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Ducati Monster buying advice

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chris25483

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Have been looking at getting a used Ducati Monster. Looking at the autotrader I can see a few in my price range, one is a 2011 796 Monster but has 30,000km on it. Would this be considered high for a Ducati? I've only owned Japanese bikes thusfar so I'm not sure of how the longevity of a Ducati compares.
There are others with way less kms, but cost a bit more obviously.
Are the higher kms a big deal on these machines? (as long as it's well maintained...the dealer said he would look into the maintenance records for me)

Thanks for any input!
 
3000 km's is high for a Ducati. JK, had to throw that out there for my recent disgust with Italian bikes. Have you sat on a Monster? They seem rather small. Not good if you're a bigger guy.

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chris25483 said:
Thanks for any input!
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You desire a Ducati Monster. You've found one(1) with way more kms than ones with way less. The difference in price is a bit. Would you rent your Ducati Monster for a couple years and, say, 20,000kms for a "bit" of money. Because that's essentially what's happened if you buy this bike. You're trying to rationalize buying this bike. Is a 30,000km Ducati going to fly apart? Probably not.
 
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I have an 09 Monster 696 with about 70,000 KMs on it.

In terms of maintenance, I had the usual stuff to do: tires; chain & sprockets; oil; battery; valve adjustments every 12K


In terms of non-normal, here's the list:

1. broken clutch pin @ 1,000 km. I could not shift. I'm still not quite sure what happened there.
2. wheel bearing @ 30,000 km
3. steering bearing x2 (i'm guessing 30K km and about 50K km)
4. engine tensioners failure (damaged the belts too @ 55K km)
5. had a phantom metallic noise, tried to diagnose it, but couldn't and it eventually went away on its own <shrug>
6. Starter @ 50K km

Since 55K, the last 15K have been trouble free.

Hope this helps.
 
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Its all about maintenance.
I'd rather buy a bike with 50,000km that was maintained and taken care of vs. a bike with 10,000km that was redlined all day and never had an oil change etc...
 
Chaos said:
I have an 09 Monster 696 with about 70,000 KMs on it.

In terms of maintenance, I had the usual stuff to do: tires; chain & sprockets; oil; battery; valve adjustments every 12K


In terms of non-normal, here's the list:

1. broken clutch pin @ 1,000 km. I could not shift. I'm still not quite sure what happened there.
2. wheel bearing @ 30,000 km
3. steering bearing x2 (i'm guessing 30K km and about 50K km)
4. engine tensioners failure (damaged the belts too @ 55K km)
5. had a phantom metallic noise, tried to diagnose it, but couldn't and it eventually went away on its own <shrug>
6. Starter @ 50K km

Since 55K, the last 15K have been trouble free.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
How much did the non normal stuff cost you to fix?

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I did the belt tensioners at around 24k on my 696 which is about when they're known to start failing. I think it ran me about $4-600 for parts and labor at GP.
 
inreb said:
You desire a Ducati Monster. You've found one(1) with way more kms than ones with way less. The difference in price is a bit. Would you rent your Ducati Monster for a couple years and, say, 20,000kms for a "bit" of money. Because that's essentially what's happened if you buy this bike. You're trying to rationalize buying this bike. Is a 30,000km Ducati going to fly apart? Probably not.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting perspective...never thought of it that way. Seems like 30,000km isn't a huge deal...but one with a fraction of that may be worth the extra cost
 
Depends on how much you drive annually. If you're a 5000 km/year rider, 20000km might be significant. I have a 2012 Monster 1100evo with just over 20000km on it. Nothing out of the ordinary in terms of maintenance costs, just valves & belts at 12K, tires, oil, etc. My mod budget on the other hand has been a bit steep lol. Added some carbon bits, levers, mirrors, clutch slave, exhaust, etc, etc... I was reading on a forum about a guy with 240000 MILES on his Monster 900 so they definitely can go a fair distance.
 
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PS, I love my monster, hands down the best street bike I have ever ridden in 20+ years of riding. Great balance of power and handling.
 
2011 monster 796 with 30000km on it. I'd say it's been pretty reliable.
Regular maintenance oil, battery, tires, sprockets, chain and valve adjustments.
Things that did go wrong are belt tensioners, sprocket retaining clip, and exhaust valve motor(I scrapped it and got a servo buddy).
Also, the front forks are crap, non adjustable, and made for a 150lb Italian man lol. I swapped them out for 1100evo forks and they made a world of a difference. You can also get different Springs from racetech and change them.
I have spent more on mods than maintenance though. Overall I love the bike, awesome in the twisty bits and the engine has so much character.
I don't think you will have serious problems as long as it was maintained well, but it is a bit more expensive to maintain than an equivalent jap bike.
 
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Ended up going with the newer one, was mint. What a blast it was was to ride back home, such a beautiful machine. Now I'm hoping weather gives some good riding days before season is over.
 
I picked up a '15 Monster 821 month or so back. Only had 2,700kms on it and maintenance all done. I'm at about 5k on it now and still runs great. plan to change to oil before each winter and service on this one is every 15k.
 
Freaking WOW. What the hell do you do to your bike.
I have an 01 RC51 and have only replaced a rad, because the previous owner dropped it in the driveway and the rad held pretty good for 3 years, until it started to leak a bit.

I've ridden 796 Monsters. A bit of a dog if you ask me.

How ever the 1100 Monster is a beast. I would love to have an 1100.



Chaos said:
I have an 09 Monster 696 with about 70,000 KMs on it.

In terms of maintenance, I had the usual stuff to do: tires; chain & sprockets; oil; battery; valve adjustments every 12K


In terms of non-normal, here's the list:

1. broken clutch pin @ 1,000 km. I could not shift. I'm still not quite sure what happened there.
2. wheel bearing @ 30,000 km
3. steering bearing x2 (i'm guessing 30K km and about 50K km)
4. engine tensioners failure (damaged the belts too @ 55K km)
5. had a phantom metallic noise, tried to diagnose it, but couldn't and it eventually went away on its own <shrug>
6. Starter @ 50K km

Since 55K, the last 15K have been trouble free.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
 
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