Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128117
ucati Monster 54 Fogarty (Above) The only thing missing from the $15,829 Mon51er Is King Carl's autograph on the tank· for that kind of money it's the lea51 they could have done! (Above right) Cartoon·fiber goodies have been added everywhere on the Monster, Including the front fender, upper fairing, and lower chin fairing. chin fairing beneath the engine. As well, the dual-color seat fabric is made in a special non-skid material, and there are special Foggy logos on the fuel tank and nose cowl, plus a Ducati Corse sticker on the front mudguard - though it's a pity Ducati didn't invite Carl to get a bit of writer's cramp by personally autographing each and every fuel tank: for that price, I reckon it's the least a buyer could expect. Okay - so that's mostly all glitz, aimed at differentiating La Fogarty from the 5000 other S4 Monsters Ducati will build in 2001 - a year in which, incidentally, the manufacture of the 100,OOOth Monster since production began in 1992 was marked on July 19 by suitable festivities on the Italian Riviera. Any excuse for a party. No, what makes a difference to actually riding La Fogarty is that Ducati has improved its performance over the standard Monster, by increasing horsepower by nine over the stock S4, and cutting dry weight b.y nearly nine pounds, from 425 pounds down to 416 on the Foggy. This is achieved with the help of those extra dollops of carbon fiber adorning the bike, including the optional oval Termignoni silencer mainly responsible for the extra jump in power, which is supplied within the bike's $14,000 selling price and supposedly "for track use only," with the Marelli EFI reprogrammed to suit via the dedicated recalibration your local Ducati dealer is empowered to dial into the Fogarty's CPU, and with the revised Superb ike-derived airbox design which is included as stock in the bike's spec. With this package 30 AUGUST 15, 2001 • cue I _ installed, La Fogarty's power output is increased from the stock S4's 101 hp at 8750 rpm, to 110 hp at 9750 rpm, with a commensurate increase in torque, as well. You honestly do notice this at once when you ride the Fogarty, because compared to the standard S4 Monster, there's improved midrange pickup from the 94 x 68mm, 916cc engine, which now has a noticeably more vivid appetite for revs: you can feel the engine accelerate harder and faster when you crank the light-action throttle wide open. The base-model S4 isn't exactly wimpish in terms of performance in the first place, but it's ST4 sport touring-derived powerplant doesn't have quite the same muscular midrange as the TLlOOOS Suzukiengined Cagiva Raptor - whereas La Fogarty certainly does, especially once you get the desmoquattro engine motoring above 5000 rpm, when the kind of performance that won World Superbike titles a decade ago is delivered - a first for the naked streetrod class. In fact, you can regard the S4 Fogarty as a flick of the finger by Ducati to their bitter Cagiva rivals, and anyone else who thinks they might be able to concoct a rortier rod with a one-liter engine (Harley's new heavyweight eightvalve V-Rod doesn't count - the Ducati's only a cruiserweight by comparison, though comparisons will certainly be interesting once both bikes are out there in the marketplace). As an answer to the newly launched XtraRaptor, the S4 Fogarty does a pretty good job. But this extra performance hasn't been achieved at the cost of any riden __ s ability, especially not in the urban conditions King Carl's Monster was conceived to reign in. The six-speed gearbox's ratios still invite you to ride the bike's muscular torque curve, so cracking open the throttle as low as 3000 rpm will have the Ducati thundering toward the next turn with the front wheel waving in the air in best Fogarty style. But now, Ducati has made it that much easier to do this by gearing the Fogarty down an extra two teeth at the rear, fitting a 39T Ergal alloy rear sprocket instead of the stock steel 37T one. This not only reduces the unsprung weight a good bit, it also makes the Evo Monster even more wheelie-happy - and considerably improves acceleration, too, without detracting from top-end speed, thanks to the thousand extra revs available up top before power peaks out. This means that, unlike the stock S4, it pays to rev the Fogarty that thousand revs higher, to take full advantage of the meatier top-end performance delivered by the freerflowing (but very BattleTwin-sounding) exhaust and the revamped injection mapping: this is even more of a performance package than the stock S4 Monster. It's also an even better-handling one, too - even if there's still a distraction in the form of the irritating wobble of the headlamp fairing, which just as on the stock bike hasn't been made from thick enough material to give sufficient rigidity without being braced, which it isn't. Why on earth Ducati didn't make this in carbon fiber as well, which would have been dynamically advantageous as well as delivering The Look, is a bit of a mystery: maybe Aldo the style guru didn't like it. But the reshaped fuel tank, which allows your knees to tuck in closer together, really makes you feel at one with the bike, ready to take full advantage of its capable handling when it comes to streetsweeping, Italian style. Though the same stock Sachs rear shock as on the base-level S4 is retained (but an Ohlins would have been better, as well as more in keeping with the Foggy heritage), the fully adjustable 43mm upside down Showa forks are now TIN-coated with a plasma-sprayed titanium nitride coating, just like on the desmoquattro Superbikes, in order to reduce stiction and enhance compliance. It works, too same as on other top-of-the-Iine Ducati products like the 996R fitted with the same-spec kit, you can feel the forks eating up road rash much more capably than on the stock S4, and there's improved ride quality as a result, too. Nice. In fact, you have to ask yourself if the improvements to the S4 Fogarty aren't so significant that. as with the Testastretta-powered 996R which similarly began life as a limited-edition web-sale wonder, but will reach volume production for the 2002 model year, this isn't once again Ducati's way of easing a next-generation model into the marketplace that in a year's time you won't only be able to buy by flashing your piece of plastic at the www.ducati.com website. Let's hope so: this is undoubtedly the best of those 100,000 Monsters yet mashed into production over the past nine years now let's have one for Joe Public. eN