So far behind on updating!

I can't believe how I've let things get away from me as far as updating this blog goes.

Lets see - I acquired another frame awhile back - yes, another M900 frame (pre-02, like the others - something about the racing 851-888-926 derivation of the early Monster frames that excites me most). So that makes 3 M900 frames and the 2V SBK.  For a swingarm, I happened to acquire a certain Febur Single-Sided Swingarm for the 94-01 Ducati Monster - so it will be a 916-Styled Swingarm on a '99 M900.  Whoo hoo!   Its not so straightforward, obviously using a different exhaust setup, different wheels, different rear brake setup, different suspension linkage and reaction rod, and get this: one-off dished/offset front sprocket. That was hard to come by (and you can bet I got a spare in case the source dries up down the road!)   I plan to use a bit of a custom exhaust setup to pull this off as I won't be able to migrate over the Sil Moto Spaghetti headers and Sil / NCR titanium pipes.

IMA Special Parts MOD4 Hybrid top triple with MOD1 Lower on Ducati Monster

Also, I've gotten another set of IMA billet triple clamps to put on the bike - but these are fancy, very fancy. They've got adjustable offset, anywhere from 25-31mm - I pick. Feel like changing? Change two bushings, and its done. IMA has gotten a US distributor now - and the 'full name' of their motorcycle parts brand is IMA Special Parts. That's worth noting since IMA SrL - the main company - does much more fabrication than motorcycle parts alone. Their bread 'n'  butter is manufacturing parts for FIAT Group Automobiles, the legendary car manufacturer (in existence since 1899!).

Here's some cool parts related to that tidbit - I can make a few short jumps (OK, some are stretches), and go from my Ducati Monster all the way to World Champion Jorge Lorenzo and to legendary automobile manufacturer Ferrari. Here we go:

IMA Special Parts MODEL 4 Adjustable Billet Triple Clamps ("MOD4"), and Adjustable Clipons

IMA Special Parts N.A. is the "North American" distributor of IMA Special Parts, the motorcycle products division of IMA SrL, of Torino, Italy. IMA SrL's main client is FIAT, and FIAT is an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino - Italian Automobile Manufacturer of Torino. IMA Special Parts has just released their newest triple clamps design - highly versatile track-oriented triples for modern superbikes. They have branded MODEL 4 or "MOD4" (the next number in their products lineup. The new design is a product of a university study, with some pretty significant changes to the profile of the top triple to allow a designed-in amount of flex - and this reduces the front end 'chattering'. So you get more confidence over the front, and as they say "With more confidence, more podiums!"

IMA Special Parts MODEL 4 Adjustable Billet Triple Clamps ("MOD4"), and Adjustable Clipons (detail of profile)

"More podiums? Prove it, I say" And its not hard to see: The MOD4 departs from the basic triangle or bar configuration of triple clamps made in the last 50 years. Many manufacturers make aftermarket triple clamps from billet aluminum - whether is 6061, 6082 ANTICORODAL, or 7075 ERGAL. Big deal, nothing new there... but they are all the conventional shape with straight edges, or perhaps a decorative cutout here or there. The MOD4 has curves on the side of the triple towards the rider - like cutouts - and across the top are longitudinal cut outs - literally channels from front to rear. Its pretty wild looking. I've posted the pictures I got off their website (I'm sure they wouldn't mind) to show what I'm trying to describe. So, looking at these...I thought "I've seen this before"...and from another person related to FIAT, no less: Jorge Lorenzo uses triples like this - nearly identical to this - on the FIAT Yamaha M1 he won a world championship on!

 If you peak through the windscreen of his bike on the track, you can see the top triple pretty clearly.

And here's a detailed view of the cockpit on his pure prototype, no-expense spared, MotoGP FIAT Yamaha M1 from his World Championship season:

Same changes to the profile and same longitudinal cut-outs?! Both related to FIAT in a motorcycle capacity?!  Surely no coincidence... and sure enough: IMA has lots of pictures of on-track testing the triple clamps!  (Here's but one from their IMA SrL website)

Sometimes the world feels like a smaller place in the neatest ways.

Pictures? I got pictures.

I didn't forget the pictures from before, I just didn't have a good place to put them as I hadn't been good at taking pictures "mid-progress". As of today, here we have some pictures:

The M900 'V' with upgraded front end:

The details are: BST front wheel, 996 forks with TiNi sliders and Ohlins internals, all titanium hardware, TPO lightweight front axle, Motovation axle sliders, ISR billet monoblock 6-piston 6-pad calipers, ISR rotors, IMA 30mm offset triples, BST front fender and Spiegler brake lines.

Here's the M900 'W' on its way home from Northern Arkansas:

And with the work I've put in, the current bike looks pretty close to this:

Note the now-red frame!

M900 V v. W

It has been sometime since I have updated this blog. The projects in the garage have progressed, and I've added a second 1999 M900 to the garage. This bike has the "W" stamped heads rather than the "V" stamped heads among several other odd features, and will be referred to as the M900W (where the "W" stands for the heads it is equipped with, or 'wife', take your pick).

This bike is for my wife to learn to ride on and for me to piddle about in comfort (as it has been setup with comfort in mind). The bike came from a gent in Northern Arkansas who did horrendous and unthinkable things to the bike, the least of which was spraypainting the already red-powdercoated frame a dingy black color. (The true frame color, under the red powdercoat is the antique gold, like my original 1999 M900V).

Beyond the frame paint, which my wife has since resolved, the bike was not properly running. The fuel lines, fuel vacuum petcock, fuel pump, and carburettors were in disarray. The fuel filter looked dark through the white plastic exterior. The swingarm had been chewed through by a malfunction cush drive lug on the rear wheel.

The bright: A quick perusal of eBay got me a black powdercoated swingarm in good condition, and a clean cush drive. These things went in straightaway, as well as a new sprocket set: 14/39T ratio, 520 pitch. The front wheel turns out to have been bent - back to eBay and that problem is also resolved.

Perusing the Ducati Monster Forum, eBay, Ducati.MS and other classifieds, I was able to locate a carbon fiber oil-catching bellypan, carbon underseat sidepanels, carbon rear hugger, and other bits and pieces of carbon. My M900 recently received a second set of IMA SrL Triple clamps with superbike fork diameter boring, along with a BST front wheel, TPO lightweight front axle, and 996 era forks with Ohlins internals (more about that in a later post).  That meant that the IMA triples that were on my bike, along with the forks with upgraded RaceTech internals were free to use on the M900W.

What's great about the IMA triples for the Ducati Monster is that they are true in shape and bolt location to the original Ducati triples, meaning that one can still mount a bar with riser to the top triple, and more excitingly, the original 'old-school' 1998-99 style front fairing. (This was not true of the CycleCat triples for that era bike).  As luck would have it, the previous owner had the original fairing brackets and fairing (and I still had the front fairing from the M900V as well), so I was able to mount that up along with the upgraded forks and triples.

More good: I still had a sidemount Ohlins steering damper from my M900V that was on the shelf unused (I preferred the under-triple location of the Motowheels kit with 68mm damper). So on it went with no issues. The front end was not only functional, but now substantially upgraded from stock (More for me to enjoy than for the wife to learn on).

The bad: I sat on the bike with the new front end to feel the balance and was horrified. The back end sank down like an overloaded pickup truck. Enter Motowheels and an Ohlins rear shock with remote reservoir, and billet reservoir mount! This has just arrived and will be installed shortly to complete the suspension upgrades on this bike. All three components of a suspension system have been upgraded now: The forks, the shock, and a steering damper. The chassis has been upgraded in the front with new triples, and the only missing element to upgrade would be a billet rear hoop. Turns out, Style & Performance still has these in stock in Europe, and Anthony @ Desmoworks was able to order one up. When this gets in, the bike will essentially have all the great upgrades one could look for in a chassis/suspension for this era Monster. (The only two possible other upgrades is a braced swingarm from Metmachex/JMC and Superbike forks with good internals).

On Geometry

Recently, I've made two changes to the bike's geometry. The 1999 Monster is a member of the 1993-2001 Monster Frame series, which shares many features with the 851/888 bikes. The main differences are an additional brace near the steering stem was removed to accommodate the Monster's air box and the rear section of the frame is welded on, rather than being a subframe (subframes ARE used on all 'new' Monsters, a la 696/1100 and generally all other Ducatis, including the Hypermotard and the Superbikes).

A distinguishing feature of the 851/888/Monster's frame from the newer 2002-2009 ST based Monster frames is the hooped swingarm suspension. The swingarm connects to a hoop or arch that connects to a pivot or lever arm, which in turn is connected to the top of the shock. The hoop is originally made of steel and comes the color of the bike's frame. Thus, mine was antique gold. Until I changed it. For several years, I've been running a lighter and stiffer billet swingarm hoop. It left the geometry essentially the same, but gave a slight amount more feedback while looking really good. It came to my attention that DMF Member sweir1171 was making a ride-height adjustment kit. The kit features two machined, threaded risers that will raise the tail of the bike a few cm. They work fantastically and went right on.



Such a modification will change the wheelbase of the motorcycle and quicken steering.



While I quite liked the quicker steering and change in feel, I was also interested in improving the feel of the front end. The forks have been reworked with a basic respring, revalve and re-oil using RaceTech components, but aside from the slightly stiffer and lighter CycleCat top triple and clipon handlebars, not much else had changed. This is when I contacted IMA SrL. These guys are fantastic to work with.

There are a few differences in the pre-02 Monster frames and the newer Monster (02-09) frames beyond the rear suspension assembly. The older frame Monsters, along with all Supersports, utilize a narrow steering stem and are equipped from the factory with tapered roller bearings. The offset (the distance between the centerline of the forks and the steering stem) is 25mm. To put this into perspective, superbikes frequently leave the factory with 36mm offsets, and aftermarket triples may change this down to 32 or even 30mm. Several vendors sell triples with offsets as low as 27mm (Ducshop).

Newer Monsters (02+) have a bigger 30mm offset from the factory, use a much larger diameter steering stem and do not come with roller bearings from the factory (though one could upgrade to SpeedyMoto's set if they like). The rake change from old style monsters to new style monsters is a small but perceivable 23 or 23.5 (depending on the source you read) to 24 degrees. IMA produces beefy billet aluminum triple sets (upper and lower, including steering stem) for older Monsters and Supersports that increase the offset to 30mm, same as the new Monsters, and even allow for the use of a Monster-esque bar on a Supersport (if one was so inclined). They provided me with a black anodized set for my Monster.



Installation involves suspending the front end of the motorcycle, removing the wheel, gauges, controls and anything touching the triples. Once that's all taken care of, the triples are loosened and removed from the bike. The inner races must be knocked out of the steering stem before the new races may be inserted. Then a new tapered bearing that has been well greased is driven on to the IMA triple's stem. The factory uses SKF bearings, and that's what I replaced the set with (obtained from CA-Cycleworks in SpeedyMoto's convenient packaging). Then its all put back together, titanium bolts all around, and you get:



From a bit of a distance:


Update - 3/29/2010
The finished product has a trail of approximately 90.5mm, and started closer to 96mm. original wheelbase was 1430mm, and the final result is minimally smaller. The feel is fantastic on the street, though I've only put about 1,000mi on since the original writeup. I've yet to find really great roads outside of DFW like I had nearby in Middle Tennessee. Looks like its time to start taking off bling so I can track this bike. Or perhaps its time to invest in a 2nd bike for track only.

Parts, Winter Plans, and Local Help

Some new parts are on their way, mostly funded through the sales of old parts that I no longer used, or found alternatives for. Among these are DP/DPM Billet Cam End Covers and Valve Covers with Oil Cooler Mount (which should go nicely with the a)VeeTwo Cams yet to be put on and b)Rizoma Billet Oil Cooler). Things will look nice, machined, and tidy on the motor. Only thing left is some actual motor work in the indefinite future (putting in the cams and high compression pistons, maybe 944 kit).

Some paint work will be undertaken this winter as well. A new 'cafe' style rear cowl is being made by a former DFW Ducati rider, Jesus, which will be bolted up for evaluation and later sent, along with my carbon fiber front fender, off to paint. New to the DFW area is Brad Miller, of Motion Ducati, who will perform some paint, powdercoating, and engine work (when that time comes around).

Also here to help is a friend who enjoys doing the mechanical, and an extra set of hands will be quite handy during the IMA triple set install. This requires removing front wheel, forks, controls, gauges, the triples, and the bearing races that will be in the steering head, as well as installing new tapered bearings (original equipment on pre-02 Monsters) and races, and butting it all back up.