According to our friends at Ducati News Today, Ducati Australia has announced that it will begin offering a Ducati Monster 659, a Learner Approved Motorcycle Scheme (LAMS) compliant motorcycle for learning motorcyclists. Something we reported on back in March, the Monster 659 is a repurposed Monster 696 that complies with Australia’s laws and restrictions regarding motorcycle purchases by new riders.
Though with this news the Monster 659 has been official announced, it still is not clear how Ducati arrived to its 659cc displacement for the Ducati Monster 659. Logic would dictate either a reduced bore size, or a shortened stroke, with the latter being our best guess, but Ducati Australia so far has been mums the word about it.
Specially made by Ducati Motor Holdings for the Australian market, the new Ducati Monster 659 will be made available in June, with an MSRP of $12,990 AUD. An ABS version of the Ducati Monster 659 will come out in early August, with a $1000 AUD premium added to the price tag (that’s $13,999 AUD for those who are still recovering from hitting the clubs on Thursday night).
“Ducati has produced the new Monster 659 specifically for our market as we want as many Australian Learner rides [sic] as possible to have the opportunity to ride a new Ducati,” said CEO of Ducati Australia Warren Lee. “The 659 is based on the 696, already a very popular model with younger, female and less experienced riders, so it was the ideal basis for our LAMS model.”
Source: Ducati News Today
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