Motorbikes.pdf

Mission accomplished
FOR A machine that went on to become so
significant for Ducati, the Monster had fairly
humble and barren beginnings.
The key player was Argentine designer
Miguel Galluzzi who, after training in
California and working for both Opel and
then Honda’s car division, joined Ducati
owners Cagiva in 1989.
Back then, Ducati was very different.
Although buoyed by the track success of
technical director Massimo Bordi’s
sophisticated, liquid-cooled, four-valve 851
superbike, its road bike range was small,
focused on the unexciting, air-cooled SS
sports series, with sales of under 10,000
machines a year. A new, cheap-to-produce,
market-widening product was needed – fast.
Galluzzi’s ride-to-work bike was an 888
he’d stripped and streetfightered and he’d
been pestering Bordi with his ideas for a
naked bike – ideas which Bordi duly honed
into a concept. Bordi then came up with
another challenge for Galluzzi: design a
machine that displayed strong
Ducati heritage but was easy
to ride... and not a
sportsbike. “I was talking to
Miguel and asked him to
design something like the bike
in the famous picture of Marlon
Brando in The Wild One,” Bordi
revealed later. “It was an iconic image of a
bike, with a large single headlight, and I
asked Galluzzi to make a bike in this style
– aggressive and sporty, but also naked. That’s
where the Monster came from.”
Bordi’s intent was two-fold. First, he
wanted Ducati to enter the ‘cruiser’ or
streetbike market with a machine that, while
unmistakably produced by Ducati, was also
ripe for modification in the same way Harley-
Davidson buyers festooned their bikes with
a seemingly endless array of accessories.
Second, there was a plan to ‘recycle’ existing
Ducati components to keep development
costs to a minimum.
Monster designer
Miguel Galluzzi
Spurred by the growing
popularity of ‘streetfighters’
(typically crash-damaged
sportsbikes which owners
turned into unfaired,
flat-’barred roadsters),
Galluzzi pressed on.
“What does a motorcyclist
need to have fun?” Galluzzi
asked later. “All a bike needs is a
saddle, engine, two wheels,
handlebars and a tank to fill with fuel. The
road does the rest. That was the philosophy
behind the Ducati Monster.”
Galluzzi’s first decision was to use the 888
superbike chassis as the base for the Monster.
Its rising-rate rear suspension (the alternative
was the SS family’s more rudimentary,
cantilever suspension frame) ensured the
new bike would have the proper sports
credentials required, albeit calmed slightly
with slower steering geometry.
Engine choice was less clear. Galluzzi
favoured the liquid-cooled, four-valve 851
engine, but he was finally persuaded to use
the 904cc, air-cooled 900SS motor instead.
Bodywork
‘Muscular’ tank designed by Galluzzi joined the minimalist side
panels and seat cowl. Although a prototype was shown with
extensive use of carbonfibre, on the production version only
the side panels and exhaust heat shield survived, although still
one of the first production bikes to feature it.
Instruments
Although the handlebar switchgear was
also identical to that of Ducati’s
Supersport models, the Monster’s
instrument binnacle was new
and, again in keeping with the
whole project’s minimalist
philosophy, was fairly basic.
It simply featured a classic,
white-faced, analogue speedo,
an assortment of warning
lights and no tachometer at all.
Suspension
Front forks were the same as Ducati’s 750 Supersport:
non-adjustable, 41mm inverted Showa GD041 forks with
120mm of travel. However, to improve their action the
oil quantity was increased by 30cc. At the rear was a
German Boge shock offering 110mm of travel.
Variations
The Monster’s immediate popularity inspired a
continuous flow of variants, including a M600 Monster in
1994 (along with Japan-only M400), a 750 (in 1996), lower
spec Dark (1997) and higher spec S the following year.
Ducati would ultimately offer as many as nine different
Monster variations in any one year.
62
Cagiva or Ducati?
During development, Massimo Bordi
reportedly argued for the new bike to be a Ducati
while Claudio Castiglioni, boss of Ducati’s
parent company Cagiva, wanted it branded
a Cagiva. Bordi won, but not before many of
the components on early Monsters, like the
fuel cap, were stamped with Cagiva logos…