Ducati Monster Refresh (Pic heavy)

[Yorkie]

After owning my 1999 Ducati Monster Dark (originally a 600) from new it was about time to give it a full refresh.



It started life as a 600cc and over a period of time ended up a 900cc with lots of non-standard bits.





It has been ridden all year round and has been borrowed by a few amateur photographers ....





I was part way through stripping it down, when I bought a ratty Ducati ST2 for £450.  So I decided to put the ST2 engine in the Monster.



ST2 Engine out of its frame:



ST2 Engine stripped down:



Lightened flywheel, it went from 5kg to 1.3kg:



Monster in bits:



Yorkie

[Yorkie]

I kept working on reducing the weight of the ST2 Engine.  So I had the primary gears trimmed a little:



The engine mount had been damaged so a repair needed to be done:



All welded up:



The ST2 engine was soda blasted and the welding smoothed over, so you can hardly see the repair:



The crank was balanced and trimmed to suit (sorry about the crap picture):



The engine was then etch primed and lacquered, so a nice battleship grey result:



Yorkie

[Yorkie]

The engine was then mocked up in the Monster frame for a test fit:



Hoses and loom laid up:



To mount the radiator I had to cut the mounts off the ST2 frame and weld them on to the Monster frame:



Radiator fits just nice:



The injectors highlighted a problem when it came to fitting the air-filters and intakes, there wasn't enough clearance so a little bit of trimming would need to be done to the frame:





Yorkie

[Yorkie]

To give the custom alloy intakes enough room to fit, nearly all of the central beam needed to be removed:





Because the removal of the central beam would potentially weakened the structure so I decided to weld in a little bit of over engineering:



Tacked into place:



It gave a nice fit in the end:



Yorkie

[Yorkie]

The engine and custom spaghetti stainless steel exhaust mocked up:



I had to trim the battery box to allow the air-filter fitment:





Other trick parts were the alloy adjustable cam wheels ready for fitting to the finished engine:



Yorkie

[Yorkie]

I cut a little bit of weight off the clutch case, I had it roughly milled to start with:



I then went a bit further with a hand saw and some files:



It looks quite good with an alloy clutch basket:







Yorkie

[Yorkie]

While I waited for a powder coater and some little bits of welding to be done I took a plunge and trimmed the long standard front mud guard a bit:



This is how the Monster is at the moment:



Hopefully the powder coaters will take the bits in at the end of next week.

Yorkie

[koko64]

Wow. In for a penny, in for a pound! You don't muck around!
Will be watching your progress with great interest. Cheers.

[Yorkie]

This project is going slowly because I am doing two side by side.  I will post the other one up today as well.

Yorkie

[koko64]

G'day Yorkie, what's the other job?

[Yorkie]

Koko64,

I have just posted it up.

Yorkie

[muskrat]

nice job, looks awesome

[Heath]

So let me get this straight. You have a pretty bad ass bike and are tearing it down to build a pretty bad ass bike?

[Yorkie]

So let me get this straight. You have a pretty bad ass bike and are tearing it down to build a pretty bad ass bike?

Correct.  I just cannot stop.

Yorkie

[Heath]

Correct.  I just cannot stop.

Yorkie

None of us can!