new to the ducati world

I love the bike.

Not to much power, amazing brakes (if you haven't been on an S4RS), and decent handling. I personally love the handling, but she is twitchy, especially at high speed corners at lean (ouch).

I personally love her more with clipons, but felt the Magura bar growing on me as she was comfortable and the wide bars felt motard esque.

Love it.


Love the mods, the sound, the dry clutch, the,... I love that damn bike.


That is why she is in my living room I guess.

I never understood the the notion of, "it may be too much bike for you," or "definately not a beginners bike." It all depends on how the rider handles the bike. Don't drive too fast and you'll be fine. Don't get yourself in a position where you need to jam the brakes. It's not like any bike requires some sort of magical skill to ride, which is only gained after working your way up through lesser machines. My very first bike was a really heavy KZ GPZ750, and I'm now on an S4. Never once have I had any sort of close call or mishap. The KZ is not a beginner's bike, but you learn to grow into it. More important than the bike itself is your ability to ride safely in traffic. If you don't ride like a moron, the only danger is from other cars. This is where acquired skill DOES play a huge role.

You'll be fine on that thing. Just don't ride like a moron.

I understand the notion of a bike being too much for you because my s2r was too much for me for the 1st month I owned it, and the s2r isn't even that powerful. I got myself into plenty of trouble riding it, and I never made any squid-like maneuvers. Monsters have an "unsophisticated" power delivery during break-in. Sloppiness with the clutch or throttle, coupled with the super tall gears and lurchy power delivery means you can go from 0 to down in the bushes very quickly.

Or imagine putting a new rider on a repli-racer with an aggressive rear tire profile, steering geometry that makes the bike quick to lean over, and a high center of gravity. Those elements could also spell disaster for an inexperienced rider.

In this instance; however, I do believe that a rider with prior experience on a larger displacement bike can handle ANY monster in the family. But I wouldn't be so quick to encourage people to make the jump from 125cc 2-stroke dirtbikes to the monster as I did.