2014 DUCATI MONSTER 1200/1200S
FIRST RIDE
A
Better
MONSTER
S
ometimes you just have to sit
back and take it all in. And, for
most of the day, that's exactly
what I was doing. I wasn't relaxing on
a beautiful beach sipping umbrella
drinks while watching the sun set;
nor was I high atop some splendid
mountain taking in the vast expanse
of the surrounding wilderness. I was
in fact riding a motorcycle while con-
stantly turning my head to view as
much of the scenery as possible.
Rain had fallen the night before,
but not enough to spoil any of the
routes that had been mapped out
for us. When we left the hotel in
the morning, I wasn't sure what to
expect except for the very tropical
coastal scenery that we were af-
forded on our bus ride to the hotel
from the airport. I had been to the
island of Lanzarote in the Canary Is-
lands once before and I was expect-
ing a similar landscape, but there
was much more to Tenerife then I
expected.
As we started up the mountain
and came upon a more Sierra-type
forestry climate, I soon realized just
how beautiful and diverse the island
of Tenerife really is.
"Snap out of it Tom, you're here
for Cycle News not Conde Nast," I
told myself. Okay, okay, but I really
couldn't imagine a better place to
blast a motorcycle around, and the
new 2014 Monster 1200s that Ducati
provided was icing on the cake. With
such great scenery and a brand new
bike under me, I knew I was in for a
treat.
We soon reached the end of tree
line and were now climbing higher
into an area that was referred to by
most of the group as the surface of
the moon. Tenerife is an island vol-
cano jetting up from the button of the
Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North
BY TOM MONTANO
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MILAGRO
AT 21 YEARS OLD, THE MONSTER IS NOW AN ADULT
P54
