Ducati Monster Forum

after seeing Stew's creations and pm'ing him, he has inspired me to tackle this swap.

i got lucky and bought the swingarm off ebay for $50 shipped. before going any further, i had to do a test fit. he advised that i just buy a steel swing first, in case i had to do some welding or tweaking. when i'm finished, it'll be replaced with a purdy aluminum one.

the first difference i noticed is that how much weight i going to drop. when i pull the SS swing back off i'm going to get a accurate weight of the 2. i was too excited.

i'm almost convinced that high mounts would look nice. i'm usually a low mount kinda guy.

(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x251/seusssandm/DSC04150.jpg)

(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x251/seusssandm/DSC04148.jpg)

Besides the swingarm swap itself -- and having to modify the tank/etc for the Supersport style shock setup...

find yourself a 900Supersport set of headers. (they are pretty cheap when you can find!) Modify then to work with your low/high mounts as required.

Why?  Supersport swingarm has the rear header between the engine case and swingarm brace.  Monster the rear header travels farther back before poking down through the swingarm itself.  Two very different exhaust routings that most people don't realize... 

looks awesome. The spark style high mounts would look great, as they hug the subframe more

i'm already ahead of ya. i talked pretty in depth with stew, and already pointed out the thing to be modified. like you listed tank, header, shock mount.

i can use my headers. the vertical pipe just has to be trimmed back a little. i also thought about cutting a half circle out of the swing where the header fits through and welding all around. so i wouldn't have to trim as much(just a thought).

the low mounts i have will actually work without mod'ing. they're old 2 brothers that have a 2 piece design. the elbow bend and muffler are separate, and can be rotated to change the angles. but the exhaust is the lease of my worries.

one thing i realized, is that i might not be able to use the CA track tank. on the other side i might be able too. it just depends if the shock mount would fall right in the round cutout of the CA track tank.

the other option is a pair of sport classic springs in the back. right now a set is on ebay for supercheap brandnew.

i was going to say "can you just put a short pushrod between the swingarm and std suspension rocker?  saves remounting the shock, etc." but then realised that there's no lower shock mount.

how about under the seat?

hear me out

if you were to mount the shock horizontally under the seat using the back of the frame as the mount. then put a push rod actuator with a 90 deg bend...

Wow...  OK.  Good luck with all this!

If you want, I can put frame tubes onto your existing frame to mount up the SS top shock mount in the exact position as it would be on a SS frame so the suspension geometry will be correct...

Tank mods will drive you insane...

 [popcorn]

again get on ebay someone has a set (2 shocks) of sport classic shocks on sale cheap.

found them raux, but i kinda like the mono shock better than the biposto style. if i can get them cheap, i'll go ahead andd buy them for test fitting. on ducati.ms, i found a guy who has a stock mono shock w/ hyperpro spring.

one thing i have to fing out is how long the sport classic springs are. after looking on the ohlins site, i found these 3 shocks have the same specs, but different pt#. paul smart, 91-02 SS, and mh900e are all s46pr1c1L. probably different lengths

they all mount differently. the ss and mh900e are close but the PS is different.

PS
(http://www.webbikeworld.com/ducati-motorcycles/paul-smart-1000/paul-smart-1000-front.jpg)
MH900e
(http://www.ducatisuite.com/mh_davida2.jpg)

and of course you have the SS

what's PS?

when i listed those shocks, on the ohlin's site, they had the same type of shock. but as far as valving and length i don't know
the reason i brought those up was, if the SC mono shock is too long for the monster and use an alternative.

this is how ohlin;s broke down the s46pr1c1L of the shock, and all three shared the same.

http://www.ohlins.com/Templates/Pages/TypeCode/TypeCode.aspx?typecode=S46PR1C1L (http://www.ohlins.com/Templates/Pages/TypeCode/TypeCode.aspx?typecode=S46PR1C1L)


i need somebody with a SC to take some measurements for me. to get an idea where the shock mounts.

someone more knowledgeable than me can answer this, but would you think there might be a need for additional bracing on the swingarm since you are putting the load on one side.

I'd think the same thing. It works on the MH900 SSS because it is designed that way. Seems a single shock on the DSS would cause unbalanced loading on the swingarm pivot.

MH and SC were *designed* to have a single shock mounted on the left side of the swingarm and the frame.

SS and Monster were not designed for that.

I would go through this mod a couple of times more before I`d do it.
You`re dead sure of what you`re modding?
Seems pretty risky to change a dual shock design to a mono.

That swingarm is Aluminum right? Well, the bobber's was steel.

Steel bends and flexes and it's pretty 'plastic' in that it can deform and return to it's original shape pretty easily without suffering permanent harm.

Aluminum, on the flip side, if subjected to the same stresses, will eventually decide to crack.

One's brittle, the other is not.

Also, the rake, trail, ground clearance and skinniness of the bobber's tires meant it was never going to be riding close to the same limits that a 'normal' sport bike would be. So folks were far less worried about the torsional flex that bike might have on it's back end.

Basically everyone is saying you're going to be adversely affecting the handling of your bike by going to a mono shock on one side. Also they think it might mess up the pivot bearings, so you might have to change those frequently.

And potentially your swingarm might break and if you're really unlucky it might kill you.

My advice: There are guys who know this stuff far better than an armchair nervous nellie like me. You should talk with one of them before doing this mod because... well because this is a pretty important part of your bike.

The Coup D'Etat (Monster Bobber) had 2" of suspension travel...  BEFORE you sat on it!  That got reduced to about 1 1/4" when sitting on it.  It also had a 140/90 rear tire on it which I ran at about 25psi...  In other words: it was never meant to really handle the loads required on a motorcycle designed to actually handle well.  It just had to be something slightly better than a full rigid rear suspension was all...

The SC (single shock) and MH swingarms are designed to distribute the loads into the one shock located on the one side.  In addition, the frames of those bikes were designed to receive those loads on that one side...  Neither the SS swingarm nor the Monster frame were designed for those loads to be carried on one side...

SS swingarm with the stock SS upper location adapted to a Monster frame will work, but you've changed your designs since our early PM's....  I really think you ought to reconsider the single shock on one side of the frame idea...  My $.02.

ohhh how much i hate to admit this, but the mono SC might be a little risky.

there ya'll happy now. i guess i'm not going to even mention my lexan engine case.

i went back and looked at stew's m1000ss, soiled myself. i just didn't want to jock his style.

We`re all just tryin to be helpful here... ;)

Go on w the next crazy idea!  [thumbsup] :D

glad you didn't take the lexan engine case serious. since the internet means business.

does anybody know what the sag should be on a SS without a rider?

It does look good from the rear.  Looks tough.

I know you liked the look of the single shock, but I think a shock on each side would look good too.  If you go with those Sport Classic dual shocks your bike would definitely be unique.

Another idea would be to find a swingarm from a GT1000 or a Sport 1000 with dual shocks.  I'm pretty sure that swingarm would bolt right up to your engine.  Then you would only have to worry about welding attachments for the shocks to the frame and not the swingarm too.  Plus the roundness of the Sport Classic swingarm would look good with the Monster frame.

If you use the SS swingarm, consider painting or powder coating it to match the gold frame. 

i found a guy who had a paul smart(mono shock) swing arm. but he sold it before i got to it. somebody paid $500 for it. if i can find one for a good price in the future, it might happen. one turn off i did find about the mono shock, is that there are hardly any stock shock FS. you know just to get bye with, and aftermarket shocks where slim.



you mean to tell me you don't like the faux-aluminum color?

i got a AL ss swing a couple weeks ago. what's even better is that the seller included the entire rear floating caliper set-up at no additional charge.

Steel
(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x251/seusssandm/DSC04226.jpg)

10.6 lbs


Aluminum
(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x251/seusssandm/DSC04227.jpg)

8.2 lbs

i went back through this thread and removed the ideas of doing the mono shock. i didn't like how the thread seemed confusing jumping from one idea to another.

since the ss swingarm was lying dormant in the garage for a couple months, i dug it out and cleaned it off and found something bad. i found a hairline crack that was more than halfway around one of the swingarm pivots.

BEFORE
(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x251/seusssandm/DSC04645.jpg)

AFTER.it's all fixed now.
(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x251/seusssandm/DSC04664.jpg)

it only cost me $20, and i'm talking with paypal cause i brought it to the seller attention and is now ignoring me.

i picked up something else up for a killer deal. as of now, i have all the parts i needed/wanted and hopefully i can schedule with the fabricator to mod my frame.

my killer deal came in today. ohlins ss shock w/ Ti spring and new oe spring.
(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x251/seusssandm/DSC04665.jpg)

ohlins w/ ti spring 5lbs
showa 8lbs
those are digi bathroom scale weights

i guess it pays to be patient.i really can't wait.

Sweet!   [thumbsup]  Give me a holler if you need me to take more pics of my frame set-up with the SS swingarm for your fabricator.  I assume you're not going to try for a side mounted shock.

(http://www.flightcycles.com/flightcycles/m1000ss/Originals/M1000SS-14.jpg)

yeah i canned the mono SC set-up. i found everything to do the swap, but found one trouble some piece. where the shock mounts to the frame, would be a lot wider than how the monster frame was designed.

if you have some pics you wouldn't mind sharing, i'd love to see. you can post or email them. if you email, the address on my profile is good.

thanks spidey