I love commuting on my monster.  It's a 620 and if I keep it under or at 80mph on my all highway commute I get 45-47mpg.  However like other people have said, you won't save money.  Every 10kish miles you need 1.5 services, 1 front tire, 2 rear, and a chain.  I worked it out and gas prices here in the Bay Area at $4.50+ a gallon I just about break even vs.  my MINI cooper that gets 27mpg.  If I owned a honda civic like my brother that gets like 33mpg I'd be losing money.  But I would still ride.  It's awesome, even on the hot/rainy/bad days.  I would still rather be riding (so far over 30k on my bike).  If you want a monster get one, just know what your getting into.  I love it!

Thank you all for the great response.  I don't plan to use the bike to commute to work everyday.  I work three to four days a week and would probably use the bike for 2 to 3 of those days, just simply because of the work I need to lug around.  Plus my commute is 40 round trip.  My car probably on gets 25 mpg.  So I think I would save a little money.  But you guys are right.  The fun factor added to my commute would be priceless.  Thanks.

If you need to carry things to work and back, might I recommend a Chrome Messenger bag.  I commute from home, to school, to work, to the gyn, and back home again 4 days a week and have to carry a bunch of stuff.  These bicycle messenger bags work great.  Single handed adjustments, waterproof, laptop sleeve, and is very comfortable.  I carry school books, laptop, stuff for work, and gym clothes without any issues and they have yet to get wet if I get caught in the rain.  Just a suggestion from a diehard commuter.

www.chromebags.com

I think the main thing you need to determine when considering a motorcycle for a commute is how you define 'commute', is it a 5 mile jaunt or a 55 mile combination of freeway, back roads and heavy traffic? That will determine what kind of bike you decide to purchase.

If you're strictly inner city commuting, trying to save gas money, I would say you'd be fine with a 250cc gas sipper, put some bags on it, take your stuff around with you.

If you're serious about motorcycles and you are riding out of 'choice' and not because you have to, that kind of bike won't do it for you at all.

I can't see my Duc costing me more than my car in gas and maintenance. I don't really do any work on my car but I try to do everything (so far) on my bike myself, that's going to save me a lot in parts and labor. I get about 120 miles out of a tank which costs about 10 bucks to fill (gas is about 4.50 average here now) so it's WAY cheaper than my car. Somebody mentioned valve adjustments twice a year, that seems crazy to me, unless maybe you're putting touring amounts of miles on it.

My 2 cents is that it's not going to cost you more to own a motorcycle, not even a ducati, especially the newer ones that have way more time/ miles between service intervals than the older models. My advice is if you love the bike, get it, look after it, it will serve you well and you'll find that it probably holds it's value a little better than a japanese bike when/ if you sell it.

You can ride the monster in the city no problem,14t would be a great upgrade to get though.It's nice to commute with those babys!def an attention getter!