Ducati Monster Forum

I ordered a "Kit Monster Art" in Giallo Ducati (yellow) from BCM Motorsports on Tuesday 11 August. I expected to wait for weeks or even months before it arrived. I got a call from Miles on Friday 14 August to say it was in!

The box was extremely light but well-packed. Each piece was in a foam bag and those were separated by air cells.

(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_keb9Kczo6oU/Sobt4Bab3CI/AAAAAAAAG3A/4jaAqa-7_Rw/s288/DSCN1349.JPG)

(https://lh5.ggpht.com/_keb9Kczo6oU/Sobt4groe1I/AAAAAAAAG3E/I0i-bphdj0s/s288/DSCN1352.JPG)

There were instructions... of a sort. They were printed on a color inkjet and consisted primarily of instructions to have my dealer do various things. Instructions were limited to mounting the new pieces but said nothing about getting the old ones off the bike.

I used the workshop manual for guidance on removing the fairings, which was extremely easy. I'm a mechanical noob and had no difficulty at all. All the required tools consist of hex wrenches (unless you take the stuff about using a torque wrench seriously, which I didn't.) I suspect all those sizes are in the tool pouch but didn't check because I used my $5 set of ball-end hex wrenches from Ocean State Job Lot.

It took me about an hour to replace all the plastics. This was done around 1am in the barn with poor lighting. I didn't unwrap any of the pieces or carry them out until I had removed the corresponding original piece from the bike because I didn't want to drop or step on anything. I took things slowly and kept track of where each fastener originally came from. This turned out to be unneccessary since there are 2 identical bolts for the seat cowl, 4 identical bolts for the fender, 4 identical bolts for the headlight fairing, 2 large bolts for the tank fairing rear and numerous identical bolts for the top, front, and sides of the tank fairings. Most people could probably do it in nearly half the time, especially if they've removed the tank fairings before.

The only significant wierdness is the clip on the fender for the brake line. This is riveted on and is different on the new one. The old one just has the line clip in from above (then instantly pop back out). The new one has a fold-over design that will probably work better than the original design, but didn't come with a fastener (called "the bolt" in the instructions, but I suspect a self-tapping screw) to hold it closed so currently works just as ineffectively as the old one.

The paint quality is good, but not excellent. There's a small amount of orange-peeling on the seat cowl, which also has a small drip on one of the "points." This would probably not be at all noticeable to anyone less obsessive than I. It's certainly not a Frosty's Finishes job but it's on a par with my bike's factory paint.. On the other hand, I doubt I could get Nate to paint all my original plastics for $700 (in 3 days).

(http://lh3.ggpht.com/_keb9Kczo6oU/Sobt7c1PNmI/AAAAAAAAG3c/tz0dG41c5n8/s288/DSCN1358.JPG)

(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_keb9Kczo6oU/Sobt52Z-KoI/AAAAAAAAG3Q/K58Rnkok6yU/s288/DSCN1355.JPG)

(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_keb9Kczo6oU/Sobt67NEYEI/AAAAAAAAG3Y/wSWPbaXj4Tc/s288/DSCN1353.JPG)

(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_keb9Kczo6oU/Sobt5VVYUfI/AAAAAAAAG3M/_7nSiKTb6K4/s288/DSCN1354.JPG)

(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_keb9Kczo6oU/Sobt5E-PNeI/AAAAAAAAG3I/5KM8xgDl1zM/s288/DSCN1356.JPG)

The yellow, according to the "instruction" brochure, is PPG 473.201. It's a near-perfect match for my HJC helmet, which makes me suspect it's the same as Shoei's Axis Yellow. To me it seems slightly darker than the stock spring, but it's not too far off.

Ultimately, I decided not to bother with mounting the yellow parts on my wife's red-framed bike because I was certain I'd hate it.

Before anyone comments, I bought this bike with a Competition Werkes tail chop. After ending up with a stripe of grit down my back and hearing stuff constantly pinging against the rear of my helmet, I put the stock tail back on and those problems disappeared. For now I'm leaving it this way.

Larger photos are at http://picasaweb.google.com/snevetsm/Ducati (http://picasaweb.google.com/snevetsm/Ducati)

I didn't even know that the kit came with instructions until I got to the last part, which was the fender. It was on the bottom beneath all of the parts. Anyway, regarding the brake line clip on the fender, I ran into the same thing. And yes, the original clip is pretty worthless. This one actually holds the line in place, but I need to get a screw to close the clip. All the screws I have now are too long. Just took this picture so everyone else knows what we're talking about.

(http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q7/ducati_monster/brakelineclip.jpg)

I don't see any peeling or excess paint on my parts though. I'd have to take a closer look.

Anyway, nice bike!  :D

You'd be surprised on the price, but you're absolutely correct on the timing. ;)

I had the bike parked out in front of my house today, in the same spot where I've had the same bike parked several times when it was still pearl white. It's never drawn a crowd before. Today it did. Twice.

I'm liking the yeller.

Hmmm. Maybe I should get my old plastics repainted instead of flogging them on fleaBay.

Damn the yellow really does look good.  I'm really tempted to get the orange but I have a Shoei TZR helmet in their blaze orange color so I'm not sure if I want to match my bike like that.

Get the orange!  :) I think that would look pretty bad-ass! I never thought I'd like orange on a vehicle until I saw an orange Lamborghini. But then again, it may be the Lamborghini. I don't think I would've been impressed with an orange Scion xb.  [puke]

Besides, I thought most people want to match their gear. Or am I wrong? Me, I've never had completely matching gear, but I was getting closer with the Monster dark, but now that it's yellow, nothing matches again and I can't see buying new gear just to match the yellow.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem matching.  My jacket and gloves match my white 696.  I just don't want to overdo the whole rolling pumpkin thing.

That yellow really does look good, though.  I don't know if the orange would measure up.

I strongly considered the orange. I'd love to see one in that color.

Who cares what matches? My helmet's yellow because I wanted high visibility, not because I'm a yellow freak. Honest, I don't even like yellow that much. I just think most Ducatis look really good in yellow for some reason.

If Ducati wants to sell these kits, they need to expand the views available on the website so potential buyers can rotate the image to see the bikes from all angles in the various colors. The current site and the little flippy books just don't cut it. I wasn't even quite prepared to pull the trigger until KG5 posted his pics.

That's why I went with the orange helmet.  It's not the matching that bothers me.  Well, maybe it is.  I don't know.  I just think it would be an orange overload.  Like eating too many carrots.  Honestly, if I wasn't trying to pay down debt, I'd buy it, and an exhaust, and some rearsets.

You could get a whole Oompa-Loompa thing going.

suggestion-  unbolt the clear screen, spray paint the inside black.  With your bike, it'll look incredible.  I did it to a Dark, definitely makes an impression.  Your's should also.  Buy a high temp type paint.   Then you can also do the heat shields and the mounting brackets for the exhaust.  I bought a Semi-Gloss black from Pep Boys, worked great.  It's Duplicolor engine paint with ceramic.  Makes it a little harder once you cure it with some heat.

keep the tail part on, i personally think the tail chops look horrible on the monster always have.

it may look better on some japanese bikes like the sv's and the cbr sport bikes, but for some reason they look horirble on monsters always looks like the bike stops way too abruptly at the end of the seat.  just doesn't have a flow with the bike.

-6.02x10²³   [cheeky]

Well, I'll add back an Avogadro's number, which brings us back closer to neutral.

There are things I like about the appearance with and without the tail chop. When I look at function, though, there is no functional reason whatsoever for the chop and there is a functional reason for the tail. That's why I put mine back on.

I agree.