Ducati Monster Forum

sorry the final pics are not up here, hopefully soon but had a couple req's to post

first off, let me say sean did a great job of the tubes and they look SICK!! well.....it's like this, i gave myself a 50/50 chance of actually pulling it off and that is the exact result i got half good half bad....one is perfect and one.....not so perfect (scratch up quite a bit above the triples). it's staying on the bike so hopefully a little touch up paint will do the trick. i'm suprised i got ONE right hahaha. what i did was took a pry bar with a rubber tip on it and pryed them open, seem to open more then enough. the problem SEEMED to occur (i could be wrong) when my top and bottom triple on the one i scratched up seem slightly not lined up. the triples were more than enough scretched open and i got through the bottom triple just fine.....when putting it through the top triple it wasn't going through the middle it was touching on one side and had like a 1/2 inch on the other side of the hole in the triple, thus scratching when i banged it through. the first one i put in went in perfect and smooth second one not so much......would i do it again.....of course.....i would rather have scratched matching powdered forks than sticker-wrapped or non-matching anodized forks (that's just me though). this is my first bike so it more of a trial and error do this do that bike for me.....as of right now i'm losing the battle though because it's all together and don't run!!!!!!

p.s. i have pics of the tubes, pics of the forks together, but because of issues with the bike actaully running i have no pics of them on the bike yet. maybe someday if i get the bike running.





(http://i499.photobucket.com/albums/rr353/acemoneyhands/IMG_2345.jpg)

(http://i499.photobucket.com/albums/rr353/acemoneyhands/IMG_0002.jpg)

(http://i499.photobucket.com/albums/rr353/acemoneyhands/IMG_2160.jpg)

I'm going to have to pull my entire bike apart.....we're all going to have blacked out bikes soon [thumbsup]

+1, the powdercoat oven is officially up and running. tomorrow the first thing to get trial coated with my new PC gun is my passenger pegs  [evil]

Those parts look mighty yummy. may i ask what color that is, specifically?

yummy is right, thanks. it's columbia coatings (columbia something, i'm pretty sure it was coatings) 20-30% gloss powder. hope that helps, my coater handled all that

Thats all I needed..
I am getting my fork tubes coated this weekend 4 sure !

i would keep an eye on your forks, the powder coating could crush inside the triple clamps and lead to some loose fork tubes...
i think that's why most forks are anodized and not coated...

+1 i was thinking anadized for that same reason, same with the handlebar

I think the reason OEM's do anodizing over powder is becasue it doesnt add thickness to the part (where Powdercoating does)..

hahaha i like your thinking. if you do just be patient and careful putting them in and make sure the triples are lined up. i went in thinking i was going to scratch them (which i did to one of them) but i was mentally prepared for a couple scratches and didn't really care. i'd say yes do it if at worse case you can handle some scratches, and like they say, pray to the bike gods you don't scratch them. like i said, to me powder with a couple scratches with touch up paint looks better than and bike full of vinal tape or unmatch anodized forks.  the thing is......I IF CAN INSTALL ONE WITH ABSOULUTELY NO SCRATCHES (and i'm as dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to motorcycles) then a guy who actually knows a bike should be able to accomplish it. good luck!

you should of tried using graphite powder, might of helped. or even babypowder.

im tempted to do this, but i want gold forks, and andized gold looks much better than PC gold!

Still dying to see how it looks like on the bike mate!

I think we are going to lube the forks up with vasoline or something before we attempt to get them thru the triple's (good idea eh ? ;D)..
And if I do scratch one of them, I have another reason to put another Half Fast Chicago sticker on my bike  [thumbsup]

Will post pics as soon as I get them on the bike (promise)...

can you fit a pece of paper between the fork tube and the Triples?
slide the fork within the paper and then pull it out

+1!!!!!

Wedge you triple where it bolts, but not to much, and wrap the forks with parchment or wax paper. Put through triple, remove paper, remove wedges.

Bolt and go.  [thumbsup]

i thought about using lube and my buddy who helped was suggesting it but in my crazy mind i was thinking that a possible scratch trumps me always wondering if there is lube between my triple and fork (but what do i know really).  he's still talking about "i think if we did it would have worked.....maybe a KY water based lube so it dry up quicker". ALL i can say is ONE went in perfect (with no lube, no wax paper, no nothing but hammering and prybar between the triples) and one got scratches above the triple.......so if i myself, who has never changed oil in a car, don't even understand how a bike works, knows nothing about powder coat, have no good tools, no knowledge of anything, can get one in perfect there should be no reason that all these old timers should be talking about how hard it is to do (unless of course it was beginners luck).
 

powder being crushed in the triple and jarring it loose is an old wives tale (at least that's what i've heard and am thinking). with all due respect and thanks for the heads up to keep an eye out.....these forks ain't going nowhere!

people anodize them for the fact of scratching them going in and out of the triples.
 


 

is it possible my second fork got scratch because i scretched it TOO FAR? and that's why it wasn't lining up correctly?

depends on where it scratched. when you open up the triples, it will turn into an oval shape so if the point where it scratches is at the smallest radius of the oval, then yea.

Wax paper sounds like a good idea, id probably spray the overall area with soapy water too. but its done and done, so go to the beauty parlor get the best matching nail polish and cover it up!

Yeah, you only need to do it a mm or two, much more than that and you can break it off  :o

as he man said, nail polish works wonders.

really nail polish is the best for powder?!?! i been wondering. the funny thing is that i have an extra set of powdered coated tubes (that's a WHOLE nother story) and was gonna scratch them up in spots and test out different paint on them to see what work best. right now i have some touch up paint from the auto store in a little tube and i have some enamel paint from a craft store (i heard that was good) so i guess i will be adding nail polish to the paint testing.  

makes sense because the first ones went in so good and nice that when i move to the second one i'm sure i opened it bigger thinking it would be even better if they were open more (there i go thinking again). breaking it didn't cross my mind until the second one too hahaha.

Sean said Testers enamel paint (for models/r/c cars/etc) works wonders when touching up powder...

ano'd can scratch to when installing, but isn't nearly the thickness of powdercoating.

It's such a pain to pull the forks apart to have them coated with anything, so anodizing will always be my choice. [thumbsup]

now to find color numbers of the Ohlins forks  [evil]

Anodizing is sooo much easier on the install. Here is a set I just did last week  [thumbsup] They were gold to begin with.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3438/3399341549_a1fa89c0c1_b.jpg)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3032/3400152390_9745bb1975_b.jpg)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3650/3399347871_3cbcd9166d_b.jpg)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3212/3399351265_1611524c8f_b.jpg)

street triple????

Daytona 675.

One of the wooden pieces of a wooden clothespin is ideal for spreading the clamps a bit!  [thumbsup]

Adam

Good idea [thumbsup]

well... right.  [roll]

if your looking for the EASIEST way than that would be to just leave them alone and not do anything. if your looking for the best MATCH to the rest of your bike then if you have a spray painted bike i'd say spray paint them....if your bike anodized then ano them and so on and so forth. to each his own i guess.

I wouldn't knock spray paint

(My old bike)

(http://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq274/Tiavenger/620005.jpg)

Big fan of spraypaint, but Powdercoating is MUCH more durable..
My bike will end up being a blend of both  [evil]

Crazy how much better a blacked out front end makes these bikes [thumbsup]

(http://i499.photobucket.com/albums/rr353/acemoneyhands/100_0843.jpg)

nice. did you properly torque down the forks?

i had to torque my sprocket carrier on 2mm thick PC and the PC cracked. lol

nice indeed. no i didn't torque properly. just tightened them down as tight as can be.  from my understanding powder doesn't crack, how did yours crack?

you really ought to torque to the right settings, chief. Its your suspension we are talking about here. Not your gauge cluster, or some cosmetic bit. You hit a big bump and things shift, you've got problems. You tightened it too tight, hit a bump and the fork breaks, you've got problems. Couple of places torquing the bolts correctly really matters: brakes and suspension.

i mean you probably have a point but can anyone tell me the proper torque specs for a guesstimated amount of powdercoated fork tube bolts? if not then i'm gonna have to guesstimate the torque. cause my guess is now that they have powder on them they not the same torque. have you really seen or have any pics for that matter of a fork broke off from being too tight? cause (althought you are more than likely right) i've heard to many fictious stories about people overreacting to made up stories they've heard. right now i have other issues, like getting the damn bike running again, forks can't break if i can't ride. so if my research turns up the proper specs by the time i get it running they will be torqued properly, if not then i will be praying to the bike gods that i don't hit a bump and have my forks snap.

no, but i've heard of somebody over-torquing the fork tube and damaging the tube, no riding even done. they were using a far-too long ratchet so they didn't realize how much torque they were applying.

I think the best course of action is to torque to the standard setting and let it go at that.

Blacked out front end looks great my man..
Cant wait to get my bike all back together..

Wouldn't the torque value stay the same?  You may get to the torque value in fewer turns due to the greater diameter of the fork tubes...or am I speaking out of my A$$ ???

 that's far from forks breaking from hitting a bump. mine all tightened down with no damage, score one for noobie (at least for now haha)! i know your just trying to look out for me and i thank you for that. i'm obviously betting against anything bad happening to my forks as they are strapped and ready to roll on my bike......now if i could just figure out my many other issues i could test them out.

i have no idea. i'm not a math major nor a fork/powder expert. the things that float in my crazy head are.....the powder is softer than the raw metal on the forks so better to tighten a little extra and if there is give in the powder to make up for it with a little extra tightening.

I would be worried that if you hit a hard bump, the powder could crack and the forks would slide up in the triples....

spray paint will show rock chips when on the leading edge fairly early/often IME. but your methods may be superior to my own

Powdercoat generally doesnt crack. you and PC a piece of sheet metal and fold it on itself and it wouldnt crack. but thats only if you get it thick enough, as in the 2-3mm recommend level that most powder require.

since you only have a very thin layer, that might be more likely to happen. HOWEVER, if you torque it down to much, it can easily crack the PC (ive done it).

my recommendation, would be to use paint stripper and strip the area that contacts the triples, so you can apply normal torque on bare metal.

worried because you seen that happen before or just another "i heard from someone that that could happen"? i REALLY don't understand this whole "powder crack and forks slide" theory. can someone please explain how that could possiby happen?



for the sake of argument,  say the powder cracks (i guess possible, but not likely) under the triple that is held tightly on the fork.....how does a fork slide over the powder located right below the the triple that is just as big IF NOT BIGGER than the stuff that cracked under the triple to make it loose. since powder is flexable the narrowest part of the fork should be under the triple and even if it not any narrower it's still not sliding.  you follow?

No experience or even "heard of". Just a "could happen" in my head...

fair enough, all my thoughts and theorys are in my head too......and in my mind it'll be fine and no worries. i obviously thought about worse case senarios and what "could" happen and than factored it with the "chance" of it actually happening and then looking at the totality of the situation as a whole and am betting (and praying to the bike gods) that nothing bad will happen.

wheather nothing happens and my happy ass is riding his powdercoated forks for years to come OR wheather my shit cracks off and slides down the triples people here will always have someone to refer to about coating their forks. it will either be "acemoney tried that once and his shit cracked off" OR "acemoney did that and his forks perfectly fine". ONLY TIME WILL TELL.

Heres a bunch of reasons why it could happen, powder coat gets it strength from encapsulation, if it cracks, the shell is much weaker then it was before..so if it cracks under the triple, and you hit a pot hole, those little ripples on the fork will scrape the now fragile PC and continue to crack. Now take into account that hitting a pothole seems like it can equate to 1000lbs of force easily if your going at highway speeds, with that kind of sudden force, it sounds very plausible that if you didnt keep an eye on the coating, hitting a pot hole could very easily push the forks up slowly, if it began to crack in the first place.

not saying it will happen, or it wont happen, but i wouldnt count it out. Id still feel more comfortable stripping that part of the fork and just letting the metal clamp on metal.

understandable in theory. personally to myself there's too many "IF's" going on with that to actually worry about it. CAN it actually happen, YA (i guess). WILL it happen, i say HELL NO (i hope so).

hoenstly if it doesnt crack to begin with, then it probably wont happen, but if it begins to, id begin to take counter measure to make sure it doesnt.  good luck!

well ya.....i'm stupid but not that stupid

Not 5 coats of engine paint and 7 clears.  [laugh]  I didn't see my first chip for  8 months (I ran no fender)

http://www.springerlink.com/content/v72274qj6460w0u4/ (http://www.springerlink.com/content/v72274qj6460w0u4/)
(http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=v72274qj6460w0u4&size=largest)

HUGE fan of using engine enamel for bikes.
I have sprayed about 5 frames with Duplicolor ow glodd engine enamel with great results.
Stuff goes on thick, and if need be can be touched up easily..

What is "ow glodd"?

ok i read that article posted above, like i said before i'm not the smartest guy, i'm not sure if they are saying it's fine, or not fine, or fine if done right. i guess i'll find out when my "study" of road testing is done.

My fork tubes (which are Powdercoated) went together in my powdercoated tree's without issue.
I will get some pics up once the exhaust is installed and the thing gets a a good wash/detail...

Anyone have the proper fork torque specs for an S2R 800?  Thanks.

NICE!!!!

And not a scratch on them (thanks to Chad over @ ACE   [thumbsup]

SICK! looking really nice. hands down best looking forks i've seen (besides mine of course haha). how'd he attack opening the triples?

Everytime I see this thread, I think it says 'Powdered Toast Man'.

(from Ren & Stimpy a few years back.)

Not sure what he did to open the tree's large enough, but it worked [thumbsup]

Or " Powdered Milk Man" (from the Aquabats)