I was a local dealer here, just looking, it is winter, lol. Anyhow, I noticed that the new 696 and 796 still have Showa stamped on the front suspension. The rumour was they were changed to Marzos. These are Canadian models, are the other countries' models the same?
the showa stamped ones are the 2010 models that are marked as 2011 models... the marz stamped ones are the 2nd gen 2011 models, supposed to be no diff btwn them at all.