By the time this posts I hope to be well on my way to Los Angeles to get myself a used engine. A 1000 mile 695cc engine for my monster.
Here she is just a few days ago. At the very least the new one will be cleaner.
The time has come. The end is near. My poor 2005 Ducati Monster 620 is going to have to grow up. But not a lot and not too quickly.
The Monster has nearly 75,000 miles on it. (about 73,500 as I write this) The clutch is going and has been for a few thousand miles. It’s slowly getting worse any hard acceleration makes it slip. The engine also only holds oil a little better than a sieve. I was talking to my Mechanic (Mike at Nichols Sportbike) talking about options when the clutch finally goes. He suggested looking at picking up a used engine since they aren’t that expensive and new clutches are quite expensive. I did this and found that for about double the cost of a new clutch I could get a low mileage 695 engine. I decided what the hell, let’s do this.
So instead of doing my next 6000 mile service, I’ll swap out my old 620 engine with a much newer 695.
It’s been a good run on that lil engine. 6 years of riding (8 years of owning) and many miles and good times. I’ve never felt like I needed more engine, but I am looking forward to a bit more torque and horsepower.
I’m a bit sad that I won’t make it to 100k on the engine and original bike, but it just did not make sense to me to spend so much money on an engine that is so old (and has other minor issues not mentioned).
So I am on my way to Los Angeles. Hoping to get a new heart for my Monster.
Motorcycles and the Cynic 