New here. Just bought a 2011 M696. Future upgrades I plan on doing are...
-Exhaust, probably Termignoni
-Stock headlight to dual headlight conversion
-New mirrors
-Rear sets
thats pretty much it for now as I've only had the bike for a couple weeks. Feel free to leave tips or just say hi.

Welcome!    I moved away from boston about this time last year.  Great city.  The white plastic and red frame is a great combo, very sharp.  Glad to hear you are doing something about that fugly stock headlight too 

thanks! I actually swapped the stock mirrors out today with Rizoma Spy R's

I wish I knew about the reverse threads on the right side mirror. I broke one of the stock mirrors. Oh well.

Welcome to the board.

So was the red frame actually an option.  i just bought i new white 696 and i got a black frame.  didn't know their were other colors. 

nice bike!

Yes it is an option. They offer the trellis frame in both red and black. I was originally interested in the black frame but they only had a red one. I saw the red one and loved it.