Supermotards are the bastion of the crazier riders within the motorcycling community, which is already filled with enough people who are a brain cell or two away from being committed. However, Ducati feels the supermotards available on the market are just not crazy enough, so here’s its take on it – the Ducati Hypermotard 698 Mono. If you were wondering where that new Superquadro Mono engine was going to end up, well, here’s the answer.
The engine is essentially half a Panigale 1,285cc engine (found on the 1299 Panigale) with a longer stroke, the Superquadro Mono is the first road-going single-cylinder engine from Ducati since 1974 and their first single in three decades. The bore is 116mm – the largest on any single-cylidner engine in the world, with the stroke measuring just 62.4mm. The compression ratio is 13.1:1 and it is capable of revving to 10,250rpm
The outputs are suitably bonkers, with 77.5PS at 9,750rpm and 63Nm at 8,050rpm, which goes up to 84.5PS and 66.64Nm with a Termignoni racing exhaust. All this fury is packed into a motorcycle which weighs just 160.4kg (151kg wet weight without fuel plus a 12-litre tank). Ducati opted to fit a tiny 3.8-inch LCD console, as crashes are bound to occur in supermoto and we believe Ducati doesn’t want riders to keep replacing an expensive console. To keep the weight down, Ducati is outfitting the bike with a lithium-ion battery from the factory.
This bike looks like it will be hoot-and-a-half to ride through busy city streets, however, it is unlikely such a specialised model will make it to our shores. That being said, we can still dream, right?
