Winter Work - 2007-08

Not too much new for the bike this winter. A set of Ducati Performance Reverse Megaphones has replaced the Ex Box as the classic, or retro look was desired. Gold Anodized Vee-Two cam pulleys have been installed as well as CA-Cycleworks Ignition Coils to liven up the spark. Alain @ Corse Motorsports supplied the work, but obviously the slipons were a breeze to install, and the cam pulleys were relatively painless (said Alain) and just required proper degreeing. The ignition coils installation has been covered ad nauseum so it would be silly to remind you again how painless this install is.



On order from Motowheels is a custom Sargent seat to replace the stiff, improperly angled stock seat. The often colored welt will remain black on my seat, with the Italian Flag on the side and the CarbonFX seat material insert. The seat cowl will still adorn the rear as it fits over the Sargent without too much issue. The underside of the aftermarket seat has increased storage making stowage of a wheel lock or wallet much easier.



Shifting has changed as the bike is now setup with a GP-style shifter from Motowheels. Their new style reverse shifter has an upgraded curved look with your choice of anodized color for the toe piece, but is unfortunately too long for Monsters with the large diameter bolt kickstand and stock rearsets. Their other unit, with replaceable toe piece is shorter, however, and should work fine. Riding with the new shift pattern may be tricky but a post-it on the tach reminding "down for up" will help me. Pictures will be featured below within a few days.

Next up on the list? Tail Chop, Reworked forks, New
rear suspension, clutch plate & cover.

Late Summer

Things are going well with the bike, it has been tuned and ridden hard since the rebuild with all things going well. Almost. A battery issue has left a couple acid spots in the bronze frame on the left side which prompted me to get a sealed Yuasa battery. Its tiny, weighs very little and works incredibly well. It makes me wonder why the bike came stock with such a huge terrible battery.

The VeeTwo pulleys have not yet been installed as it requires using the cam degreeing tool and some time and I was ready to ride. It is on the list for this winter though, and possible powdercoating the frame red, like the newer bikes (which will also get rid of the aforementioned spots!).

The bellypan has been installed and it looks great in person. I need to figure out how to take better pictures because I never think the bike looks as good photographed as it does in person. Here's an example, using a small digital camera:



A big thanks to Brad @ Speedzone Paint & Bodyworks for the great work on the bellypan and routinely good customer service. The bike has gotten lots of miles this summer, and several trips were very long leading me to believe it may be time for a new seat. I have the Sargent seat in mind, as it is one of few that fits my older Monster's frame, but after seeing Patrick's Monster S4Rs with a stock seat recovered in a light tan leather, I'm starting to think a Sargent seat with "modifications" may be in order. The pics are from a brief ride on the Natchez Trace.

Nearing Completion

Things have been going well in the rebuild progress. The Vee-Two pulleys will wait for installation until the riding season has come to an end as it requires pulling the alternator side cover off to properly adjust them (otherwise, why have adjustable pulleys?) This will allow me to have the alternator side shipped off to be coated by Performance Coatings for a nice satin silver to match the heads/swingarm/suspension arc etc. While the motor is slightly opened up, the clutch side cover will likely be sent to DesmoTimes for Corse-style slotting, enabling the spinning basket to be visible as well as extra heat rejection.



The only other remaining piece from this past winter's (2006) planning is the Red Racing Bellypan. It is due back from paint (at Speedzone Paint & Bodyworks) by the end of next week and will be installed shortly after. Things like DynaCoils, FCR's, Ohlins Shock and RaceTech springs have been put on hold while I work on getting gear together for trackdays and a track duty bike. Current pictures are of the bike from June 18th, 2007.

A Work In Progress

It is unfortunate that the Spiegler lines do not fit correctly just yet, so the rebuild progress has slowed significantly until the problem is remedied. The good news is that Brian at Motowheels was kind enough to go out of his way to contact the manufacturer and arrange the proper corrections to be made.

Since these lines run through the front fairing area is would be silly to take the time to place new gauges on just to take them back off. So that is also waiting for a time. The new CycleCat top triple clamp does not use the standard '99 fairing mount brackets so the use of my new painted fairing will be limited. A fellow DML'er has traded me (money for parts) his new style fairing off a 2000 M900 which will fit the bill perfectly. It will be sent out to be striped when the bellypan is sent to be painted and will be installed at the same time as the new top triple.

In other news, a similar transaction occurred with fellow DML Ducseven, who is having to part out his M900. This is terrible for him and the bike (it was very well done) but it benefits me as I will be the proud owner of a Rizoma Billet Suspension Arc and rear wave rotor soon. He's a pleasure to do business with, but it is unfortunate for him to have to part out his Monster.

Without further ado, here are some pictures of the current build progress.



The new tank paint job and front end work can be seen here.



The wiring still needs to be hidden behind the frame, but this shows the removal of the side panel and rear hugger, the Nichols breather, Axle Adjuster Plates, and more of the new paint job. Things really seem to be coming together.

And this is THE Alain, who has helped so much. Notice him pulling the "Wilson" from Home Improvement:


One last shot from the front of the Duc showing the work-in-progress front end.

Italy & Australia

Two big parts came in recently. The Rizoma Belt Covers (ZDM018A's) brought to me from Italy by PJ's Parts and the Vee-Two Pulleys (V2-12-305) straight from Australia. The pulleys are billet with gold anodizing and one of the last of the color anodized sets available. They are adjustable and the gold anodizing will be visible through the windows in the billet belt covers. This improves significantly on the appearance of the motor as the stock belt covers were worse than ugly and the pulleys were non-adjustable. It is luck that the gold was still available as it has been discontinued (they only make 'clear' finish now) and this piece compliments the majority of the billet on the bike which is gold (the rest being silver, save the handlebars and new top triple, see below).

Also in recently with pics up now are the Spiegler custom brake lines in red and gold, with gold banjo bolts and gold fork preload adjusters to boot. See the pics below. From Motowheels.



The other big thing to come in recently is a CycleCat DTC-2 Top Triple in Titanium anodizing. This matches the CycleCat DBR-3 clipon handlebars (also in Titanium) that are currently on the bike. The top triple was technically a blem though you'd be trying really really hard to be able to find a blemish anywhere on it. It is simply beautiful. Purchased directly from OnCycles.com

Brake Lines & German Parts

So it seems I have finally conquered the front blinker dilemma (The "GP" Brembo master cylinders were positioned alarmingly close to the turn signal stalks, and the length of the Rizoma Track '01' Signals appeared to conflict with the headlight fairing so I had to figure something out. Removing the fairing was not an option as I had just paid to have it painted) .

A phone call to Wild Hair Accessories led to a very pleasant phone call and the solution. Fork mount brackets for the signals. The brackets are made by GSG in Germany and are CNC machined clamps that look quite slick. Unfortunately they will be shipped from Germany with an estimated time of 3-4 weeks but with the weather like it is, I am in absolutely no rush. I recommend Wild Hair Accessories, especially with their policy on customer service (talking with the customer=good and it alleviates possible mistakes, highly important as parts are coming in from Germany).

Similarly a quick phone call to ensure that the custom brake and clutch lines were coming along left me still a very-satisfied customer. Brian @ Motowheels had all the answers and personally checked to make sure the preload adjusters in gold were actually in stock, as well as getting gold banjo bolts all around to match the brake & clutch fittings. There will also be a set of high performance plug wires in the package to add to the look as well as the overall performance of the bike.


Above is a shot of the recent gear that was added to the bike. The DP tach and carbon fiber cluster as well as STM frame plugs (20mm) and the set of Rizoma Track '01' Indicators for the front. Things have come together and it looks like I may almost be finished (for the time being of course...)

Latest Progress

Tomorrow is the final day I'll be able to work on the bike in person for some time. I was able to resolve several issues with fitments and decide on my game plan for the next few weeks.

The brake/clutch lines are due in late next week or the beginning of the following from Motowheels in California. Again, Brian & Ed have done much to make things go as smooth as possibly for me. Along with the brake lines I should also be receiving a set of billet fork preload adjuster knobs for the tops of the Showa forks. They'll give me the opportunity to change the preload when I desire, and just as important, they will look quite nice.

Unfortunately for me came the realization that the sidestand mounts on my M900 are the older much larger diameter style and thus the CycleCat Billet Sidestand (DKS-35) will not work with my system unless I change the mounting to a newer style configuration. This looked quite feasible until the costs were investigated. A quick look at the mounting plates and costs through BikeBandit schematics show that the system is around $100 and at this point I'm not willing to spend nearly 250 big ones to have a better looking and slightly better functioning sidestand.

The installation of the Nichols Breather went without any problems as one might expect and the K&N filter slid neatly on top of it and came supplied with the necessary plugs to close off the airbox where existing hosing ran. Quite convenient and easy to use. In the same neck of the woods the gas vapor canister and oil breather box have been completely removed as have the carburetor vent pods. Other body parts I have decided to remove from the bike include the model indicating side panels as well as the rear-hugger. I may decide to revert to a rear hugger after several rides so I am keeping all parts for just such an event.

The removal of the existing license plate bracket and blinker mounts in the rear went smooth, though it required the removal and disassembly of part of the rear brake light to access all the appropriate bolts. The TPO license plate bracket bolted right up and the wiring for the blinkers, etc was relocated to the under seat area. The Rizoma blinkers were slightly trickier to plug in than I originally anticipated but not because of the stock wiring but because of the proprietary plug in the middle of the LED signals wiring. Apparently my fingers were a little big, but with a narrow straightedge the problem was solved.

Alain installed a new tire on the rear as it was due while he replaced the chain and both sprockets. The tire is a Michelin Pilot Power while the chain is a D.I.D. 520ERV3 purchased along with the AFAM sprockets in a group buy on the DML. This proved a very cost effective method of changing to a 14T front sprocket and a 40T rear. While installing the tire, chain and sprockets, I purchased from Corsair Industries a set of billet chain adjuster plates that are much nicer looking and have less "slop" in them (as Alain defines it).

In other news, the fiberglass short bellypan purchased from Red Racing will be mounted tomorrow morning and trimmed as necessary before it shipped out of state for paint. This is to be coupled with the receipt of the Ducati Performance carbon dash with tachometer in the mail to me that should be here on the 16th. Talk about things all coming together! Sorry There Were No Pictures in this LONG Post!

Lots of To-Do Recently!

There's been lots of To-Do recently regarding the rebuild progress.

I ran into a problem mounting the Choke Control seeing as I have upgraded the clutch master cylinder with a billet Brembo "GP" 16x18 unit. Now things are beginning to look a lot better up front but the choke formerly mounted on the old master cylinder. You might think redoing a choke control to be easy as pie, but it proved to be more daunting than one might think. Brian of Motowheels has been most helpful as he has a quite similar if not more personalized Monster. Brian also has a custom set of brake/clutch lines coming that will not only allow my new master cylinders to function, but will aid in performance and look quite slick.

The other recent concern was the mounting of indicators. I have never liked the look of the stock units and upgrades to billet LED systems are not cheap (even though I have redone my rear ones with Rizoma Track '01' Signals). The upgrade became mandatory recently when I learned that it not only cluttered up the look of the handlebar area, but it also could be in the way of my levers of the new master cylinders. The solution came way of aftermarket mounts and a lower placement near the bottom triple. Mounting brackets were not as easy to find as one might think, the appropriate search name for such an appliance is a "fork tube clamp" and this turns up only a few relevant results.

I plan on using the same signals as I had previously ordered for the rear in the front application. I got them before from PJ Pijanka of PJ's Parts and plan to do so again. The prices for Rizoma pieces can't be beat and the service is top notch friendly. One catch - a Paypal account is a must.

Newly opened MonsterParts.com is going to supply the new Ducati Performance tachometer and carbon fiber instrument cluster. The site is run by Jeff H. who was most curteous is his response to my emails as well as investigating a part for me.

The images below are the current build progress. As you can see things have been going a little slowly, but progress is steady. Alain has been most helpful and the Corse Motorsports shop is a terrific place to do business as well as visit. A big thanks must go out to my friend Will in Knoxville for pointing me in the right direction here in Nashville.