Who's got the oldest built Monster 600?

[998]

I know there's been a "Who's got the oldest built Monster" thread but as the M600 didn't appear until a year after the 900 I thought it might be an interesting question.

My own M600 has a 000633 frame number and was registered 19th May 1994, but someone's bound to have an earlier one.

Over to you guys.

[Mr Gazza]

I remember Steve Berry testing one on Top Gear when they first came out. But when were they launched?

[slob]

May 94 is very early, a pal of Scrapps' has a very slightly earlier one. We used it in the 20th anniversary display at the NEC.

Ann (1994 M600)
Original owner
9,200 miles
First registered 23rd April 1994
"I love vee twins. As soon as my nearest Ducati dealer: Laguna Motorcycles, Maidstone had one arrive in their showroom they rang me. I went straight over there and sat on the bike and ordered a red one but a yellow one arrived. I said OK and took it anyway."

http://www.thelasturl.net/img/02sm_M600_01.JPG

[998]

May 94 is very early, a pal of Scrapps' has a very slightly earlier one. We used it in the 20th anniversary display at the NEC.

Very nice and in the rarer yellow too :cool:

[998]

I remember Steve Berry testing one on Top Gear when they first came out. But when were they launched?
All I've been able to find is "launched 1994".

[Darkness]

The m600 launch seems to have gone under the radar for the bike press. They were more excited by the launch of the 916, which seems to have been fairly concurrent?
The m600 road tests seem to occur a few years later when the m600 Dark became available.
The interweb published production figures suggest that only 80 of the 230 m600 produced for England in the '94 model year were yellow. The model years end in October (ish) to coincide with shows and model launches, so there wasn't a full 12 months of production in the '94 model year.
Mr Falloon states in the Monster Bible that 'the 600 became available during 1994, going into production in March', so yours must have been pretty close to the front of the production line to allow for shipping and registration.

[Darren69]

Yes M600 first went into production March 1994. Falloon also goes on to state " The early ones had a different primary gear ratio 32/73 and final drive 15/38 (98 link) from frame number 002962 the primary gear was changed to 31/62 same as M750/900 with a 15/43 final gear (100 link)" so that may be one way to identify how early yours is.

[998]

The interweb published production figures suggest that only 80 of the 230 m600 produced for England in the '94 model year were yellow.
Do you have a link for this?

I saw some stats last year but I'm sure they said only 18 were yellow; I thought it was a bit low at the time.

EDIT: I found the list I saw last year - looks like I mis-read it. It seems Yellow UK spec '94 M600s are not as rare as I thought :(

[Dirty]

A better question might be 'who has the latest registered M600 in yellow?' :mand:

[Darkness]

A better question might be 'who has the latest registered M600 in yellow?' :mand:

Surely that's a different question rather than a 'better' one?