I have finally bought a bike I have lusted after for many years, the S4R. Having ridden/ commuted a S4 in all weathers in 2001/2 I fell in love with the Monster. I know the plumbing takes away from the beauty but it also adds something in my mind. This S4R is a stunning, low mileage (4800) 2003 bike with a couple of subtle yet worthwhile electrical upgrades. Anyway, the S4 went and after a gap, a Multi 950 and more recently the utterly fantastic Multi 1200 Enduro, came along and now the S4R. I love the bike but it demonstrates how far Ducati have come in engines, electrics and suspension and invariably it leaves me asking a couple of questions I'd like to bounce off the forum: The S4R is happiest accelerating and a half throttle below 4000 rpm gives a snatchy drivetrain - what gear are people in in a 30 limit and do the chains like to run looser than the 25mm recommended? I love the look of the original exhausts and although I ran Termis on my S4, they seem to be too long in the can for the S4R and stick too far backwards. Is there a better high level option and ideally can the original exhaust be 'doctored' to liberate a few more db? is there a popular headlight bulb upgrade? Thank you in advance.
It must have been very tempting to change your name for Tom Jones and wait for the incoming rib cracking joke moments, congratulations on your purchase.
I love mine. It came from japan with titanium mufflers and I gutted the cat but it didn't make much diff. You would be better to put a proper decat on and mufflers of your choice. Then do a KandN and get the ecu remapped to suit. I am sure the low rev running would be much better and prob a few extra ponies up north as well?
Mine is an RS but similar. Down one of the front or up two on the rear sprocket means 2nd around town. These cans work well: not too loud, better imho looking as the stacked shotgun type, quality seems ok. I also went decat pipe.
Like Bradders I've got an S4RS but with a full Arrows system and it rides just fine for my needs. As suggested a proper ecu custom map will most likely transform the lower to mid range running but a relatively easy thing to do yourself is get a decent set of vacuum gauges and carefully balance the throttle bodies, I did my 1098 many years ago and a couple of my others as well and it made a big difference to the low end.
Greetings! You are right, the air cooled ones are prettier... LOL! Can't tell you much about the gearing etc on yours, bujt I put a larger rear on my 900 and it works great. Re the headlamp thats mostly useless, I wanted to keep the original style light & retain the chrome ring so bought an LED that fits into the OEM bucket. It required a headlamp ring converter which are available commercially for insane prices. I bought mine from Mr Gazza on the UK Monster forum - http://www.ukmonster.co.uk/monster/index.php. Its made of all weather MDF and I simply sprayed it black. Send him a message there and I'm sure he will have one for you too. Quite a few others have bought them as well and he supplies some spring clips to make it all work. The difference in light is literally night & day. You will have to splice in a black majik trickery box to make the power supply correct, but its really straight forward. End result looks like this. I've thought many times about replacing my muffler for a shorter one, or cutting the current SIL. But these days I don't like stubby pipes anymore so I'm glad I didn't.
You're welcome! PS You need to write your replies to posts after the second "Quote" or they wont be immediately viewable.
