Another no-Monster build thread

[MonsterHPD]

One of the main projects over last winter was a ne exhaust. The one that came with the bike was custom made, but not very well suited to track riding and also had a few constrained sections:

HPD_R 1100 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

Luckily, my pal has a TIG welder that is first rate. For me as a welder, it´s mainly on-the-job training; I am now reasonably confident i will not just burn a hole, but those beautiful welds of the experts I can only dream of.

Anyway; I wanted a 2-1 system, mainly because I like them, partly because I had one silencer, and partly because that´s what fits on a bike, leaving the chain easy to reach etc.
Header diameter is 43 mm inside, and both headers are roughly the same length, chosen based on experience and reasonably accepted rules-of-thumb. As an amateur, that´s about as far as you come, design wise.

Unfortunately,the rear exhaust more or less collides with the suspension linkage, so it´s not an ideal design but not much alternative:

PC290025 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

Also, it´s not easy to get the 2-1 junction at the same length of both headers and not hitting something, like swing arm as it moves. I think a deep-sump block would have made this a little easier:

P3250005 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

In the end, it came out OK, with some ugly welds, but nothing has broken or cracked during the season:

P4120020 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

It turned out to be a major job, and caused some aquisitions (like a tube cutter and a belt flat grinder), and I have learned that when TIG welding thin-wall tubing, joint preparation is absolutely vital. Any amount of time saved by preparation short-cuts is payed tenfold in welding and correcting time. Of course, using inert gas on the inside of the weld is also very important as stainless gets very ugly on the inside otherwise; the welding is also easier.   



       

[koko64]

 
Tricky job.

[Nekkid Tim]

Wow!   I applaud you.  I'm scared of even standard welding!

[MonsterHPD]

One other big job was fixing the wiring. With the bike came 2 HYM wiring looms (luckily, as it proved, more on that later). Since theHYM is a much bigger bike than the 749, and since a lot of functions are not needed on a track bike, there were some left-overs:

20160623_220838 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

A lot of wires have been removed, and all wires into the ECU or instrument connectors were removed completely. Even so, quite a bit remained:

P5290041 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

After a lot of trimming, this is what remained:

20160623_213802 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

There was quite a bit of work necessary to establish exactly what could be removed and what could not, and as I learned the motor will not start without the iunstrument connected. The wiring diagram does not actually show this, but 2 of the wires between ECU and instrument are also CAN communication lines, and without these the motor won´t start. If I remember correctly,  just connecting the 2 pins won´t work, and adding the customary 120 Ohm resisitors to the CAN pins also does not work. With the instrument, it´s fine.

Incidentally, the wiring diagram in the Ducati HYM workshop manual has an error; the CAN lines goes directly from ECU to instrument, with only a branch-0ff to the data recording connector. Since I was not going to use this, I removed them, and the bike, as mentioned, would not start. Upon re-installing as per wiring diagram, it still would not start. After much head-scratching, I finally found ot that the wires were crossed-over in the diagram. After switching - over in the ECU connector, the bike started again. This took quite a while to figure out ...
     
The ECU is on rubber mounts on the valve cover, Monster style, I´m a bit concerned vibrations and heat may be too much anyway. Time will show, if anyone has info on this, it´s welcome.  

      

  

[xcaptainxbloodx]

is the fact that the bike wont start without the gauge related to the immobilizer? 

I've flashed my ECU to ignore the immobilizer and run the bike gauge-less with no wiring mod, just unplugged it.

[koko64]

Thats a lot of spaghetti removed.

[MonsterHPD]

is the fact that the bike wont start without the gauge related to the immobilizer? 

I've flashed my ECU to ignore the immobilizer and run the bike gauge-less with no wiring mod, just unplugged it.

No.
More info later,  party time right now 

[koko64]

  .
Enjoy, you've worked hard.

[MonsterHPD]

.
Enjoy, you've worked hard.

Thank you very much; I did, and my head is starting to clear again ...

As a matter of fact, in the post I got a little ahead of events; it was still in the dry test stage and the motor was not started. With the 2 CAN lines correctly connected, the starter would turn the engine; with the CAN lines crossed, or without the instrument, the starter circuit was completely dead. There was an error message on the instrument, indicating a CAN line error.

The engine was run last summer with a stock wiring harness and the same ECU, so it wa only by finally comparing last years loom with the one I had modified I finally identified the error in the Ducati HYM wiring diagram

The immo function was already de-activated as I ran the bike last summer, and was not touched over winter.

[MonsterHPD]

One thing that is often overlooked when doing or planing a project is all the little things you need toorganize and fabricate:  Brackets, spacers, etc, as well as finding a place for all the little thigs needed to make a bike out of the collection of parts you have. A few examples:

Ignition coilis:
20161113_151058 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

Rectifier:
20161113_151032 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

Oil cooler(s); this is version #2, will have to be a version #3 which I hope will be OK. I also need some hoses for this installation. Any suggestions?
20161027_201239 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

Subframe and battery box; since I did not want to use the 749 / 999 toaster silencer, the subframe needed modifying; again, I´m not proud for the welding but at least it has not fallen apart:
20160604_195900 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

The seat is for a Triumph 675, chosen just because I liked the looks, originally for the terminated ST2 project. I have no idea about working with plastics, but my mate Thomas has and helped me with the cut-out for the silencer:
20161113_151200 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

I´m looking for a top / half fairing that will reasonably match the seat unit, but have so far found nothing. Suggestions are welcome.

[MonsterHPD]

With all the stuff, big and small, that needed to be done before the bike was ready to run again, time was running out and I missed the first couple of track days, using (again ...) the rainy track day SSie900 as a back up.

Around midsummer, the time had come for the first start. Having fixed the CAN issue, I was not too worried but it still is an exciting moment when the first start-up is about to take place. Pressing the starter button produced the familiar rumble so I was pretty happy. That was about to change, however, after about 20 seconds roof-high flames erupted on the other side of the bike. After a few moments of disbelief, I realized i had to get the bike out of the garage at all cost, so ran around and jerked the bike off the pit stand. In doing so, I lost balance and dropped the bike away from me; it landed on the garage stool, next to the half-empty gas canister I´d just filled a few litres of gas into the bike tank from. Looking around the garage, I grabbed a few of the daughters horse blankets I´m usually griping abiout but felt real happy about on the occasion, and managed to put the fire out. When the smoke had cleared, this is what the scene looked like:

20160625_190105 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

The fire lasted maybe 20 to 30 seconds, and never really caught, but still managed to destroy or damage quite a lot of stuff; mainly my new wiring loom and new K&N filters. It also blacked an incredible amount of frame and other stuff, and the garaged stinked for days. It also destroyed the horse blankets, for me that was a fair price to pay, I´m not so sure about the girls ....

Anyway, some carnage:

20160626_112756 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

20160626_142810 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

20160626_172335 by torbjörn bergström, on Flickr

I had "Scuderia Carbonara" scribbled in the soot on the belly pan; it´s mostly worn off by now.

I now believe the cause was brake cleaner spay I had used a short while before I started the bike, on the oil cooler and hoses, some probably ended up on th front header and maybe pooled in the belly pan. When the header heated up the brake cleaner ignited and set off the fire.  

Having escaped this potential catastroph with most things intact, (and an intact house ...) I now take the fire hazard more serious than ever: I have a 6 kg CO2 extinguisher and a fire blanket in the garage (powder is more effective, but will destroy anything it gets close), I never do a first start in the far end of the garage, and certainly not with the bike hung from the roof as it often is when I´m working on it, and I´m very careful with the brake cleaner.
 
We also always bring a fire extinguisher and fire blanket in the track day trailer.

Also, I was lucky when I dropped the bike; any "high" object, like a bike or a person, burns from the bottom up. Laying it down will make it much easier to extinguish. Except for bikes maybe sleaking gas from the tank .... to the stool was maybe the saviour in this case.  

I can only urge you to learn from this. If you haven´t seen it, you would not believe how narrow the time window is when you can still put out a fire.    
          

[koko64]

 
Glad you minimized the damage.
Horse blanket = fire blanket

[Howie]

Sad news indeed.  But the bike survives!!!

[Von Eisen]

Lucky escape ... Yes, good advise not to do first time starts in the garage. I made that mistake when I rebuilt/first started my old Triumph Thunderbird, tickled the carb and kicked it over without the airfilter, it coughed back and erupted in flames. Good fortune was on my side and it escaped with some burnt wiring and a toasted side panel, it could have turned out very badly. Always kept a man sized  extinguisher from a garage forecourt in the garage since that disaster ... Tasty looking bike 

[MonsterHPD]

Well, glad you got away with nothing more than a scare ... as I did. British bikes and wiring is a topic all of its own I believe, fire or no fire :-)

Since gasoline, or diesel, is such a commodity, one tends to forget the destructive potential of just a bike tankful of gas, should it end up somewhere where it should not be, and meet with something ignite-ive.

I try to keep this in mind; at least that imroves the odds.