·
2005–2008 · Naked Bike · Buyer's Guide
The Commuter That Converts Skeptics
The S2R 800 takes the hard-edged S4R look and wraps it around the air-cooled Desmodue L-twin, and that pairing is the whole point of the bike. 78 hp and 53 lb-ft from 803 cc reads modest on a spec sheet, but the delivery sits low and mid, and the chassis is light enough to use all of it on a public road. Single-sided swingarm, stacked exhaust, upside-down fork, a 300 mm front brake, and an APTC slipper clutch fitted from the factory. It sits at the approachable end of the Monster family without ever feeling like the cheap seat.
Steering is quick, the chassis holds its line through a tight sequence of bends, and none of that arrives with the harshness a hard sport setup brings. This is a bike for the rider who wants character and pace on a backroad more than a big horsepower number, and it takes daily use without turning into a chore. The honest caveats are worth knowing. The fork offers no adjustment of any kind, the rear shock gives you preload and nothing more, and there are no rider aids on this bike: no ABS, no traction control. Two known trouble spots are covered below.
Spec sheets don't ride bikes, but they set the baseline.
| Power | 78 hp (57 kW) |
|---|---|
| Torque | 53 lb-ft (72 Nm) |
| Displacement | 803 cc |
| Engine | L-twin |
| Cooling | Air-cooled |
| Gearbox | 6-speed |
| Final drive | Chain |
| Fork | Upside-down (USD) |
| Front brake | 300 mm |
| Front tire | 120/70-17 |
| Rear tire | 180/55-17 |
| Seat height | 31.5 in (800 mm) |
| Fuel capacity | 3.7 gal (14 L) |
| Top speed | 125 mph (201 km/h) |
| Fuel economy | 32 mpg (US) |
Equipment check
Chassis
Drivetrain
The whole test team wrote this one off before anyone swung a leg over it. Then the daily-commute reports came back oddly enthusiastic, and suddenly everybody wanted a turn. What registers first is the air-cooled twin working underneath you, a hard mechanical pulse through the pegs and the tank that never smooths out into something anonymous. The 31.5-inch seat sets you upright with your arms wide and wind pressure on your chest at any speed worth having, which is exactly why a naked bike makes an ordinary road feel like an event. The clutch pull is light. Small hands manage it easily, and an hour of stop-and-go traffic doesn't leave your left forearm burning. Up close the finish reads expensive: the fork, the exhaust routing, the frame finish, the paint. Show it to someone who knows nothing about motorcycles and they like it immediately.
My own 0–100 score for this bike against the class, area by area — the marker on each bar is the class average.
Softer springing than the S4R doesn't cost this bike any accuracy. Link a few tight corners together at a genuine pace and it holds the line I chose without needing a second correction partway through. The chassis feels properly engineered underneath me, not built down to a price. On real roads, with their bumps and changing camber, precision without a stiff track setup is the more useful answer, and it's the version of a sporting chassis I'd rather live with.
This one only makes sense in motion. Read the spec sheet and you'd pass it over; put real miles on it and the opinion reverses, which is what happened to every rider on my team who ended up asking for the keys. The hardware backs that up. Kneel down beside it and the fork legs, exhaust routing, frame finish and paint all stand up to being examined from a foot away, and people with no interest in motorcycles warm to it on sight.
Riders shopping by peak figures will walk straight past this motor, and they'd be wrong. Where I actually ride, in town, in commuting traffic, on a decent backroad, there is enough shove under my right hand at every point I'd want it. That covers the overwhelming majority of any riding season I have. I came off my test miles without once wishing for a bigger figure.
Most of my confidence hauling this bike down comes from the clutch. I can stay hard on the brake deep into a corner, drop the whole way down the gearbox at the last moment, and the rear tire never skips or chatters as I let the lever back out. That calm at the exact moment plenty of bikes start hopping is worth more to me on a fast road than any extra bite at the lever.
Working the controls costs me almost nothing. Lever effort at the clutch is genuinely low, which matters if your hands are on the small side, and it stays low through the sort of endless traffic crawl that makes other bikes hard work. Nothing here accumulates into fatigue over the miles, and across a full day that's what decides how you feel when you finally park it.
The honest test of an Italian twin isn't a Sunday morning blast, it's a Tuesday. One of my testers put this one into service as his everyday transport and left it there, and the bike absorbed that job without any fuss. Routine duty is where a lot of characterful machines start making excuses for themselves. This one just did the work, which is not what the badge leads you to expect.
I have never had to go looking for opinions on this one. Owners bring them to me at bike nights, in parking lots, and in the messages that land in my inbox from people who have lived with theirs for years. The pattern is consistent enough to report plainly: affection for the machine itself runs high, and the reservations riders raise sit on the ownership side rather than the riding side.
The styling is what people lead with. Owners describe a bike that reads far more expensive than what they actually paid for it, and "sex on wheels" is a phrase I have heard used without irony more than once. The engine earns the same steady approval, an air-cooled twin that riders call characterful and, more to the point, dependable over the long run. On a twisty road they describe it as light and willing. Anyone who rides one through traffic mentions how little effort the clutch asks for, and that detail turns up in nearly every commuter's account.
Instrument cluster failure
The digital instrument panel is prone to freezing, needle sticking, or complete failure. Root causes can range from moisture ingress to charging system surges. Replacement clusters are costly, and some bikes have required multiple replacements.
Fuel tank swelling with ethanol-blended fuels
The polymer fuel tank can swell over time when exposed to modern ethanol-blended fuels. This may cause paint cracking and difficulty refitting the tank after removal. Replacing the tank with an ethanol-resistant unit is the only permanent fix.
Where this Ducati Monster S2R 800 pulls ahead of — or falls behind — its rivals on the numbers, and the typical bike in its class on character.
Power
Torque
Displacement
Top speed
Seat height
Forget spec-sheet bragging. Here's who the Monster S2R 800 is actually built for.
Light steering and a chassis that stays composed under pressure fit Angeles Crest well. You will be carrying momentum rather than horsepower, and on those roads that is rarely the slower way around.
Made for Angeles Crest Highway · Coronado Trail / US 191 · Highway 1 / Big Sur
Tight, repeatable corner work is where this bike makes sense. Low weight, quick turn-in and a settled rear under hard downshifts reward clean technique on the Dragon and Cherohala.
Made for Back of the Dragon · Blue Ridge Parkway · Cherohala Skyway
It handles a full Hill Country weekend easily, and the character is the reason you take the long way home. Plan around the 3.7-gallon tank at 32 mpg on the emptier stretches.
Made for Austin / Texas Hill Country · Twisted Sisters · Austin / Handbuilt Motorcycle Show