Ducati Monster Forum

i know exactly what i need to mount my guages under my triple. flat M8 hex nuts (2.5mm height). i found 'em but i can only get 'em by the 1000ct. fml. if anyone can hook me up it  would make life waaaaay easier.

they look sumthin like this:
(http://i1030.photobucket.com/albums/y367/Rawr2001/hex_thin_nut.jpg)

McMaster-Carr part number 93935A340 is a M8x1.25 304 Stainless Steel thin nut... comes 50 to a pack for $9.58

home depot sears. youll be paying like 200% markup but you only need 2 bolts so whatever.

I went to Lowes for some metric bolts the other day and found the selection to be lacking... dunno if they are gonna have the thin nuts like he wants.

Buy 'em one at a time here:
http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/productselection.asp?Product=MJAM (http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/productselection.asp?Product=MJAM)







Those are 4mm thick, but may be fine for his application.

There are regular zinc-plated ones on that same catalog page, a little cheaper:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/117/3180/=boddho (http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/117/3180/=boddho)


Good luck with that.

4mm may be a little thick. the pegasus pieces..... there are two different RH size 8 nuts (1.0 & 1.25 thread). any idea how to tell which?

hint: the M8 bolts i am using thread thru a Cycle Cat top triple.....by HAND.

Why not just get a standard width and grind them thinner?? Maybe I'm ignorant as to why that's an issue but whenever I have a bolt clearance issue my bench grinder saves the day.

They're $0.40/ea. Buy em both, and some extras.

I would say 8x1.25.

8x1.0 fasteners are very rare.

Yeah, I'd be surprised if you were looking for fine-thread.

Lowe's and Home depot suck for odd shaped nuts and bolts for me.  There is a family owned Ace Hardware near me though that has a great selection of odd nuts and bolts.  Check your local phone book for a fastener store.  There might be one in an industrial area near you.

yep. the 1.0s are fine thread. not what i need. apparently the thinnest 1.25 is the 4mm so i went ahead and ordered them from Pegasus.

i ran a pair of M8 bolts thru my triple so there is about .75" coming out from the bottom. the object of the game is to use these nuts to fasten the gauges to the triple via these bolts from beneath.

right now the gauges are mounted in place below the trip, but are not secured with any kind of fastener. i have a shortened u-bracket which has been rigged with some aluminum scrap to lower the headlight mounting brackets. its such a tight fit that the headlight is actually crushing the gauges against the triple so they are pretty well immobilized. however, this is putting a lot of stress on the gauges so the center piece is not aligning properly with the lower half of the gauge "shell" (* the gauges were already like this on the old triple). the plan is to cut the tabs and re-weld them in a slightly lower position than where they are now. this will return some of the adjustability to the headlight and take some stress off the gauges and the wires and lines pinched between. but then the gauges willdefinetly need to be secured somehow.

i still need to work out some way to secure the u-bracket to what remains of the bolts...

the home depot by me is actually pretty good. but because other people often mix the damn trays up, you might be there for a bit looking, but i find what i need 80% of the time. The one in the city though.  :-X


If you find an Fastenal by you, they can special order it. however you pay about $8 bucks in tax and fees...

Easiest, and sexiest looking solution to your headlight problem:
(http://www.bellissimoto.com/images/Fork_Collars.JPG)

http://www.bellissimoto.com/CNCRacingMisc.html (http://www.bellissimoto.com/CNCRacingMisc.html)
(scroll all the way down)

You can lower your headlight as low as you damn well please with these babies.
And at such a reasonable price, it really makes doing all that hacking and welding and work on that ugly U-Bracket seem like a waste of time, IMO...

Then you can fit whatever nut you want under that top triple.
AND your gauges won't get smushed.

I looked at those over and over when I was looking at how to attach the Trailtech stuff. I'll be damned if I can find a picture of them actually installed on a bike. Seems like a product more people would have used...

Anyone?

canabalize the bottom of the u-bracket to clamp the lines and speedo cable to the lower trip?

Yessir. That's how i did it.

I have em installed.
They're awesome.
They reuse the stock headlight tabs, just mounts them to the fork instead of the U-Bracket.
Then you can position anywhere you want between the triple clamps.

I drilled out my top triple's holes for the gauge mounts, and then just used M8 bolts to mount them under the triple.
You could fab up a bracket to mount to your top triple using the stock gauge mounting points to mount your Trailtech to.

You do realize I'm now going to demand photos of your bike right?

Used to have some up... But i deleted my Flickr account because i was getting spammed like a mofo from yahoo.
I'll post some up soon ;)

 [laugh] I couldnt find any pics either.

yeah, i need to see those things in action too. i looooove me some machined billet, but rite now i'm just visualizing those rings rite out there on the forks and it seems a little busy for my tastes. the u-bracket is a pain, but its practically invisible. i've only barely had the bike out and been asked twice how the headlight is even mounted. its actually kinda slick in a weird way.

they do add an extra item clamping on to the fork, but they are simple looking IMO.
the u-bracket is definitely a good piece of engineering for sure, but it takes up a lot of space behind the headlight.

for me, it was an easy choice.
i NEEDED to lower my gauges because of my handlebar choice when i did my fork swap.
i don't have the means to do any welding on my own, and these solved the problem.
they also freed up some room for the damn load boxes that are attached to my Rizoma blinkers.

i do understand your concerns though, as I too am a fan of having as little crap on my bike as possible.
but i'm also a big fan of billet and cf bling... so i choose it wisely.

these are MEGA functional. so again, no-brainer.

EDIT: I knew someone else had them. AM (JV?) has them on his bike: http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=45972.0 (http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=45972.0)

i'll post pics when i get a chance... out of town for the weekend unfortunately.

so you cut the 'ears' off the u-bracket and the cnc collars attach?

I think it's just unbolt the triangular brackets off of the U-bracket, install the cnc collars, then attach the triangular brackets to the collars.