Fransesco Baracca- what do you do with a broken Monster?

[DTR]

Like a chia pet? No, I haven't had to water it yet. It is a Marine Corps (ohh rah!) sea-bag (canvas) that I had the upholstery shop rip up and sew on. Living is southern California, I'll take the chance to not get it wet. Now if I was still living in Tacoma.........

[junior varsity]

jesus that's green!

good on you for picking your flavor and going with it

[orangelion03]

Impressive build!!  Looking forward to watching it develop.

[DTR]

OD Green or Green OD? gaaaawd, that is a  lot of green. Here is a picy with more of the aluminium accents thrown on....not quite so , ah, over-powering

[uglyducky]

that hugger is vicious man.  love it.

[badgalbetty]

have you seen Christians 1098? The whole bike is green with orange accents. Killer. www.speedymoto.com

[Africaboy]

A blind man, would have loved to have seen you straighten that frame like that. In Africa, they call that back yard mechanic. I have been known to pull similar stunts, although never done a frame like that. 

[greenohawk69]

Looking good...loved the way you went about straightening the frame.  Very ingenious. 

[pitbull]

very cool...........can't wait to see the finished rebuild.



when I rebuilt the crashed 00 900ie I picked up a few years ago, I had a very similar tweaked frame. An old bike rebuilder here advised me to put it back on the engine and straighten it with a steel bar which worked like a charm. He said that if I tried to straighten it first, there was a good chance I would not get the engine back in. Either way, looks like your way worked out just fine.

I also had the rear engine mount part of the engine cracked on both ends. I had it welded, and so far it's held up great under my big ass.

[junior varsity]

i think my only question for you regarding the frame is... how did you measure to make sure you bend far enough, etc. And, how did you prevent cracking the frame's welds in doing so?  I mean, it clearly looks like it worked pretty well, and it may have been pure luck, but just curious.

[zooom]

you going for a 40's Rosie the Rivet girl making the military kinda of theme?

[DTR]

i think my only question for you regarding the frame is... how did you measure to make sure you bend far enough, etc. And, how did you prevent cracking the frame's welds in doing so?  I mean, it clearly looks like it worked pretty well, and it may have been pure luck, but just curious.

  Simply trial and error. Apply some force, watch it move, release pressure and place the frame on a flat surface and take some measurements, check for flatness between the engine mounts, measure diagonally to check for square, measure from the surface to the center of the tubes, etc, etc: a lot of measuring, head scratching and stuffing it back under the truck for more tonnage. Seriously, this is a rigid unit. You can't see it, but my driveway is sloped and with the truck facing down hill it got to the point that I was raising the rear of the truck with the force I was putting to the frame. It still wasn't enough to straighten it out. So I turned the truck around and lifted uphill instead of down hill and only then could I bring it into something respectable. There is some rigidity built in.
   The welds are a good question. By trade, I am (was years ago) a journeyman (I served an apprenticeship) ship fitter: a structural iron worker who had the opportunity to do everything structural aboard subs/carriers (except set a mast). I've rarely seen welds crack, unless they were stressed while hot, i.e. hot-tacking iron to get it into alignment with a BFH (Big F***** Hammer). After they sand blasted the frame and prior to powder coating, I did a 5x visual of the welds and did not see any evidence of cracking. There are other ways of detecting cracks: dye penetration, Magnetic particle, x-ray, etc. I was satisfied with the visual. Lucky, well I'd say so and I'll take good luck any time I can.
  The real luck is what actually was bent: The monster went airborne and flipped, landing on the seat cowl and bending the rearward most section of the frame (sub-frame on most bikes). Had another part of the frame been bent, I don't think it would have been possible with my rudimentary tools: Dr. Johns would have made some money straightening it out. The lack of serious structural damage was one of the contributing factors to rebuild vs. part out. Oh, that and Mrs DTR would have not taken kindly to another *&%$ motorcycle in the garage

[DTR]

you going for a 40's Rosie the Rivet girl making the military kinda of theme?

  Yes, that is how it is coming out. I only started with an idea and it isn't exactly what I started for, but it is working without getting too overboard (matter of opinion I guess). So there are several hundred more rivets on the way....hammer time!

[junior varsity]

   The welds are a good question.  I've rarely seen welds crack

   The real luck is what actually was bent

Cool. Just curious.

I have seen the welds by the headstock break (just this last summer actually). Was a known issue on certain year supersports, iirc (DP will remember, an elephant never forgets).

Glad it all worked out.

With regards to wear it was bent (the "subframe" that's not subordinate on these, but integral) - i've seen 'em like this before and even on a very minor scale - where everything seems "right" - motor fits in, suspension mounts up fine to swingarm, but with the seat off - you notice that something just is 'off' a smidge at the very tail (especially when chopped since those ends of the frame are higher than the drooping ends that are typically cut off). With tape measure from tip of frame on left to marked swingarm point - compared to right side, just under a 1/4" difference.

Sure does make the removable subframes of the new gen of bikes (all sbks starting with 851, but also the hyper, etc) and kind of the new monster (front frame with VIN, and rear, rather than sub, frame) appealing since you can remove those to fix them, or replace them.

[DTR]

Well,  I haven't been posting as this goes along, but I'll cut to the chase:


Still have more rivets to add and forks to black-out and a few other little things. I rode it yesterday and AM sure I know the next bike I'm going to get a ticket on....