Boys Toys Magazine - Ducati Monster 696

Ducati Monster 696

Written by Jon Richards

Thursday, 31 July 2008

What('s that coming over the hill?) Is it a Ducati Monster? Sorry.
Why? This is what all bikes should be; speedy and sexy, all in one potentially fatal package.
How Excited? We may have a bit of a lob on.

The original Monster had a rawness that instantly made it a classic. Fully exposed engine? Check. No nonsense courier bike on steroids looks? Check. 900SS engine to stick you into hyperspace before you can make any lewd remarks about how you love riding fiery redheads? Check. The new bike continues and improves on that legacy, with lots of impressive tweaks.

Credit Crunching
Amazingly, the Monster retails at just £5,500. The reasons are simple and two-fold. Bikes are wonderfully cheap in comparison to their four-wheeled cousins (even luxurious Italian ones) and the original Monster was actually a budget bodge-up made from kit in the existing Ducati parts bin, with only the tank and seat made specifically for the bike. The 696 is less about directly taking parts and more about borrowing tech (with the Hybrid Trellis frame inspired by the 2007 MotoGP title-winning Desmosedici GP7) but despite this, remains true to its thrifty roots.

Even More Muscle
You can’t really be calling yourself a Monster unless you look the part and Ducati have further pumped up the new bike from its predecessor, the 695, by tapering the wide tank into a comfortable narrow seat and blending the large diameter Hybrid Trellis frame into a aluminium sub-frame and swing arm. Add in minimalist instrumentation and essential twin Ducati-style mufflers at the rear and anyone with even a speck of automotive interest will know you mean business.

Power Play
You expect a sweet engine with a Ducati and the 696cc unit has the best horsepower per litre ratio of all Ducati’s air-cooled units. Torque and power are both up from its predecessor and that means the bike revs freely and pulls well from low down the range, while hit 6000rpm and you get a surge that will put a smile on the face of even experienced sports bike riders. Speed tops out at 120mph, but that’s probably no bad thing as long as you don’t have plans to be the next British rider to break into MotoGP…

Keep On Running
The Monster has undergone the most changes of any Ducati motorcycle in its lifespan, but possibly the best innovation is that the Bologna based manufacturer is now a match for anything on the market in terms of reliability; something that was far from the case even five years ago. And a recent survey went as far as to put the brand on a par with Suzuki in terms of breakdowns over a 12 month period – no mean feet with few even getting close to matching the Japanese for manufacturing excellence and with it, the ability to churn our bulletproof, reliable bikes.

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