kilometers per season with this bike from 1987. The Paso clearly needed a replacement which was first of all a street bike and not a 100% race bike. Another motivation was to ride a more light weight streetfighter bike, where I would be able to train all these nice "Christian Pfeiffer"-like stunt thingies. Finally it would be really useful to have a "comfortable", "simple" and "reliable" bike for larger holiday trips like Luxembourg-Sardegna. The only comfortable, simple and reliable Ducati in my collection was still the Paso - a Ducati with the age of almost 20 years...

In theory everything was crystal clear. It should be a Monster with latest Desmodue 1000 DS engine (like Jane) but the latest chassis like it was presented it 2005 with the Monster S2R. End of season 2005 I was waiting for "my S2R" to be presented to the world at EICMA in Milano. When I saw the bike there it was exactly what I expected but ... I saw as well an other new bike which completely messed up my plannings - the S4RS: 100% high tech Superbike technology in Monster frame. Everything was perfect: Öhlins front and rear, Monoblock radial Brembos, 10 Y spoke wheels, Testastretta engine, colors and design... The only problem - this was not really the bike that I have been waiting for. The bike is in fact to powerful and to complicated for larger holiday trips. The big cooling devices are not what you need on a Funbike. And the Testastretta is a real track engine where you don't want to think about service intervals and costs.

Resume: This bike was absolutely cool and it was clear that I would like to have it - my precious ...

I did order it together with Irene's S2R end of March 2006. This was exactly 5 years after our last new bikes order, which we thought at that moment was acceptable.

There is no bike on the planet (we can discuss about if a Harley Davidson is a bike...) which can (and has to) be customized as a Ducati Monster. Of course there is as well nothing which can as expensive as customizing a Ducati Monster. This is why you have to find and buy customizing parts slowly piece by piece. I started already in October 2005 to collect pieces the customize the new Monster (at that moment still the 1000 DS in mind). The new Monster should be customized straight from the start and one thing was clear no one should see this bike with a non cut tail and Mickey Mouse ears.

A 2nd thing was clear as well - Despite of Fun-, Road- or Touring-, this bike should clearly be a Race Bike. 148 HP was at least 20 HP more than my current top bike - the 996 and I was sure it would be possible to set her on a diet with the target of less than 170 kg.

11th of May 2006: The bike did arrive but there was no reason to hurry. The weather was a mess and Heng had a plenty of time to fix Sandweiler while the bike was waiting to be released from the AMS showroom.

23rd of May 2006: When I finally took the bike to ride it home it was raining like hell.

24th of May 2006: She was looking like a lady after mud-wrestling. The fist action - bike cleaning, removing the useless ballast exchange some tuning parts.