Glad to find this thread as I was asking myself the exact same question - What is a good donor bike? Thanks for sharing your build. How does the story end?
Hi, depends on a few things to be honest, what's more important the budget or the final look!? I've gone down this route because I wanted a minimalist air cooled bike, but that costs more and has taken longer to build. A good low budget starting point is an ST2. The bike isnt finished yet but i'll throw up some of the latest pictures. Happy to answer any questions for you.... Cheers Chris
Things have been a bit slow over the winter, I've not spent as much time as I would have liked moving things along, but here are some pictures and updates of what's been happening...mainly been getting the frame finished which involves quite a bit of metal work. I've settled on a way of terminating these frame tubes now, using Marks suggestions to fill and work back, so here are some pics pre and post fill
I've slapped a coat of paint on the frame to see what it looks like in gloss black, eventually i'll get it soda blasted and poweder-coated but these pics give a good idea...
I've also bought an Ohlins rear shock from a 996 and sent it off to Reactive suspension to be rebuilt. Just be warned if you're doing something similar that the damping (shim stack) is different from the s4r so this has cost more to rebuild then expected. I also told them that I'd lopped about 10 kgs off the back end as this needs to be taken in to account. Next step is the wiring loom/harness, the mini frame you can see on top of the frame is the new wiring mount, another of Marks genius solutions to hide as much wiring as possible. Reason this is offset is to follow the line of the recess under the 749 tank to maximise the working space under there. I bought a speedcell battery which is a lithium jobbie from USA, super small and light, only weight 700 grams instead of the usual 5000g! I was trying to rush and get each part up to the painted stage but have since learnt its far better to fabricate everything and put it together before going to paint. Save time and money further down the line. I'll post some more pics when i have them.
Chris - thanks for posting an update and responding to my post. I've been researching this issue for a month now and essentially landed in a similar place as you. I want a 2V, air cooled bike. I prefer the Monster and ST2 frame to the SS frame because 1) the steeper slope of the down tubes immediately beneath the tank and 2) I just think the ST2 and Monster frames are more aesthetically pleasing. I'm strongly considering an S2R 1000. It already comes with an SSSA so, really, I would just (oh I know it's never "just") be changing bodywork, modifying the frame to accept a new tank, seat, and 1/2 fairing, tidying up the wiring and bits, and possibly sprucing up the motor. I'm in Los Angeles and have seen S2Rs range from $3000 to $6500 in the US. I'd be looking for a donor on the cheaper end and $3,000 - $4,000 isn't so bad for an S2R package, especially if I can sell off the extras. Cheers, Andrew
Hi Andrew, Yeah I bought 2 donor bikes - ST2 and Monster S4R, both cheap and ratty as i just wanted certain parts. If you can sell off all the extra's its a good way of doing it. My advise would be really think it through before you buy anything, and don't sell or chuck anything that you may change your mind about later. For example, a donor bike will have lots of brackets for fuses, wiring etc that really come in handy further down the line. If you look at my modded frame you can see we've welded the original fuse bracket on to the top tube and welded the reg/rec mount right by the headstock. These have saved time/money and they look more factory then a home made job. You should re-read the start of this thread as i got load of good advice from those who've done it all before. You need to decide whether you have a fixed budget or just wanted your dream bike with no fixed budget. The longer the project goes on, the more time you see other idea's on forums, and nice shiny parts for sale on ebay!! This draws out the build time and obviously costs more too! I found a nice friendly bike builder that lets me do some work too to help keep costs down, so that's an option to consider too. The rule is generally triple the estimated build time and double the budget.... Also, check out atillas thread and iambadgerous, both great threads
Amen I finished up my first build last year (1978 BMW R100s - with 70's BMW motorsport CSL colors), which took me about 3 years (3x the time planned!) so I've run the gauntlet once. I'm hoping I can take my learning experience and make this second build a bit more sophisticated. I'll reread the thread and check out the other posts. I've been hanging out on Ducati.ms and am new to ducatiforum.co.uk. I really like that there is a bike build forum here. I'm looking forward to watching your progress.
Hi all, got the first proper dry build underway on saturday, not finished yet but finally getting to see what she looks like all built up...
More progress yesterday, still dry build stage, got the following jobs knocked off yesterday Brake & Clutch systems built Hand controls attached, grips, throttle, switchgear, fluid bottles etc Front indicators, speedo, rev counter mounted Fuel system built All the brackets are pretty rough, just wanted to find the position for these bits before i spend the time making nice brackets up and make sure i have all the bits. Lots of tweaking still to do....next week i'll be looking at the exhaust and wiring.
Latest instalment, been making the 2 in 1 exhaust link pipe today, using standard headers and the fabbing a link pipe, here's some pics. Probably another days worth of work at least, it's harder then it looks!
latest update, got the number plate bracket mount mocked up, still needs squaring up properly but i wanted to see what it would like first. Its an oem item from a Diavel.
