Yet another Monster project(updated 7/26)

[Ducatl]

So I decided to start this thread simply because I love LOVE build threads and I hope to be able to possibly provide some entertainment in return to all those who have so generously provided before me...well, and to those who haven't .  My '99 Monster 750 has been through a lot, I purchased the bike when I was a sophomore at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.  I found my monster through Craigslist, it had been salvaged and rebuilt in colorado where the current owner had previously lived.  The seller had owned the bike for almost 2 years(+ the original owners time) and it still only had about 3500 miles on it, although I was promised everything was new and in working order...well, you all know this story . So new battery, starter solenoid, belts, plugs and oil later I was sitting pretty with a nice looking Silver Stock(ish) 750 with a decent amount of carbon.  This sufficed until that first summer hit and I started making enough extra cash for modding to be a realistic option and like any proper enthusiast I haven't been able to stop since.

Like everyone else I tend to really wrench on the bike all at once, I'll save a bunch of stuff up and then try to complete most of it by taking the bike down only once.  The first major bit of this I did over the course of that first summer.  I removed all the emissions stuff, swapped in and painted a 5.5" rear with a conti sport attack, bought spare footpegs from yoyodyne and made a set of custom single person rearsets, new nrg plug wires, bought a 1098s can and made a semi-underslung low mount, swapped in a clear LED tail with integrated lights, swapped in mini LED front signals, installed a rear brake hanger/MC/lever from a superbike, custom cut and lexaned a set of 1 piece stock  belt covers, did a gloss black rattlecan job on the tank, seat cover and sprocket cover, made a custom plate bracket, 07 GSXR 1000 clutch master, renthal grips and third eye bar end mirrors.

I was fairly satisfied with this change and I felt it really suited me, I knew I wasn't done of course but I still enjoyed it.  The bike ended up looking basically like this




I continued working/schooling and once school started again I really didn't have the cash to do anything besides keep it on the road.  Over the course of that year I picked up some 06 GSXR 1000 forks/brakes/MC and a second stock rotor.  I toyed around with the idea of creating my own exbox type system but never actually built anything, it all stalled out in the design phase after I built some real models and kind of lost interest.





WELL, I graduated in May of '08 and spent most of the traditional summer dicking around Atlanta with friends and what not.  I Miraculously landed a really decent job...in Chicago...trouble was I had to be moved up there within 3 days and really had no means of taking the old girl with me. The bike spent the next year in my parents basement while I settled into a $1300 a month studio apartment here:




Extremely long story considerably shortened, economy tanked.  I wasn't laid off but there was basically no work for me to do and therefore no money for me to make, I packed up shop in Chicago after a little over a year and made my way back to Atlanta. Surprisingly the bike was exactly as I'd left it, my father had the "courtesy" to ride it every couple of weeks to keep everything from getting stale.  I got the bike back on the road and I've been riding it pretty much everyday since I returned, I recently took a week trip up to NC with a college friends family and, well, lets just say we found a dragon



















So after that week I knew it was time to continue with the modding and that brings us up to the present

I recently added passenger pegs to the custom rear sets, powdercoated the swingarm, painted the swingarm end caps, powdercoated the shock spring and sprocket red and added some misc. brass and stainless hardware.

As it sits ready here's what it looks like






And what I've got planned...the first task is going to be cleaning up and removing as much of the wiring as possible.  I'm ditching the guages and stock headlight/bracket, whoever did the repair job after the original owners accident didn't bother to keep most of the harness intact and therefore the gas light doesn't work nor do I have any use for most of the dummy lights.  I'm going to strip the harness of as much as possible and then try to accomplish a few things.  I'm thinking about running a single trail tech scmr16 hid light(http://trailtech.net/single_hid_scmr16.html) in an offset/tucked position, since this will delete my high/low beam I may try to wire it so that I can use the stock high beam switch as a headlight on/off.  Secondly, my stock throttle tube has a chunk missing out of it from the original crash.  This doesn't interefere with operation but the throttle grip has the be cut to allow that, this has always bothered me.  I originally started looking for a standard ducati replacement, then I decided I might try out an ebay alloy dual cable unit, just the other night I remembered that I was shipped the 06 gsxr 1000 throttle tube with integrated bike start switch.  Well, I'm going to try to swap in the gsxr unit as it's practically brand new, would integrate the throttle and start/ kill switch(http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff217/ducatl/DSC_7291.jpg?t=1249092671), and my old unit is all faded(http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff217/ducatl/DSC_7292.jpg?t=1249092874) and what not...it seems like it will be a simple swap so long as the throttle cables are long enough/fit.  I'm also going to core the 1098 can and install an actual baffle with glasspack. New bars, new grips, new light, new throttle, new tires, gsxr fork swap(http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff217/ducatl/DSC_7295.jpg?t=1249092879), powdercoat the clutch cover and replace a bunch of stuff with stainless and brass...there's more but it's escaping me.  Anyways,  I'll document each step here, so far I've replaced the stand and rearset bolts with brass/stainless





And yeah, the chain and sprockets are all gonna get swapped as well (P.S. it normally doesn't look that dirty/bad

[teddy037.2]

 

nice bike! wish I had fab skills

[xcaptainxbloodx]

I dont claim to be a road racing champ,and im not trying to be rude, but you've got some body positioning to work on.

[Raux]

I dont claim to be a road racing champ,and im not trying to be rude, but you've got some body positioning to work on.

seems like a nice leisurely pace positioning. especially since he's been off the bike awhile.

[damianS4RS]

Good luck man the bike looks great so far. 

[xcaptainxbloodx]

seems like a nice leisurely pace positioning. especially since he's been off the bike awhile.

if your reffering to the locked elbows, and foot position thats somewhat excuseable but its the back, hip, leg positioning that has me

its cool though, im sure it will all work itself out.

[Raux]

if your reffering to the locked elbows, and foot position thats somewhat excuseable but its the back, hip, leg positioning that has me

its cool though, im sure it will all work itself out.

i got it solved. it was freaking hot.
he had just came from chicago.
his shield is up with no eye protection, and his knees were out to soak up cool air.

[ducrider45]

i got it solved. it was freaking hot.
he had just came from chicago.
his shield is up with no eye protection, and his knees were out to soak up cool air.

That's what I was thinking as well.

[KEH]

That exhaust is interesting. How does it sound? Is it cored or modified at all?

[Ducatl]

Hah, yes I do suck.  Although it's hard to tell from most of the pics I'm actually just puttering along in traffic.  I couldn't seem to find a time when there wasn't much traffic, the one time I did manage to avoid traffic I happened to have a passenger with me .

Anyways,  My first goal was to core the exhaust.  Like the stock Monster cans the 1098 cans have a similar mechanical baffle design that doesn't provide much in the way of sound quality.  I followed a tutorial on ducati-superbikes.com for coring and replacing the stock baffle design with a traditional perforated tube/glass pack.



I haven't had the time buy rivets yet so no finished pictures as of now, although I did bolt everything back up and it sounds great .

I've also started ordering parts,  I bought a set of these bars.



and these grips, although in red


I'm not completely sold on the red grips but when I went to buy exhaust packing at the local shop they were on sale for $7 dollars, didn't seem worth passing up.

Once I get the exhaust back together I'm going to go for a short ride to drain the tank.  The plan is to remove the tank and airbox and start on the rewiring first before I start adding all the new junk .  I'm thinking I'm either going to use a bicycle speedometer or a trail tech vapor or endurance computer,  I haven't completely made up my mind as of yet.  I know some people have swapped in vapors but had tach issues anyways, did anyone ever get the tach working properly?  Anyways, more soon

[Ducatl]

So I decided to ditch the old exhaust and create my own exbox setup ,  It was more difficult than id imagined, so far I have maybe 30 hours of work into it.  I started by building a cardboard model, I then completed one box about 80% before I scraped it and started on a second box with a much better interior design.  The box contains separate chambers for each cylinder with a traditional baffle design and a balance pipe between the chambers.  The pictures show just the mockup with everything completed, the box and pipes have yet to be fully welded together.  It's already several pounds lighter than what I had on and it's all directly under the bike.  I used some scrap 20 guage sheet that was lying around plus cannibalized the old system which means I spent exactly $0 dollars putting this together so far.  I'm thinking of finishing the box and connected pipes in black and then polishing the pipes from the heads.  Anyways, more to come as I get there .  Oh, and I PC'ed the clutch cover

 


P.S. sorry for the phone pics I'll do better once it's finished.

[NAKID]

Looks good, I'd like to see it a little closer to the engine though. Too much space above the "box" for me...

[truckinduc]

I agree, looks good, but I also would have tucked it up farther.

When I built mine I built it as tight as possible.

[Ducatl]

Yeah, I considered mounting it higher at first but the horizontal pipe would have necessitated some weird box design that I didn't feel like dealing with.  The box is maybe 1" from the little upside down L in the bottom of the case, I think once I have the mounting tabs attached the gap will disappear a good bit.

I think it would be neat to see a cad designed machined aluminum box that bolts together, I may try designing something like that later on.

[truckinduc]

Mine I just posted above was Aluminum.  The bottom was Tapped and you could remove the bottom plate. The pulses were so great that the bottom soon blew out. The rear cyl. blew a hole in 1/8 plate aluminum.