Hi All So I've had a enough parts in my stash for a couple of years to build this but life gets in the way, doesn't it? The frame is from my old ST4 which sacrificed its engine for my 851, the engine is a 996 from an ST4S but it's only there for the dry build because it too is destined for my 851, so eventually this bike will get its 916 motor back. Confused? Swingarm is S4R, wheels are 916, tank is 999 and the seat is from Radical. Suspension is the original ST4 kit but the forks are knackered (they look a lot better in the photo) so the bike will probably end up with something else. This is supposed to be a "use up the bits I already have and spend as little as possible" project so I resisted the Ohlins shock that was on ebay yesterday. I'm proud of myself. I've been following Attila's thread and I was impressed with what I saw of Mark (MADASL)'s work so I gave him a buzz a couple of weeks ago and had a quick chat about what I wanted, today I took the bike up to him and we spent a good hour exchanging ideas. I was going to do the mods myself but I've decided against it for two reasons, (1) I'll never find the time and (2) my welding is crap! I want to take a slightly different route from Attila in terms of the mods at the back of the frame and also where the ECU and battery are housed, Mark is going to let me know how that develops. Mark is also going to knock up a single-sided exhaust using various bits of the S4R and ST2 systems I had but I need to think about what kind of can I'm going for, the footpegs will be billet items from DP that were designed for a Monster. Once I've got this out of my system I can start work on my Darmah! Darren
Good to meet you today Darren. Any one with a ST type centre stand laying about doing nothing please PM me. It makes the job of moving Darrens bike about easier and helps when the swing arm is removed (once or twice) when forming the rear header pipe.
Thanks, seat came from France, it's very thin in places, rough finished and a slightly different shape on each side. Not brilliant but better than some I've seen.
Exactly the same as mine then, and all for about £180. I emailed them about it and they basically told me to do one. Last rad stuff I buy.
Looks like a great project, i'm looking forward to seeing it progress Give me a shout Mark, I've just removed my centre stand and you are welcome to it if it helps out.
Hi All, a quick update... Mark and I have been exchanging ideas by e-mail for a couple of weeks while he waited for me to supply him some parts that he can't really make a start without, namely an exhaust can (for obvious reasons!) and a fuel pump (because he can't accurately position the tank without it). This week I got hold of an titanium Akropovic can designed for an R6, as it turns out 'can' is exactly the right word because it's about the same size as a baked-bean tin and has the square-root of no sound deadening. It has the provision for a baffle but arrived without one, there's no way the bike's going to get an MOT with that. It's enough for Mark to be able to make a start and I've now bought another one exactly the same apart from this one does have a baffle. I'll have to sell the first one on. Getting hold of a fuel pump was also less than straightforward. It seems 749/999 pumps are a valuable commodity and it turned out to be cheaper to buy a tank with a pump in it, so now I have two tanks as well as two cans... Today I drove up to Westbury again, Mark and I had another good chat and we now have a firm plan. Mark had already started on the exhaust and fitted the rear-sets, as you can see from the picture we're going to retain the standard footrest mounting point; a bit of a clue as to what the rear end will look like... Darren
Hi All There's been plenty of progress on the bike since my last update but not a lot you can actually see, so I haven't bothered to post. However Mark's just sent some pictures and the bike is looking like a bike at last, so I thought I'd share. I mentioned before that I wanted to take a slightly different approach to the rear of the frame from Attila's bike, as you can see we've elected to keep the original footpeg mounts so I can run DP billet Monster rearsets. I wanted to have a near vertical rear tube and not the diagonal braces that you see on a lot of these bikes (running up from the footpegs to the rear of the seat) because I think the vertical tube is a nice 'full-stop' to the frame and I like the floating look of the seat. Mark is going to add a loop under the seat to support it and to mount the rear of the tank. The stock tank mount will disappear (you can see this on top of the frame just behind the strap) so the tank and seat will look like they're floating. I was also keen to get the bottom-front of the tank parallel with the frame tube and Mark has got that spot on. The exhaust is also nearly done, now single-sided with an Akropovic can from an R6. Mark tells me he's tried it on another bike and it's louder with the can than without so there's a bit of head-scratching required there! I think it's looking great and I can't wait to get it home so I can start to think about where the hell I'm going to hide all the electrics! Cheers Darren
Hi All Mark has now done as much as he can, tank and seat are now in place and you can see the rear-sets fitted up. I thought it'd be worth seeing how far we've come so far, from this... ...to this... I'm going to collect it tomorrow so I can work out the plumbing and wiring, then it'll be returned to Mark for de-lugging (if I can't be bothered to do it myself, which is entirely likely!) and some work on the exhaust once the engine is running and we know just how ridiculously loud it is! Obviously the centre-stand is not going to feature on the finished bike. Cheers Darren
