Yet another Monster project(updated 7/26)

[Ducatl]

So to connect a Vapor to your coil you're going to want their wire kit with the resistor in it (raptor model).  Remove the battery and a single coil, there should be three things underneath the coil; a right angle type spade connector with 2 red wires, the spark plug wire and a single spade connector with a gray wire.  Take the positive(red with the resistor in it) wire from the TT bundle and connect it to the grey spade, the black wire you will run to ground.

[Ducatl]

So I've been thinking about the exhaust issue more and I know that I def. want to go back to double low mounts maybe in a slightly more aggressive position/angle than the factory or aftermarket cans would be in.  I've been searching for affordable cans to use and I've come up with a few options.

I found these first, eBay units from china...kind of the style I was looking for and they're decently inexpensive but the quality looks eh.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/GP-STYLE-Exhaust-Honda-CBF-1000-2006-2009_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem563554e008QQitemZ370261942280QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/GP-TITANIUM-Racing-Exhaust-Kawasaki-Z-1000-Z1000-03-06_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem4ceb13ba72QQitemZ330361453170QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

Then there's http://www.carbonpartz.net/id94.html which makes custom cans, I hadn't heard of them until recently but they seem to have a pretty decent reputation.  I emailed them and they got back to me right away, really great communication thus far.  I'm mostly interested in the stainless cans around 300mm in length and from what I've gathered so far they're just slightly north of $200 a piece.  I'm thinking I may try them out as the quality looks nice and I like the service so far.





Anyways, I took the bike out for a spin today and got about 2 shots before my camera battery died so maybe tomorrow I'll score some sweet pics

[RVA Duc]

i think the all black looks good man , maybe paint the oil cooler cover black ?

[briggstar]

Just stumbled on this thread and love the attention to detail, man!  As with others, I envy your fab skills - and patience.

Kudos on the lights.  I'm digging the one-of-a-kind, asymmetrical look, but what I'd really like to see is a night shot of those bad boys.  Your mods are not for everyone, but that's kind of the point, isn't it!?

ps: this is probably a little nit-picky, but you may want to do something about the white oil filter too, since everything else is flowing so nicely.

[Raux]

more i look at it, i would like to see the side covers off.

[Ducatl]

more i look at it, i would like to see the side covers off.

You mean the carbon parts? I was actually just thinking about that the other day.  Couple things need to happen before I can take a look at it, there's wiring and the breather filter running behind them.  That said, I never really like the way it looks on other bikes I've seen so I'm kind of doubtful I'll like it here.

Just stumbled on this thread and love the attention to detail, man!  As with others, I envy your fab skills - and patience.

Kudos on the lights.  I'm digging the one-of-a-kind, asymmetrical look, but what I'd really like to see is a night shot of those bad boys.  Your mods are not for everyone, but that's kind of the point, isn't it!?

ps: this is probably a little nit-picky, but you may want to do something about the white oil filter too, since everything else is flowing so nicely.

Thanks .  The filter is just something I threw on because it's all I could find in a hurry...It's actually chrome .  Gonna change it as soon as I make it down to ducshop to pick up a ducati filter.

[Raux]

reason i say that is there is sooo much tube frame everywhere else, frame, rearsets, etc. i think covering them up makes the rear almost look heavy and doesn't flow with the rest of the build. so minimal and then these covers?

but this is customization, and it's your custom. so if you like it that way, (and i'm not saying it looks bad) then go for it.

[Ducatl]

Yeah, We'll see about the covers.  The welds and tabs underneath them don't look very good either so I'm not too certain about the look.

So my starter solenoid crapped out on me, this is the second one during my ownership.  This one was the Yamaha unit that Ca-Cycleworks sells, it lasted about 2 years before it too fell to whatever it is that seems to kill these so fast on monsters.  I decided that this was as good a time as any to go through the whole harness so I've totally stripped it out and started hacking away at it, pretty scary stuff . 


So far I've removed a good deal of wiring and I've shortened the rear harness by about 8 inches.  The plan is to run the harness up the middle of the bike and over the vertical head so as to hide as much of it as possible.  I've seriously considered going to pod filters as this would be the easiest route for wiring but I really don't want the headache of rejetting and everything else.  I want to relocate the starter solenoid as it's pretty much impossible to access in the stock location and I'm going to run a new starter line down the left side of the bike anyways.  I've yet to find a suitable place for it,  one question I do have about it though, can the hot and starter wires be reversed(terminal wise) without changing the function of the unit?  Also relocating the horn and possibly installing some LED's in the plastic ignition cover for neutral and fuel.  I'm also thinking I want to do the k&n breather filter directly on the crankcase vent and I want to do a shock sock as well so those are probably the next few things I'll do.

[Ducatl]

Work continues

I've got a lot of the harness sorted out now, pretty much all of it actually.  The only part left to tie together is right at the very front, I've got the left control, key/ignition, start button and lights all run right up to the front but haven't yet got the packaging to a place I'm satisfied with yet.  I desperately want to use a mil-spec circular connector to run everything into a single plug but the tool alone is like several hundred dollars, still...they're so awesome looking. Rewiring and trying to hide the harness with the factory airbox has been a real chore, there just isn't that much room in the front of the bike to route everything.  That said I routed everything up over the vertical cylinder and then over the battery and airbox, I would have liked to have gone under but that will have to wait for pods.  When I can score some cool heat sheath material made for hoses I'll route the fuel hoses over the vertical cylinder as well, need to make a trip to summit racing. 

I've also been working on the exhaust front.





I contemplated buying a set of round gp styled pipes but then stumbled upon a used set of round cans for a Honda 919 on Ebay, picked them up for $50.  So far I've chopped them down to 300mm in length and started blasting them, the caps look awesome and the sleeves need another blasting to even them out a bit more.  The caps are SS and the sleeve is aluminum, I'm going to add rivet straps and possibly slash cut titanium end caps.  I need to find some decent muffler straps though, does anyone have a lead on where I might find some neat straps? The cans are round/86mm diameter. I think I'm gonna go with a stock header for now to keep cost down, I'll probably blast it as well now that I have access to a sandblaster that actually works.  I'm actually contemplating blasting my tank and matte clearing it too , it needs a repaint and this just seems like it might be awesome.

[rockaduc]

I am loving this thread.  Keep it up.

[hcomp]

  The caps are SS and the sleeve is aluminum, I'm going to add rivet straps and possibly slash cut titanium end caps.

I likely the slash cuts!

[junior varsity]

I like slash cuts as well!

[Ducatl]

Cut out

That's the majority of the wiring I've removed so far, have yet to get the neutral switch out.  It's...a lot, the bike looks so much cleaner already and I'm not even done.  One important thing recently is that I've decided to toss the stock kill switch housing out, I've literally never used it and it's caused headaches in the past that necessitated taking it apart.  I'm going to mount a tiny waterproof momentary push button in the plastic guard that surrounds the keyed ignition unit, this really cleans up the wiring a ton and gives a lot of extra room on the bars.

The exhaust cans are pretty much ready to go, I'm still looking for sexy mount straps but besides that things are moving forward.  I've been researching the best blast media to use on the tank so as not to damage it, I'm torn between having it done locally and just doing it myself.  it's something I'll look into more after the exhaust and wiring are all done.

[Ducatl]

I haven't mentioned this yet but it's what I've been working on for the last few days.  When I bought the TT vapor the problem was that because of the spacing on the monster triples there was no factory available mount for it.  I eventually got a little mount going out of steel but I just wasn't satisfied with the way it came out.  So I spent the last 2 weeks teaching myself CAD

Anyways, after tons of measuring and an hour or two in Autocad I had my file and a day later I had my part.  I used a local machine shop with a waterjet mill(same one that did the rotor spacers) and the part came out really great and it was super cheap as well .  I'm doing a little redesign on the front end as it was just too cluttered so this is just the first part of that.  I extended the gauge outward 10mm and it sits about 5mm lower than it did before.  I'm moving back to the factory headlight mount(with some changes) to facilitate cleaning the front end up so I plan to powdercoat that plus this mount in textured black, I'll probably pick the powder up this weekend.

It's been a fun little excersize and I've got a lot more stuff planned for the future(like rearsets, initial sketch http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/ff217/ducatl/?action=view&current=sketchmodel2.jpg).

Anyways, I thought I'd put this out there if any of you with aging monsters are desperately seeking new gauges.  If there's interest I'll put together a little package with the mount(sand blasted, powdercoated, raw, whatever) and titanium hardware.  I'll offer these at my cost to anybody here that's interested.

More soon...

[junior varsity]

Looks great!