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Custom Ducati Monster Project 696

Wow! We just finished an extremely successful track day out at Putman Park, and I finally had the chance to put the retuned Monster 696 through the ringer. The stock setup proved to be a very capable and versatile setup, suiting both street and track. Being racers though, we could not let well enough alone, so we did some “tweaking”. The first thing we looked at was the fork valving. Having valving in just one fork, the right side, we decided to increase the compression valving by about 80%. Unfortunately the 696 forks are non-adjustable, so we had to accomplish this by increasing the valve stack internally. One area that this made a great improvement over stock, was braking. I could really grab a handful of lever now, where as before there, was a little too much initial chassis pitch forward unloading the rear. I also felt like I could trail the brake in a little bit deeper than with the stock setup. What a confidence builder! I didn’t really notice very much change over the bumps from before so this revalve was definitely a good direction.
 
 

The other big change we made was at the rear. We decided to go with a softer 11NM Ohlins rear spring, as I weigh in at about 135 pounds. This change in spring rate complimented the front revalve because now there is less spring pressure trying to lift the rear of the bike under heavy braking. After setting the proper sag for my weight, we ended up with two more full turns of spring preload. This helped keep the pegs out of the asphalt as we were starting to max out the lean angle of the bike. This seems to be the limiting factor now for corner speed. We can’t go faster until we get more lean angle. Good news on that front though! Our CarrMoto rear sets are almost ready for production, and with the adjustability of both foot pegs, and lever pegs this will no longer be a problem.

For our next track day, I think we will play with front spring rates, and maybe try the rear damper that Ohlins offers for the Monster.

Ride Safe!...............And Stay Tuned!!

 
 
Matt’s Notes:

Jeff and I have been working together on the 696 and we are both really happy with the direction we are moving. The fork revalve was a little stiff for him on the street but with my extra 80lbs I was relatively happy with it. I was very interested in getting Jeff’s 696 into the sweeping corners out at our latest trackday at Putnam Park. For those of you who have never ridden Putnam, it is a great Ducati track 30 miles west of downtown Indianapolis. One is happy they are on a stable Ducati as you sweep through 100+mph corners with a knee firmly planted on the tarmac.

I had sampled the stock 696 earlier in the year and was left with a good impression but the changes(see Jeff’s writings) we made before our latest trackday were quite an improvement. Removing the shock is easy and I only had to revalve one fork! Less work is alright! We did add two rounds of preload to the spring before I went on track to support my extra weight. It was a nice warm 85deg out so the Bridgestone BT056’s warmed up quick. They wouldn’t be my first choice for a track tire but they were working very good. Right off the bat the long swingarm and more forward weight bias of the new generation monters provided a stability that is not found on many bikes. To put this into perspective the 696’s swingarm length(pivot to axle) is 20mm longer than the 848. I was able to exploit the light weight of the 696 and carry more corner speed than most of the bikes out in the advanced class. The 696 was very planted and I was very, very happy with our work on the bike so far. Next we need to try the Ohlins DU737 rear shock. See ya at the track!!!

 

 

 
Custom Ducati Monster 696 Underseat Exhaust
 
 
Custom Billet Ducati Monster 696 Rearsets
696 Rearsets 696 Rearsets 696 Rearsets 696 Rearsets
 

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