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/128144
Oucati Monster 620 i.e. By BLAKE CONNER PHOTOS BY TOM RILES of a place and a ride more befitting Ducati than this one. ~ he last Ducati press introduction RIDING IMPRESSION held at a truck stop off the side of Interstate 5 in Buttonwillow, California. Not an image that comes to mind when you think of DucatL But the quaint little seaside resort town of La Jolla... well, that's more like it. We were there to ride the Monster 620 Le. in the mountains east of San Diego, a ride that would take us through towns such as Ramona and Julian. Other than a spin through the Italian Alps, it would be hard to think I'm sure there are a lot of you who wouldn't even consider buying a 600and-something-cc twin cylinder - and before this ride, I would have thought the same thing. I mean, if Ducatis are allowed to run significantly more displacement in Superbike and Supersport racing, then a smaIl-displacement twin must be a real dog of a streetbike, right? Wrong. If was The first thing I noticed when I climbed on this bike was that I felt like a giant on it. I really felt big, though that's not necessarily a bad thing on sporty bikes because it usually translates to the fact that the bike is small and light - and that's a good thing. After we got on the road, we were immediately faced with a long labyrinth of urban congestion that's normal in Southern California at the height of the weekday morning rush hour. It may sound bad, but it was really a good opportunity to ride the bike in everyday conditions. Hey, you can't be out scraping the pipes all the time. Around town, the Ducati was perfect, with its agility making it feel more like a mountain bike than a motorcycle. The bike weighs in at a fairly light 389 pounds, and I only say fairly light because most of the openclass sportbikes with more than twice the horsepower weigh less than that these days. The difference is that the chassis and the steering geometry on the Monster make it feel lighter than it is. Riding around town, the bike was near perfect - the type of motorcycle that will make your morning commute a kick in the pants more than a pain in them. One thing I noticed was that the clutch was much easier to live with around town than I thought it might be. Some of the larger-displacement Ducatis can be a pain to launch from stoplights with their dry clutch setups, but the new 620 Le. features a wet multi-plate clutch, which eliminates the problem altogether. And it had a really nice feel. As any California lane splitter will tell you, every stoplight is a drag race to get away from the resentful motorists in their behemoth SUVs, and the slick clutch makes this a breeze. We soon worked our way into the hills, and although a lot of the roads had tons of congestion on them, the ride was still enjoyable. We rode on some pretty tight stuff, which really suited the Monster perfectly. It's a real handler, the combination of stability with the longish wheelbase and