Ducati Monster Forum

This is my first post here but I've been lurking this forum for a while.  I thought I'd contribute since I've had a chance to run my wife's 2009 696 at the drag strip.

All of the threads I've seen on the M696's quarter mile performance have been quoting magazine articles, so here are some real world numbers with an average skill 160 lb rider. Modifications are listed in the video. I'm an average rider, a pro could run faster with the same bike I'm sure. I'm a bigger fan of twisty roads than running in a straight line. I ride a Yamaha Warrior most of the time and you have to launch the Monster completely different. Even my relatively soft launches were lifting the front wheel a bit. Next time I go I'll try launching at about 1000-1500 rpms higher and carrying the wheel through 1st gear. I might be able to lose a tenth off my ET. Anyway, here is what an average guy runs in a 2009 M696 with a 14T:

http://youtu.be/-2JmAxWm-14 (http://youtu.be/-2JmAxWm-14)

Not sure if that is good or bad. The only thing I noticed on the timing slip was a bit of a slow reaction time off the light. Bike sounds great though  [thumbsup]
What was your time compared to the magazine published times?

The reaction times were a bit slow but not bad for a pro tree.  The lowest you can get is .5000 without redlighting.  If it were a standard tree it would have been super slow.  You have to be really good at launching a bike to get a good reaction time with a pro tree.  That's the biggest problem with that track.  They run pro tree all the time for bikes but they run a standard tree for the cars.  Magazine published times were low 12s, I think 12.32 and 12.27 I saw.  My times weren't too far off, except I have a 14T which should put it ahead a bit.  Again, a better rider could do it though because I was launching soft.