The Monster has now mutated! I removed the airbox and changed the velocity stacks for 916 items, so they could be fitted with pods. It then went to Rosso Corse where Max and Ray fitted the 748 tank. This was nowhere near as easy as anticipated because although a number of DD racers have had this conversion, those are aircooled 2V Monsters, whereas mine, an S4, is water cooled and 4v (much bigger heads) so there's much less space under the tank for the battery and ECU etc. Also, as a road bike, it also needed to keep the ignition barrel, which obviously a race bike doesn't. Anyway, the fitment of smaller Panigale battery and some Max made brackets had it all sitting securely in place. Once that was all done, the seat unit was offered up, but unfortunately it just didn't look right. It sat too low and too flat and looked all wrong. After we kicked around a few ideas last Saturday, including the radical prospect of chopping off all the back end beyond the shock mount and grafting on a Panigale subframe and seat unit, I came up with the idea of cutting off the rear 10"' or so of the subframe, putting an insert into the frame spar and rewelding it at a higher angle, which follows the line of the bottom spar of the subframe. This was agreed to be by far the most cost effective and probably also the safest solution, so I left it in their tender embrace and after an anxious week, where it was never far from my mind that if it all went wrong, I had just ruined a perfectly good bike, I returned yesterday to collect it. Thankfully, it's turned out exactly how I wanted and it all lined up. A lot of smiles and some cash were exchanged and I left the East End the happy owner of a unique bike. The seat unit needs a bit of reshaping but apart from that, it's 99% there. I really have to take my hat off to Max (who did most of the work) and Ray (who oversaw it all and chipped in from time to time) for their "can do" attitude ", good humour and patience, and of course, the top quality work.
I'm playing with ride height. I can't get the ride height adjuster any lower at the moment though for the simple reason that if I lower it any further I can't get the jaws of my 19mm spanner into the gap between the bottom lock nut and the swingarm in order to tighten it up. I need to buy a cheap spanner and grind off some material from the outside of the jaws so it will fit in the gap and I can drop the seat unit a bit more. The forks have been dropped by an inch, to compensate for bringing the rear geometry back to standard. It's very agile but also stable. Very good fun!
Horses for courses. I hate the looks of the standard old shape Monsters, though I like the modern ones better. I bought the Monster solely to use as a base for this project as the front of the frame is the right shape to accept the 748 tank, the S4 has a 916 engine and it was cheap (approx £1k below the usual price). I think old shape Monsters are far too low at the back, the tank is an ugly bloated abomination and the massive WW2 searchlight they fitted in place of a headlight looks terrible.
Steve's water cooled monster was a bit lacking in the cosmetic department but the concept was good. He did that before Ducati put 4V motors or single sided swing arms on the Monster.
I think the old shape Monster benefits from "it's a Ducati therefore it MUST be beautiful" syndrome. If it was a Honda or a Yamaha it never would have been considered remotely good looking. Emperor's new clothes and all that. The proportions of old Monsters are all wrong IMHO, for the reasons I mentioned above. It's interesting that new shape Monsters have much smaller tanks, much more kicked up tail units and much smaller headlights than the old ones, so clearly someone in Ducati's design department agrees. Anyway, my taste, my bike, my money....
Looking at yours again: yeah, the seat angle is too steep. I would have got it to follow the line of the bottom of the tank..imho.
I saw it when the seat did follow that line (before the frame was modded) and it looked all wrong. Sort of broken backed and clumsy. I agree the seat does still need to come down a bit though - see what I said about the ride height above. If you look at the 916, the 1098, the Streetfighter and the Panigale the seat angle follows the line of the top of the tank
It's not the fact that it is jacked up due to the ride height, it's because the line of the seat doesn't match any other "lines". It has a distinct angle change and, to me, that makes it look wrong. I feel sure it can be sorted to make it look more aesthetically pleasing. Again, imho.
Eh? The angle of the top of the seat cowl follows the top line of the tank (or it will do more closely when the ride height is tweaked) and the angle of the crease in the seat pad even follows the angle of the crease in the tank. Where it does need playing with though is the front of the seat pad, as there are some awkward angles - hence why I said it needs reshaping and hence why the bike is only almost finished
not my cup of meat but im not really into the street fighter thing really.. but as you said your money and tastes so fair play.. at least youve not gone as extreme in the tail as some which is probably one reason im not keen on the sf look. (apart from the duke standard one which i like)
I've ridden it for about two hours and it's fine. It's not as comfortable as a standard Monster, but not as extreme as a Superbike. It's somewhere in between. The handling is actually better than a standard Monster as (intentionally) there's more weight over the front and so it isn't anywhere near as lazy and it doesn't want to run wide like a standard bike does. It's also easier to hang off with the 916 shape tank, which I imagine is why the DD guys do this conversion. So the "form over function" criticism isn't really made out tbh.....
I see what you say, but I reckon that the acute change in the angle of the line of the bottom of the seat draws the eye away from what you are trying to do. Well , it draws my eye anyway and it interferes with the flow.
if i brought my kids out in public and they was a lil weird looking (which im sure they would be should i have any) would you feel equally comfortable to "put in you 2d's worth" lol. the man loves his bike and although it may not be to your tastes sometimes discretion really is the better part of valor. voicing your opinion is all good but feel free to hold back a bit! constructive criticism im sure would be taken on board or debated but you are a bit fukn harsh at times.. imo
It looks a good job to me. The seat follows the line of the tank but, to me, the front of the seat could be a little higher. Doing that, closing off the gap to the underside of the tank, would help the flow. May be a different seat or some hacking. Either way, nice job. A novel Monster.
I honestly don't mind. My tastes have often been out of step with the mainstream, in all sorts of things from art and architecture through to music and women, although quite often society has then agreed with me later on! I'm also not one to just lightly mod a bike by fitting an aftermarket exhaust and a tail tidy (as anyone who has seen my 900ss special will probably agree). I had an MV Agusta Brutale for a while and tbh, it looked so good already that I lost interest. Same with the 748/916 series and 848 bikes I had. It's certainly getting a lot of appreciative looks and comments out on the roads and it's had a lot of "likes" from bike modding type people and no negative comments on my Instagram page. I guess it's the sort of thing which is probably not going to get much love on a marque forum where purists probably make up the majority and I'm fine with that. I just thought people might be interested to see how it ended up after me asking for tech advice on the forum.
as i said street fighters are not my bag and do nothing for me but your enthusiasm does and each to their own eh? just find Mr r's comments at times a lil much .. which, in its self, i mean as a constructive criticism. i have no beef with him. i would say the same to anyone that comes across as harsh as he does when referring to one of his projects as he does with others. anyhu.. I, like most on here love seeing pics and tales of what others are up to so keep em coming!
Anyhoo - love it or hate it, it's worth recalling that the Monster got its name not because it was a beast of a bike, but because it was UGLY! :tearsofjoy:
