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1100EVO as commute bike?

18K views 33 replies 14 participants last post by  B0427 
#1 ·
Hello everyone, I'm interested in some firsthand experiences about 1100EVO as daily, commute bike. I am aware of true nature of Ducatis, specially older one, V twins with dry clutch and all that stuff, but I'm still considering monster because of it's weight to hp ratio, but mostly because of weight cause it's probably lightest in it's category.

Important thing is that I'm considering Diesel version because of beautiful matte green finish and all blacked out other parts. I find it exceptionally beautiful and stylish, there is also different seat and seat cover, I don't know I'm just in love with the way that edition looks. It is going to be for sure harder to find them, but price seems to be the same or slightly higher than same age/mileage regular 1100.

Anyway, I think '11 models brought abs/wet clutch/dct and such stuff so I wonder how that had affected this bike usability as commuter bike? I saw that there are some fuel mapping tweaks and mods which can calm down characteristic nature of Ducati.

I know that there are some conflicting opinions in terms of changing nature and raw behavior of bike, but aside from that can this monster be little bit closer to linear jap bikes with new fuel mapping and wet clutch?

That would be first question, second is problem in terms of engine heat and air cooling engine, how long it can be driven in heavy traffic with lots of stoping and idleing in high temperature days? Is there problem with seat (balls :D) heat?

I probably have some more questions, but this is for start. Also I need to test drive it because of seating position and overall feel.

Sorry for bad English, best regards :)
 
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#2 ·
You can commute anything if you try hard enough. How hard you wanna try is the question.
Electronics are nice to have but it won't be a deal breaker. Tons of motorcycles on the road does not have ABS or TCS.
Yes an air cooled engine can be problematic in stop and go traffic so a good idea is to detour find a more enjoyable route.
 
#3 ·
I agree with you the Monster Diesel is a beautiful bike, it's almost perfect the way it comes stock.

But the M1100 is a lot of bike to be used ONLY as a commuter. It's a bit of a waste as you will never use the 6th gear even on the highway at legal speed.

Have you considered getting a black framed M696 and then customise it to look like a Monster Diesel?
Get the tank panel painted matte green, powder coat all the grey parts and get a custom trimmed seat. If I had a black framed M696 that's what I would do. It would be cheaper and thanks to its smaller displacement, it runs cooler in traffic.
In my view, half the fun of owning a Monster is to personalize it.
 

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#4 · (Edited)
Wow that green 696. I was thinking about that option, but didn't see it on the pictures until now. Original diesels have some more details which I really like such as beautiful seat, single sided swing arm, side exhaust, aluminium air vents, yellow calipers, 25 more hp with almost same weight, a bit higher seat height which I like (as you said, it's almost perfect as stock), but still this 696 idea is worth considering.

It's not going to be only for commuting, but regular bike for everyday, including open roads, shorter distance trips. Maybe even some longer but not longer than 200-300miles.

I used supersport bikes for that stuff, they are also not perfect in terms of practicality and comfort but power output and clutch are smooth and effortless to operate (japanese ones, but even aprilia is ok). I want to try something different now, original idea was cafe racer, but building it requires some more spare time, same amount of money as I would spend on newer bike and they are still older with technology and reliability. I want something stylish and retro looking, easy to ride, lightweight, nimble, something like bicycle but with engine :grin

Yamaha presented XSR900 past year, it is new, smooth, nice looking bike, almost everything is perfect and every reviewer likes it except 830mm of seat height which is maybe going to be to much for me at 5ft8, not too much, but I like when I can flat foot bike. But I still have to test ride it and see in person. Monster is not that retro looking, but it's essence of naked bikes, it's stylish, has more ''soul'', better sound, it's even lighter. I don't like scrambler even it is in same category as XSR, but I like yamaha more in that comparisson.

I've spend some more time searching and reading last night, alot people live with it on everyday basis. Best way to find out that is to find and test ride one, but I wanted to ask if it is possible to change fuel map and make it more smoother and predictible, and if wet clutch is significantly easier to operate?

There is also 1200 for same price, I like how it looks, it's liquid cooled, more smooth, but I've read owners review and guy said it feels 50% heavier, not near nimble and light as 1100EVO.
 
#5 ·
The Evo is not a very docile bike and it is only fair at commuting. It is a great roadster, however. It likes to be ridden aggressively, and the big Desmo engine is a bit lumpy under 4K rpms. You may want to pick up a nice metric v-twin like an SV650 for getting to work and back, and save your Evo for blasting around on the weekends.
 
#6 ·
Yeah, a bit discouraging arguments as I expected. I'm trying to tame a rebel. I will have to stick with one bike only for now. I'm interested in two totally different natures, safe, linear, effortless to ride XSR900 or Monster (no further need for explaining this one). On the other side they share most important thing for my next bike, they're both lightweight and easy to handle judging by others comments and test rides.

Then I guess I maybe started this thread to soon, I should test ride both of them and see what suits better for me. If anyone have that fuel mapping sorted out and have experienced smoother riding feel free to post some details :)
 
#7 ·
I'd say that if the 1100EVO Diesel is the bike that really make you grin, buy that exact bike, and ride it. Monsters are good all-around bikes, and can be used well for just about any purpose, except hardcore two-up long distance touring. (And even then, the bike will do it just fine; it's the passenger who begins to object.)

I've been using my M900 Monster daily for 23 years. About 70% commuting/daily transport, 25% traveling/touring, 5% sportriding/trackdays/etc. For me, 500-600 miles in a day is pretty easy for just getting somewhere. 300-400 is better if I'm exploring, doing twisty side roads and so on. Longer is do-able; when I went to the MotoGP in Austin last month it was a 900-mile day to get there.

The bike has done its duty faithfully, has been reliable and durable, has held up extremely well. I've got 252K miles on it so far, and I'm expecting to ride it for as long as the core bike (engine/transmission/frame) holds together.

PhilB
 
#10 ·
Wow, huge respect for that 250k miles for all these years [clap] That's great what you said, I'm perfectly fine with good/average daily bike, it doesn't need to be perfect for just commuting. I just don't want it to overheat and stall in occasional hot / start stop days and not wanting to die while cruising at lower speeds. After reading some of comments these days I got impression that Monster is totally unrideable in such conditions so I started questioning.

A wet clutch is less grabby than a dry one but it still requires a bit of pull strength on liter engine. Installing a larger slave cylinder will make it easier.

For city ride-ability on a M1100 I would get rid of the O2 sensors and exhaust valve motor, change the gearing and only then get a ECU reflash. I wouldn't install Termis slip-ons on a Diesel edition as the "cheese grater" exhaust is one of the main feature.
I totally agree about exhaust, but other things you mentioned would be done just to make it a bit smoother. I'm aware that I can't make it same as yamaha, but just not to be worst bike out there in traffic.

The Yamaha will be the better commuter by far. I use an er6n as a commuter and the m1100evo for fun. As it is now, makes for a lot of heat and not ideal fueling for city commuting. The 696 with termi package had none of these issues. Both were geared with 14t sprocket. Have you also considered a 2010/11 street triple R in matte gray? Light, smooth, nimble and with some character as well as looks. I wonder if the termignoni package fixes the fueling
Is your evo stock? I thought about street triple with single round headlight but I like more XSR and Monster lately. Monster actually started to really grow on me, more and more, specially this one with diesel details. But in order to ignore higher price, hard time finding used one, worse reliability than newer yamaha, more expensive maintenance and all those modifications that needs to be done it really has to be at least ok/good in city traffic. I don't want all that sacrifice for bike that would want to die when driven in slower traffic :D

Oh my God it's beautiful. Has anyone seen this green in person?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWRsQ7QxA88

What about 1100EVO engine common problems? What is the worst thing that can get broken and how expensive it is? Ducati is in general more expensive for maintenance but those air cooled engines should be simple and easy for fixing / maintaining?

Thanks everyone for feedback :)
 
#8 ·
A wet clutch is less grabby than a dry one but it still requires a bit of pull strength on liter engine. Installing a larger slave cylinder will make it easier.

For city ride-ability on a M1100 I would get rid of the O2 sensors and exhaust valve motor, change the gearing and only then get a ECU reflash. I wouldn't install Termis slip-ons on a Diesel edition as the "cheese grater" exhaust is one of the main feature.
 
#17 ·
Alot useful info here. This was pretty much eye opening to me because of standard Ducati reputation. Thanks everyone, even if I don't get one I would now know what to say about Monster to someone interested.

Has anyone driven Yamaha FZ09/MT09/XSR900, all of them share same/similiar weight/suspension, and I'm also considering XSR? It would be nice to see what people think about weight distribution/handling about monster vs XSR. It's same on paper, but it is maybe different feeling when driven.

There is two solid dealers of Yamaha in my country so I think it is going to be easy for me to try XSR, but Monster hmmm, I'm not sure that there is even one 1100evo here, even dealer doesn't have one for a test ride. They have new 821/1200, but not older ones. Actually ducati is so rare here, that I never saw 1100 in person in second largest city in my country -.-

There is also pain in the ass to find used diesel, damn, there is only maybe ten of them in Europe marketplace sites, I found cheapest one in France for 8900eur (9900$) and with importing, registration, transport to me it would cost probably 12-13k $. There is one almost new (<100 miles) in Switzerland, but its 1-2k more. XSR, brand new is 11200$ here.

821 would be great, but it's almost same weight as 1200, some people say it is really nimble and easy in city, but some say that it is significantly heavier, and no near nimble as 1100evo.

What would be approximate price of mods like this?



and also sprocket modifications, bazzaz mapping and similiar stuff mentioned earlier?
 
#9 ·
The Yamaha will be the better commuter by far. I use an er6n as a commuter and the m1100evo for fun. As it is now, makes for a lot of heat and not ideal fueling for city commuting. The 696 with termi package had none of these issues. Both were geared with 14t sprocket. Have you also considered a 2010/11 street triple R in matte gray? Light, smooth, nimble and with some character as well as looks. I wonder if the termignoni package fixes the fueling
 
#12 ·
You are probably right, I've always had bikes that I liked and didn't care much about negative sides because they gave me more positive ones, but I never have ridden ducati and I know that they are a bit rougher. Actually I'm from Serbia and past ten or so years, average temperatures got a bit higher than usual, they can get to about 100F in summer, but I don't live in big city where I would stand in place for more than 5-10 minutes. It just that some of the complaints maybe were a bit exaggerated so that scared me.

Still there is question about lower speed/rpm and heavy clutch, but there is only way to find out if that bothers me in actual traffic and that is to test ride ride it. I see some positive results of mapping and some mods from people on this forum so I will examine that a bit more.
 
#15 · (Edited)
I commute in the city with my EVO. It does well and I do split lanes when I can at red lights to keep moving. It is a ball burner when your stuck at a stop.

I find that the most practical bike for commuting in a city is a small bike. My ninja 300 is excellent, which is why it's my preferred method of travel during hard rush hour. It slips through traffic much easier than my larger bikes. If you REALLY want the EVO, though, I say get it. A great part of buying a bike is satisfying the lust you have for it.
 
#16 ·
... I find that the most practical bike for commuting in a city is a small bike. My ninja 300 is excellent, which is why it's my preferred method of travel during hard rush hour. It slips through traffic much easier than my larger bikes. ...
On the city surface streets, yes. There, a Vespa is ideal. But if highway is involved, I like something a little (but not too much) bigger. I've been very happy with my Monster as a general commuter/transportation bike. It's light and nimble (not really much heavier than a Ninja 300), with good brakes, but has the big twin torque available if you want to jump into (or need to jump out of) a position. And it's got enough range and stability to not be punishing when your situation needs you to make a longer trip. Gear it properly for your conditions, and it's a great versatile daily bike, that does everything pretty darn well (except tour long distance two-up).

PhilB
 
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#20 ·
Clack have you test rided 821? It's almost same weight as 1200 with less power. It's not about power, but handling, I wan't something effortless and easy to manage at slow speeds, and there are splitted opinions in terms of handling 821 vs older air cooled monsters, some say it's not significantly heavier, some say that it feels even more heavy than it says on paper.



What about nimbleness? same/similiar?
 
#22 ·
Thank you Clack and thanks guys for every info and experience you shared with me. It meant a lot to me. I probably squeezed every info about XSR and Monster online so far, only test rides left to do. Strange thing I was opsessed with Yamaha retro look, but Monster really grow on me past couple days. :S
 
#25 ·
I commute daily on my 1100 EVO 20th Anni, since buying it new last year (just flipped 22k miles today). My commute is a mixture of interstate (I95, FSU all the way) and city. Never had a single problem other than going through tires pretty quick.
 
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#27 ·
And if you run sport-touring tires (e.g. Pirelli Angel GT, or Metzeler RoadTec), that helps a lot with that issue.

PhilB
 
#28 ·
The entire "this bike XXX as a commuter" is ridiculous.


I'll put it in cager format.


They sell a shitload of Smart Cars, Nissan Leafs, Toyota Prius, Dodge Charger, Chevrolet Corvette, Toyota Tacoma, all the way to and beyond the Ford F-350. You know what each of them do? They all run down the road from destination to destination. They all do it differently but they all do the same thing. It's just preference. Are you more comfortable in a tiny electric car or a huge 4 door extended cab diesel truck? I read another forum and a dad over there is all pissed off because his 16yo kid doesn't want to drive the family 4 door F250 for his first vehicle. Says it's too big and it intimidates him.


You buy what you want, what feels comfortable underneath you and makes you happy. YOU then adapt your riding style to match the motorcycle and situation. It's super easy to do.


And PhilB will "like" or thumbs up any post or reply that says I ride XXX bike 100 miles or more at a time. I personally love riding my Aprilia RS125. It'll get to 98mph with me on it. That's plenty fast to use as a commuter. So yeah you can commute on a scooter or a 1200cc Busa. I could, and would, commute on my 125. I took it out for a 160 mile ride just to get dinner last Saturdat. PhilB will thumbs up this reply.
 
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