Ducati Made The Monster Cheaper By Taking Away Stuff You Won't Miss

Same 111 horsepower, same Ducati DNA, and fewer fancy bits. Turns out, less really can be more.

Photo by: Ducati

By: Enrico Punsalang

Nov 3, at 9:39am ET

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Ducati and affordable motorcycles aren't exactly two things you'd expect to find in the same sentence. After all, we're talking about a brand that has practically perfected the art of making enthusiasts willingly empty their wallets for beautiful Italian machinery. But every now and then, Bologna remembers that not everyone has unlimited disposable income.

Enter the 2027 Monster Dark, a stripped-back version of Ducati's iconic naked bike that saves money by ditching a few things you probably weren't going to lose sleep over anyway.

The Monster Dark follows a pretty familiar Ducati formula. Take an existing motorcycle, paint everything black, simplify a few details, and slap a lower price tag on it. It's a strategy the company has used for decades, and there's something rather charming about its simplicity. The latest iteration gets Dark Stealth paint, black wheels, unpainted front frame components and exhaust details, a simpler single-material seat, and conventional turn signals instead of the fancier sequential ones. Groundbreaking stuff, I know.

Photo by: Ducati

But here's where things get interesting. Underneath all that black paint is exactly the same 890cc V2 engine found in the standard Monster, pumping out 111 horsepower at 9,000 rpm and 67 pound-feet of torque at 7,250 rpm. Ducati hasn't detuned anything to create some artificial performance hierarchy, which is refreshing in an industry that loves charging extra to unlock capabilities that were already there in the first place. You still get the same six-speed gearbox, aluminum monocoque chassis, and claimed 386-pound weight without fuel.

The rest of the hardware remains equally impressive. There's a 43mm Showa inverted fork, a preload-adjustable rear shock, Brembo four-piston front calipers biting 320mm discs, and Pirelli Diablo Rosso IV tires. Ducati also keeps the six-axis IMU, cornering ABS, traction control, wheelie control, engine braking adjustments, and multiple ride modes. Even the five-inch TFT display and full LED lighting survive the cost-cutting exercise. So, mechanically speaking, you're getting pretty much the entire Monster experience.

Photos by: Ducati

There is one meaningful casualty, though. The bidirectional quick shifter, which comes standard on the regular Monster, becomes an optional extra on the Dark. That's a bit of a bummer if you enjoy banging through gears without touching the clutch, but it's hardly a dealbreaker. Besides, some of us still enjoy shifting the old-fashioned way, even if our left hands occasionally disagree during rush-hour traffic.

What do you think?

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In the US, the Monster Dark starts at $12,995, making it $300 cheaper than the regular Monster's $13,295 MSRP. Granted, that's not exactly a life-changing discount, especially when you consider that the quick shifter is no longer included. But 300 bucks is 300 bucks, and if you weren't particularly attached to the extra cosmetic flourishes or clutchless shifting, there's a pretty good argument for pocketing the difference.

Still, the whole idea makes plenty of sense. The Monster has always been about enjoying a punchy engine and agile chassis without the theatrics of a full-blown superbike. And if you can get the same engine, brakes, suspension, and electronics for less money, does it really matter that your turn signals don't do a little light show?