My Monster 620ie Dark The In's And Out's

Well it's a US model and am told it came to Bulgaria in either 2005 or 2010 at different times both years were mentioned 2010 may have a slightly better chance of being correct as he said he replaced the tyres and those are dated 2010 and I seriously doubt it was ridden in the winter here. Now the story goes his father bought it for him after seeing him riding his dirt bike on the road, it was registered in his parents names so that pans out, and the sone rode it for a while putting about 2000 miles on it it arrived in Bulgaria with 5000 on the clock. Dad bought it from a disposal auction in the US so it's said. Have not looked inside of course but the son decided to run it on 10-50w oil and said this made the gearbox smoother and quieter and after a discussion at the bike shop have also bought 10-50W oil and looking at an online Ducati handbook for teh 620 I see that this is a recommended weight for high ambient tempretures, over 40 degree C, and we are already hitting the mid 30's and it's only June! Highest I have personally experienced here was 46 degrees C.

Anyway the fuel tank is not as good as it looks and I thought. Put the phone just inside and took a photo to look at the side of the tank and it's nasty and crusty:-

And that is not good at all! So have put 2 litre of bleach in then a handful of screw and and a handful of nails the added hot water sealed the top with silver duct tape and given it a shake around not letting it sit a while and see if it helps. Fingers crossed but if this doesn't work then we may have to look into getting something like Por-15 kit and that means it will be July before we can even think of putting this back together. Plus of course now have the hassle of getting those nails ans crews out of the tank.

Plezier

Plezier

 

Have already done the looking and yes there are tanks out there BUT!!! most are for carb models and not the injection model. Plus have been informed that it must be for this model as the frame is slightly different and have NO luck in finding a used 620ie tank colour is normal for a Monster dark. Would have preferred anything but black but fate has deciced that black is the colour for me as that 900 I looked was also black the 750 was orange but that was in a pretty poor state though it fired up on the button and the Blue/Silver one did eventually start but there was something off with it it was a right bitch to start and it had been in an accident at some point bent rear brake lever broken front brake lever slightly bent gear lever and the sellers story about it changed several times from on the phone to when was talking to him and his wife when looking at the bike. Both these were carb models and both priced almost a 1/3 higher than the Dark 620ie that I purchased so there is budget left to sort it out ..................... hopefully.

Any way I added a litre of bleach some hot water and somenails and screws after sealing the opening with duct tape gave it good shake around then left it to sit for a bit before moving it so it lay on the other side and repeated the shaking. After a while gave it another go and the duct tape let go .......... wasa bit hopeful expectimg t stay sealed I suppose, so emptied it and then with much shaking and finally reaching in to get the last srews and nails out took a look inside and YES they had scoured the scale off the sides so a rinse out then set it up for another round of electrolysis with the scale off the liquid can get to the metal underneath. This time I added about 1 litre of bleach and emptied the rest from the bag of Bicarb powder filled the tank to teh brim with this mixture and connected it all up and have just been out to see how we are doing and there is a lot of horrid rusty scum floating in the filler hole so it's working.





Now we just wait.

Plezier

 

Very nice normally am not a fan of silver on cars and bikes but that does look very nice indeed and looking at the gloss on the rear tyre/mud guard think mine may have to go gloss too I have to take it off anyway as there is a crack in it that requires fixing and tempting as it is to go with a nice Bright colour like Yellow (I love yellow on bikes) guess it might be better to just keep it boring black and that little belly fairing looks good. Surprised at no instrument binicle fairing though. . The tank on mine was made 29/08/01 accordng the stamp underneath it :-



Now the issue we are are having with getting another tank is threefold:-

1) Plastic tanks mount differently the pivot at the rear is in a different place.

2) The fuel pump is totally different as is the level sensor I beleive.

3) the filler cap is different I think you will find

None of those are unsolvable this biggest thing is that vendors never seem to offer a complete tank all that I have seen are missing pump, level sensor and filler so not only are the tank shells expensive they become almos ruinous once you buy the missing parts just the plastic tanks fuel pump if you can find a good used one that is are expensive new well the ones have seen advertised are damn near 45% of what I paid for teh whole bike a totally new tank is more than 1 1/2 times what the bike cost.

In the meantime my tank was drained of the fluid and then had heat applise with an electric heat gun to fry it out inside fully then the insides were liberally sprayed with WD40 and it swished around to make sure all surfaces were coated this will hopefully hinder or stop new rust forming while we sort out hoses and a possible sealer treatment.

I currently have enquiries out with a couple of Itailian spares places about a replacement tank there is anice looking tank for sale here but of course it's an earlier one for a carburated bike not a FI one so won't fit the several FI ones ahve seen on ebay are all damamged in some way and would need repair and repainting to make they usable.

 

Thank youfor that.

Plezier

 

Oh well it appears that fuel tanks for this year 620ie do not exist in the wild might as well go searching for Rocking Horse Poo! So the Po5-15 route seems to be what we will have to do and thinking on this it means that the steel lines inside the tank will have to capped off to stop the sealer from ..... well sealing them up.

Have found a supplier for submersible hose in the UK on ebay and one that WILL ship a Por-15 motorcycle tank kit out of the UK also on ebay............ many it seems will not. So have made up an ebay order that include a new tank seal to replace the perished on on mine and a new door mirror adjusting module to replaced the seized and broken on on the sportscar. Despite this being a part used on multiple makes and models it seem the motor factors cannot order one here but they sure know how to load prices though.

Fitting a plastic tank although it sounds like a good solution is a nightmare as none of the tanks that I have found for sale are complete plus the mounting is different and as yet have not found the plastic tank mount for sale used neither have I found the plastic tank fuel pump and level sensor for sale used the only one have found was at a new spare place in Holland or Germany and they wanted just shy of 900 euro for the pump. So somehow have to make this steel rusty tank work.

Plezier

 

Sadly it seems that they are not the platic tanks for a start have a different mouting point at the hinge. They moved the battery location when they went to Injection and certain models have frame differences this is from my web searches one chap on another forum said that he bought three tanks before finding one that fit his bike why so many changes well you would have to ask Ducati.

Plezier

 

So this afternoon did the oil change on the Monster and did my usual of priming the oil filter before putting it on. Looking online found various amounts of oil required so using an old but clean coolant bottle of 1.5 litre capacity put 2.5 litres (1.25L twice bottle had a clear strip with capacity markings) into the engine then once it settled started engine to circulate it then shut her down and checked level it was low not surprisingly so added another 0.5 litre and repeated the fire up shut down and check proceedure. Resulting in level too high as silly me forgot to allow for the primed filter .

So had to drain a bit out .....ho-hum what fun:-



Level is now near the top mark mind you this with bike vertical not on the side stand but the rear is raised up as it's on a paddock stand. Also re-bled the rear brake and adjusted the brake pedal to suit my sitting position and the rear brake feels much more solid now. Had flushed through old fluid with new the other day but it still felt a little spongy hence the redo today.

Also found out today that we cannot take it for registration until July 2nd as for some stupid reason as it had been de-registered at owners request to avoid paying annual taxes on it it now needs a "SPECIAL TECHO TEST" and this takes much longer than the normal registration inspection and they only do the special test once a month and next one is 2nd July and you have to make an appointment not just turn up and wait like with a normal import inspection. So no riding for me for another 2 weeks minimum. Once I hear we have an appointment will have to arrange either a trailer or van to get it to the KAT office I did sort out insurance for it yesterday that was fun too as some idiot in Sofia claimed that the engine had been changed ...... nope engine number maches the old cancelled regsistration document and even though they have never seen the bike but I of course had the photos taken of the bike and yes one of the engine number. The reason they say it had been changed is because it's not powerful enough for a 620cc engine the document says it's 44 kw and that converts to 59bhp which is correct. Took ages for them to get this through their thick skulls mind you the document is not right really as it says it's a 600 Monster and it's a 620ie of well I don't much feel like bashing my head against a brick wall so ................................. .

Mind you I suppose this may mean that my ebay order from the UK may arrive before the test and there might be enough time to treat the tank with the Por-15 kit and fit the new in-tank fuel lines that are also on the same delivery.

Plezier

 

Indeed and costing money on my ebay order is this used motor cycle leather jacket:-



And this one:-



Got to find some gloves now now you may wonder why buy off ebay UK instead of locally the reason is that prices for motor cycle leather jackets here are just crazy while these two cost me £69 and with reasonable care and cleaning should last me out and being older the chances of them being decent quality leather unlike some that I have seen should be good. Will have to look into footwear at some point and leggings mind you I rode for the first 6 years in just jeans then acquired a used set of leather motor cycle trousers in late 82 but in just three years out grew them. Got a more physical job and put on muscle on chest, upper arms and thighs so it was back to jeans again.

As for more bike adaptions there is really only the handlebars and new grips really the ones on it are not the originals and I find them too wide.

Plezier

 

This afternoon drove into the city and that took about twice as long as it should as they are doing the road if I had known would have gone the other way maybe a bit further but not sitting in a queue for ages in 35 degrees C. Any way had to take the rear addock stand back as the "nut" for the lock screw for the sawing arm pads gave way. I wondered why it kept coming loose the welds were poor but they just changed it no problem so while I was there looked through the handle bars most of the selection was dirt bike type as they deal a lot in that stuff but they had a set of "low Touring bars" they are a little higher than originally was looking for but they will help and be more comfortable they are also black would prefer chrome but hey it's this or wait for an order the black anodising it turns out is very soft which is dissapointing as they mark if you look at them wrong!

Of course both Brake and clutch hydraulic lines are JUST too SHORT so need to get a couple of longer ones and of course I ma not sure where I can get those here. Back in the UK would have gone to several places of just bought the Lockheed braided line and fitting and made them up myself will enquire tomorrow when I pick up the new clutch lever.

Plezier

Edit:- Decidied to look online and have ordered two new braidied lines so that's dealt with but should have looked earlier for handlebars as found the right ones for what I wanted chrome too.

 

Been tinkering a bit and am glad to report that my Monster starts easier now to not only has my tweeking helped but am learning just how she likes to be treated on start up. Had noticed that some of the wiring was not particularly well secured so on a trip into town bought some much smaller black cable ties to correct and replace a couple of white ones which looked wrong. Managed to get quite a large multi plug that was hanging near the frame rail on the left by the airbox and managed to get this multi plug tucked up by the headstock and air box and the cable secured to the frame with one of the black ties.. The rear left indicator wires were sort of dangling down and were noticable to with a bit of phaffing about managed to get those tucked up and secured. Cleaned and secured the rear brake light connectors that come from the brake switch as when these jiggled about they would stopping lighting the brake light now it cannot jiggle about we hope that issue is sorted.

This is all in preperation for Mondays "special" inspection at KAT for the re-registration now when I rode her up the common the other day noticed that the rear brake was virtually doing nothing to slow the bike down and this is no good so had removed the pads and deglazed them the refitted them but up to that point had not tried them out again so took the Monster out onto the common right in front of the house to see how the brake is now and to practice my manouvering skills:-



That's a Mulberry tree.




The line of painted tyres marks the start of the loose stone track that leads up the hill to the proper metalled road there is another stone road to the right out of shot this is like the Roman roads large stones laid down and is a right bonshaker. The blue gates/doors are one of our neighbours.



We keep this bit of the common mowed and as you can see it's fairly wooded the tree behind the Monster is a Walnut they are very common here along with Mulberry and Harvest Plum. Anyway I was using this mowed area to practice my slow speed riding skills and turns including U-Turns and tight turns and I felt much more comfortable today the rear brake was not much better so I rode back and forth doing turns either end of the run and braking hard with he rear to slow for the turn and after a few the brake started to improve and we even got it to satrt locking up on the grass it needed bedding back in. I had adjusted the brake pedal free play as you really had to push it a long way down to get any effect at all which was not good at all. In all we did around 2 miles in all practicing today in this small area and will do some more tomorrow as need to check how much improvement there is since I altered the steering stops the turn was very limited but the handle bars came nowhere near the tank so decided to open up the lock to allow more movement side to side the handlebars are not the originals and are wider I believe and not comfortable for me cannot wait until the new longer hydraulic lines arrive with the new low touring bars that are about 4" high with a slight pull back.

Plezier

 

Thought some might like to see more of those tracks around our place have done about 8 miles now on the common and it's tracks it's a bit like "Adventure" riding certainly suited to those trail/trials bikes some of my friends had, Suzuki T250, Honda XL 175, Montessa 250, Bulltaco Sherpa 250 and Ossa 250 and the then new PE 250 Suzuki :-







This is the part way that hill I mentioned our place is down in that little valley far to the left out of shot.



And this is up on top of that hill.

Fields of Sunflowers this is looking down towards our Municiple town which is about 17 km away.

Had had to wipe off lot's of "Road" dust from the rear wheel especially to make the bike presentable for this mornings inspection that is getting more costly by the day as the trailer I had hired well turned out my Mercedes has the European 13 pin electrics but the trailer had the old 7 pin plug and the only adaptor they had was 7 pin male/13 pin female and it needed to be 13 pin male to plug into the cars socket so had to hire a van or miss my appointment! Not a good idea especially seeing how the officials at KAT are already being difficult enough. The van is dreadful very poorly maintained and has been abused badly but the bike is loaded and secured, tied down so it cannot move the nephew had to help me get it up the improvised ramp that is actually the side of a raised garden bed no way can I get it up the ramp on my own and will need assistance to get it out of the van and back in when the test is over then it seems we get to do it all again in a few days as from what the translator said in his viber message once the new documents from Sofia arrive we have to take the bike to the normal KAT place for it's registration inspection!!!! Why does it need TWO inspections????? The only thing I can think of is to fleece more money from us as this special inspection with the van hire is costing 25% of the purchase price of the bike and we have the registration taxed and fees to go yet by the time it's all done it will have cost about 50% of the purchase price it's all about the money.

Plezier