If Ducati hasn’t delivered enough good news as it is, here is the first single-cylinder motorcycle they’ve produced since the Supermono, which was roughly 30 years ago. To make things more exciting, it is a supermoto!
The new Hypermotard 698 Mono is the company’s first-ever road-going single, featuring the brand-new 659 cc Superquadro Mono engine, derived from the Panigale 1299 Superquadro engine. Essentially, they’ve gone and sawed off half of the 1299, leaving us with a juicy single-cylinder engine that puts out mad performance numbers.
Claimed to be the most sophisticated and high-performance single-cylinder road engine ever made, it gives a maximum power output of 76.4 bhp at 9,750 rpm, and a 10,250 rpm maximum rotation which constitutes new benchmarks for the category. Apart from that it also produces a maximum torque output of 6.4 kgm of torque at 8,000 rpm. Furthermore, thanks to the Termignoni racing exhaust, in track configuration the power increases by 7 bhp reaching the incredible value of 83.3 bhp, another record for a single-cylinder.
Now take away the numbers, in terms of thrill, the Hypermotard 698 Mono enlists the help of a host of electronic aids including many of the controls present on the Panigale V4, developed specifically for this bike. There are ABS Cornering, Ducati Traction Control, Ducati Wheelie Control, Engine Brake Control, Ducati Power Launch and Ducati Quick Shift (DQS) Up/Down, which can be purchased as an accessory for the standard version and is supplied as standard on the RVE version.
With the Hypermotard 698 Mono, less experienced riders will be able to approach Motard-style riding with the certainty of being able to count on sophisticated electronics. All in all, we can’t wait to swing a leg over it and get up to all kinds of mischief with it. The new Hypermotard 698 Mono will soon be available in showrooms in the classic Ducati Red with a powder-coated frame or in the RVE version with dedicated graphics, black frame and DQS quickshifter as standard.
