Ducati Monster S4r Review

Used Buyer Review

The S4R is essentially a Supermono with an extra cylinder — Ducati's 996 Testastretta engine shoehorned into the Monster chassis, making 113bhp that feels genuinely violent below 4,000rpm. This thing has personality most modern bikes have carefully engineered away. The half-fairing version that arrived mid-run looks menacing and actually works aerodynamically. Riding position is aggressive but manageable for spirited weekend blasts. Here's the honest part nobody tells you: budget aggressively for maintenance. Desmodromic valve services every 7,500 miles run $600-1,000 at a dealer, often more. Check service history obsessively — skipped valve checks are engine death sentences. The dry clutch chatters loudly at idle and slips if a previous owner was ham-fisted. Cooling is marginal in traffic; city riding means hot thighs and occasional fan tantrums. Electrical gremlins, particularly the instrument cluster and immobilizer, are a real used-bike lottery.