Let's get one thing out of the way right now. If you're after a plush commuter with all the trimmings, the Ducati Hypermotard 698 Mono RVE is not for you. The 698 Mono is a hyper-focused hooligan machine that excels at getting from point A to point B with venom and vim. It combines dirtbike DNA with roadbike credentials and, in its natural terrain - which is to say, the urban sprawl and tight and twisty backroads - well, it's about as much fun as you can have on a motorcycle.
The Mono, as the name suggests, is powered by a single-cylinder 659cc, which is the first and only single produced by Ducati in over 30 years - at least until the release of the MX bikes earlier this year. The Mono shares nothing with the MX platform.
The 659cc donk is a peach and is just screaming out to be shoehorned into an enduro bike or lightweight adventure bike - DesertX Mono, anyone? There's a claimed 77.5hp on tap, so it's got some serious poke. It will cruise along at highway speeds without feeling like it's about to throw a rod out of the cases - it is vibey at highway speeds, but that's not what this is about. It's a rev-happy mill and not as punchy down low as, say, KTM's 690 SMC-R, but this is what gives the Hypermotard its highway manners. Keep the engine on the boil and closer to redline than 0rpm and it's just a blast.
Fanging in and out of traffic or screaming through tight and twisty backroads is a pleasure and never fails to put a smile on your face.
This ultra-fun feel is as much a product of the Mono's chassis as it is of the single-cylinder mill. A motard's purpose in life is to be small, light and narrow, and the Mono is all of these. Every input on the wide MX-style bars is meaningful - it turns on a dime and is an absolute scalpel in corners. It's an old and overused cliché, but it really is a case of just look where you want to go and the Mono feels almost like it knows exactly what you're after. I can't reiterate this enough - the Mono in tight, twisty turns is about as much fun as you can have on a motorcycle. But that is the case with motards in general - if you haven't ridden one, you're missing out.
Where the Mono also puts a smile on my dial is negotiating city traffic. That's odd, you may think. What could be enjoyable about riding in traffic? Well, the Hypermotard, as a matter of fact. With that punchy single engine and narrow waistline, there isn't a gap that can't be slipped through, a green-light holeshot that can't be won, nor a U-turn that can't be ripped.
The Hypermotard is sporting an array of rider aids to assist in keeping you upright. There's traction control and wheelie control - both of which can be turned off (thank you, motorcycle gods) - plus ABS, which can be switched off on the rear for maximum backing-it-in grins. There are also three ride modes to choose from, and all the info needed is beamed to your eyeballs via a small and neat LCD screen. It's on the basic side compared to the colour TFTs getting about these days, but it has everything you need. If I can whinge for just a moment, it does take a while to learn to navigate through all the settings, and there are quite a few. A more user-friendly interface would be the cherry on top of an already luscious cake.
There are two versions of the Hypermotard Mono to choose from - the standard version with a plain old Ducati red paint job, and the RVE, which you see here, that sports flashy livery, a lick of red paint on the cast alloy wheels, and a quickshifter. While I'm on the subject of the quickshifter, it is a thing of beauty to use - flawless is not too extreme a word.
The biggest fly in the ointment of what is an otherwise outstanding package is the price when compared to its competition. At just over $25,000, it is substantially more expensive than the motard gaggle from the KTM Group stable and a whopping $10,000 more expensive than Suzuki's new DR-Z4SM. Now, that isn't a completely fair comparison. Is the Ducati more enjoyable to ride than the others? Well, no, not really. However, the Hypermotard feels far more premium than the other bunch. It still feels like a dirtbike rolling on 17-inch motard rims, but the fit and finish are at a much higher level the Hypermotard has a classiness to it that the others can't match. This is a premium product at a premium price, and there's nothing wrong with that. A relatively expensive bike can still be good value for money if it does what it says on the tin, and the Mono certainly delivers.
If you're after the ultimate hooligan machine but also crave the cred and premium fit and finish that Ducati is known for, then I don't think you can beat the Hypermotard 698 Mono RVE. The biggest question is: can you control yourself enough to keep your licence? Because the Mono will bring out your inner hooligan.
