LAUGHTER HOURS

This! This is the greatest single of all time!

- Kartik Ware

I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. While a certain orange-clad set of people from Austria have been disguising gritted-teeth grimaces as smiles since November 2023. That's when Ducati unveiled the Hypermotard 698 Monowith the most powerful production single-cylinder motor in the world, a title that KTM held for its 690cc LC4 engine for a long, long time. For my part, I've been slowly stewing in anticipation, waiting to get my hands on the Mono. Why? Because I believe, even for a hot-blooded company like Ducati, it takes more passion to build a mad single like this than an all-conquering superbike. And the result is mono-cylinder mirth delivered desmo style.

Within a few minutes of riding the bike, I knew that this was not a machine for beginners. Ducati might be famous for its L-twins and V4s, and this might be 'just' a single, but it's every bit as potently rabid as you'd expect a performance-chasing Ducati to be. On one occasion, the Mono flew past 170 kph, and it suddenly felt like I was on Harry Potter's broom with a handlebar. The Mono's narrow, tall and light physique is quite unique, and is easily the most honest rendition of the supermotard genre to ever go on sale in India.

That Superquadro Mono motor, a 659cc gem that produces 77.5 bhp and 6.42 kgm, and revs till a hair-raising 10,250 rpm, is easily the delinquent star of this chaotic show. Add the optional 'track only' Termignoni exhausts and the Mono will make 84.5 bhp - for a bike that weighs 151 kg without fuel, those are some serious numbers, eh?! No wonder, then, that the more I looked at the Mono, the more it appeared to be a machine built around a stonking motor, with two fat wheels, a long seat and a 'bar thrown in just to get going. And how it went.