Ducati Monster 797

Little Monster

- Roland Brown

RIDING A SMALL, very naked Ducati through torrential rain is bringing back a few distant memories. Right now I’m aboard the Monster 797 in the south of France, splashing up a twisty road in the hills near Nice on a light, sweet-revving, entry level V-twin.

In spring 2010, I was riding the Monster 796 in similarly soaking conditions, through a thunderstorm, on its launch near the Ducati factory in Bologna. That small-bore Monster was a capable and reasonably successful bike, but two years ago it was dropped from the range along with the Monster 696, as the Scrambler’s arrival seemed to signal the end of an air-cooled Monster line that stretched back to the original M900 of 1993.

But Ducati have had second thoughts, having discovered that not everyone who likes the idea of a rider-friendly, relatively inexpensive Italian V-twin wants to take the Scrambler’s retro-styled route to the Land of Joy. Some, it seems, prefer the name Ducati on the tank, and especially admire the style and sporty image that helped make the entry-level Monster models popular for two decades.

So the mini Monster is back, considerably updated and with a new set of numbers to its name. They’re similarly misleading numbers because, like the 796, the 797 has an engine capacity of 803 cubic centimetres. Rather than the same engine, though, it’s the more softly-tuned unit that powers the Scrambler, complete with maximum output of 75 PS instead of 87 PS.

The SOHC, desmodromic V-twin incorporates modifications required by Euro 4, including plastic inserts between the cylinder fins to reduce resonance. The 796 also gets a revised injection system with different mapping and injectors, as well as a new, low-level exhaust system that replaces the 696’s pair of under-seat silencers.