Monster Mod #4: Brakes that Bite
The Monster's new Brembo Forged Radial Brake Master Cylinder
My, oh, my, how I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole… After nearly nine-months with the Monster it felt like it was time to take care of my biggest issue with the bike – The OEM Brakes…
Repeatedly, when either the old man or I have returned from a ride on the Monster, our most common post-ride talking point has been how poorly the machine seems to stop compared to a full-blown, fully-faired sportbike.
There’s nothing worse then having to do an emergency stop, pulling the front brake lever back and feeling as if there’s nothing happening.
What has been missing is a sense of immediate action and reaction on the lever and in the calipers. That’s what gives me confidence when I ride and the Monster, as it came from the factory, simply didn’t instill that sense of faith. Instead I found myself constantly thinking, ‘this is a different bike, ride slower, be safer, don’t trail-brake, be conscious of the limits’… These are not exactly the most enjoyable or pleasurable thoughts to have while riding…
Of course, I’m not exactly sure my assessment of the Monster’s stock OEM brake system is fair because I’m fairly certain that MotorMilt and I exist in a really warped place when it comes to brakes. After you’ve see the top of the line systems being built, tested and then put through their paces, it’s hard in the back of your head not to acknowledge that whatever the bike shipped with from the factory is not nearly the same or as good as what gets put on fully-blown sportbikes.
The solution was what amounted to an entirely new brake set-up for the bike, starting with a new Brembo Forged Radial Brake Master Cylinder (along with a new Radial Clutch Master Cylinder to match), new brake lines, new brake pads, and the left over Brembo Calipers from the 999 (which were replaced with a set of Brembo monoblock calipers last year). As with previous installs, Alex White and his team at Motorcycle Performance Services on La Brea Ave. in LA got everything up and running with minimal issue. Many props to them.
The result is absolutely awesome – The Monster is quickly becoming my favorite bike. It’s just so damn light and nimble, and now that it has awesome stopping capabilities, it is so much more exciting to ride. I don’t know that I’ve ever felt so in control on a motorcycle in my life. It is just a hoot to attack the canyons with!
In the end, the Monster is so much more than just a mechanical object – It’s unquestionably an art form, a clean canvas that you get to mold in any way you see fit. It has a character that eschews traditional sportbike aesthetics yet it also supports them because at its core the Monster is nothing but sport. A full fledged, unadulterated, blast of performance and passion – only you get to uniquely tailor it to your own tastes, adding performance to a platform that rocks…
1098 Mod: Installing Speeymoto Rearsets
Installing the Speedymoto Rearsets on the 1098S
With the rain rolling in, Sunday seemed like a great day to install the new Speedymoto Rearsets, that I picked up from Desmoworks, on the 1098S .
When you open the Speedymoto box, the very first thing you see is a set of instructions - This gave me great confidence to wrench myself - And after reading the included instructions through and through several times, I thought what the hell, what do I have to lose? Everything seemed relatively simple - unscrew this, put on that, torque to this - but perhaps all of that was a rather naive assumption, as somehow in the space between the reading and the first wrenching, the installation of the rearsets got a heck of a lot more complicated than I had anticipated.
Originally I had thought to myself how hard can swapping out two pegs you put your feet on be?
As it turns out, not as simple as one thinks…
What I had so cleverly ignored was the linkage — both the shifting and the braking — neither of which replicated the pieces they replaced nor was as simple as you’d think to install — Granted, I’m the first to admit I’m a rider and a not a mechanic.
However, even with a few hiccups here and there, tonight I find a beautiful satisfaction in the wrenching — There’s truly something magnificent when you put new parts on your own bike. All the bolts might fall off tomorrow, but for right now I keep thinking about the twisting and turning of the bits done with my own hands and it seems so much more meaningful and so much more profound, as if the machine and I have become even closer, if that were possible, thanks to the hardening of a little bit of loctite.
1098 Mod: SpeedyMoto Rearsets from Desmoworks
Ho Ho Ho the Holidays are here! Boy have they snuck up or what? Seriously, it feels like just yesterday it was June or July… Yet here we are, lickedy-split fast… LA is freezing and the wet weather season is about to begin and everywhere you look there’s a red and white Starbucks cup…
What’s a Moto-nut to do?… Buy parts of course!
Being someone who fully subscribes to acquisition therapy, after wrapping up holiday shopping for friends and family, I decided it was time to treat the bikes to something nifty too… So I dialed in the website of Desmoworks, the parts-supplier where earlier this year I picked up a Bitubo steering dampener for the Monster. Their proprietor, Anthony Creek, had provided such killer service the last time I went moto-mod-shopping, it just seemed like the place to go this time around too…
Of course when it comes to bikes, sometimes there’s an odd sense of cosmic-karma coming back around — Anthony’s blog happened to be where I’d first spied some picts of SpeedyMoto’s beautiful rearsets. Ever since, on every ride I’ve taken on the 1098S, I’ve felt this lingering “you know you’re going to do it eventually, so why haven’t you done it already” sentiment cross my mind… Fait Accompli…
The final straw… Anthony happened to have one last discounted set available — in the perfect color combo… Seriously, sometimes it I even wonder if I’m actually making decisions or the decisions make themselves…
So this weekend, when the rain comes, it’s gonna be time to do a little wrenching 
Monster Mod #3: BoomTube it Baby… And Chop that Tail too!
Bada...Boom... The BoomTubes get Installed
Amazing how the desire to wrench myself versus the desire to get things done quickly took an unexpected turn yesterday… After waking up WAY to early — like 3 AM early — So early the dog looked at me in fact, shook his head as if to say ‘really?’ and then went back to sleep — I ended up rolling into LA with plenty of time to spare. As in all day - and the old man, MotorMilt, came up with a brilliant idea.
With less than twenty-four hours before the next great personal moto-adventure begins, he suggested that I swing by Alex White’s Motorcycle Performance Services on La Brea and see if I could get a quick oil change and once over the Monster. Since I was planning on doing that after the great ‘09 moto-adventure wrapped up, I figured why not.
And since a box of parts was already in the back of the truck, because in my perfect world fantasy, I’d install the new bits with the old man post-trip, I couldn’t help myself. Alex had a hole in his shop schedule and the bike was there and ready… So the latest, next step, in the Monster mod project got a bit of a jump start…
Pulling the box of assorted bits out of the truck, I watched as Alex’s face lit up — Apparently I’m not the only one inflicted with the moto-lust disease… He smirked and smiled and then dived right in… “What’dda we got here?” he asked… Well, let’s see…
Moments later, Alex and his crew went to town… Bits and pieces started flying around… And at 5:10 in the afternoon the results of their labor rolled into the driveway…
Because it was a one-day affair a few things got a touch rushed and in some respects this is just a first generation version of these elements — after speaking with Alex afterward, I think it’s clear we’ve got a bit more work collectively ahead of us. For starters the Tail Chop isn’t quite perfect yet - it’s installed, safe and legal, but it’s not quite as eye-catching as either of us would like. Purely a function of time. Post trip that’ll be at the top of the list to sort out. No doubt a black powered coat is in store for the mount. Also the remnants of the homologation fender are probably on their way out — at the moment I’m thinking some sort of custom mount for the taillight is in order. I’m just not real keen on the dreaded ‘black tray’… though I suppose it’d make a fine place to place a beer 
Also the Power Commander settings for the BoomTubes aren’t quite perfect yet - I’ll be playing with them on the upcoming adventure and surely there will be a bit more tweaking post-trip as well…
In addition, as you’ll notice from the picts that Alex sourced up some nifty expandable soft FirstGear saddlebags — this will be my first trip of any kind with something other than a factory installed hard mounted set of saddlebags. I have some doubts about them, but of course plenty of folks tour this way, so I suppose it’s bound to work. Just not quite what I’m used to using… As with so many other parts of life, ultimately I guess we’ll see… There’s nothing quite like giving something a go on a long voyage…
All in all, I couldn’t be more pleased at the moment. Great adventure coming down the pike, awesome bike that’s getting progressively more awesome each day and a slowly evolving road map for where it’s headed…
This should be quite an adventure — the riding and the rebuilding
Another shot of the new BoomTube exhaust
Tail Chop-Suey
Tail Chop-Suey 2
The new Rear Sprocket & Chain
The new Rear Sprocket & Chain Pict 2
Monster Mod #2: Bitubo Steering Damper
Bitubo Steering Dampner
It’s early in the morning and the dog is barking… Loudly… Peering through the door’s eye piece I catch a glimpse of a box and smile. Cracking the door open, I desperately try to hold the mutt back, but it’s tough. He’s excited and so am I… Standing in the doorway is a cacophony of brown. “Got another delivery for ya,” the local UPS guy says with all to knowing smirk. I get the feeling he too is in love with the Monster… Because as each box shows up, he gets to take five and talk bikes… And really is there anything better?
And so it begins…
The second mod to the Monster — well, actually it’s the first uninstalled mod to be fair — was a simple one.
If you’ve read my review of the Ducati S2R 1000 Monster for Pro Italia, you’ll know that while I totally dug the bike and what it represented, and thus obviously ended up picking one up for myself, I was not so keen on the less than solid windscreen.
Removing it was both an aesthetical choice as well as a practical one. While riding the bike, the cafe-styled half-fairing just didn’t feel very structurally sound. Above 70 mph it felt like it was a disaster waiting to happen - at least in my book. But more importantly, in my mind there’s something extraordinarily classic about the unfaired Monster lines that Miguel Galluzzi penned in ‘93. The virtue of the bike in many ways is its simplicity and the half-fairing somehow broke that for me. So with that in mind, the windscreen is now gone. Out of here. Adios. Two bolts and see ya later… I believe its destiny is to become a beautiful exercise in eBay commerce…
Yet even though that was the ‘first’ change that took place on the bike, it wasn’t really the first ‘mod’…
That honor falls to a brand new Bitubo Steering Damper. Since picking up the ‘08 S2R, I’ve had a chance to take it on two relatively short rides (>100 miles) — neither one posted to the blog since I had yet to have the time to write anything meaningfully intelligent about actually taking delivery of the bike in the first place — and on both occasions the front end felt quite different then I remembered it feeling during the week I had a similar machine for the Pro Italia review. I’d go into corners and where I expected security and that famed Ducati superbike ethos, I’d find undulation and fear. Where I’d wick it up a bit, the bike would hesitate with marked indifference before shaking it’s head slightly and barking. Much like the dog. The front never quite feeling as confident as some of the other rides in the garage. Each time I’d ask myself, the eternal riding question, “Is it me or is it the bike?”… I’m still not 100% sure, but thanks to the last trackday my confidence is much higher than it was and my gut kept telling me it wasn’t my riding but rather something missing on the machine.
Since every other ride in the garage, with the exception of the ST3, has a steering damper (and frankly I’ve always thought that was the one glaring omission on that bike from the factory), I thought adding one to the Monster would be an obvious place to start. If afterward the bike still echos uncertainty, then I’ll go to step two and look into a proper suspension set up at a place such as Race Tech (A company who has set-up both Milt’s F4 and my 999 at the track and it was without a doubt some of the best money we’ve spent — I honestly can’t say enough good things about those folks).
So once I decided it was time to investigate adding a steering damper to the bike, the next logical question was which one?
As with all things Monster, the choices are seemingly endless. My initial thought was to look into adding an Ohlins unit, since that’s an obvious suspension choice for a Ducati and something I’m at least a bit versed in thanks to the 1098S, but everywhere I turned the Ohlins solution resulted in a steering damper that ended up needing to be mounted to one side of the side of the frame and a rather unappealing fork clamp (at least to me), so relatively quickly that idea ran its course and I started searching for alternative options.
That search eventually lead to two distinct possibilities — An Arrow kit and a Bitubo Kit — Originally I was leaning towards the Arrow system since the last time I was at the MV Agusta Factory in Varese, Italy, they had piles of Arrow boxes sitting around and if Arrow is good enough for MV, it’s certainly good enough for me … but then of course fate intervened.
While surfing the new Ducati Monster Forum, I stumbled on to a thread called Black Gold Struck in SoCal, without really thinking about it I clicked the link and suddenly my head began spinning… Another local SoCal rider had done a number on his Monster and the result was absolutely spectacular… A look that I never would have thought would be my thing, suddenly seemed like the only route to go…
Suddenly everything began to crystallize - the BoomTube exhausts, the purpose of the bike, the colors, the vision and suddenly an either/or steering damper choice got remarkably simple. Even though both systems looked equally great, the The Bitubo system was the only one that came in Gold.
Of course, like many things in my life, I spent way to much time pondering the addition before moving to action. Call it financial hesitancy — even when the outcome is never really in doubt… With the next great road-trip adventure just around the corner (quite literally, posts to come), I realized that I was now battling both the clock and the inventory window of the usual suspect shops. So with that in mind, I decided to reach outside the norm.
Having read great things about a Ducati parts supplier called Desmoworks in Indiana (the former LoudBike parts shop), I gave them a shout since they listed the Bitubo unit in question on their website. (If you’ve got some time to burn, check out their blog… it’s beautiful eye-candy… just put your wallet away before hand )… Practically minutes later the chap who runs it, Anthony Creek, gave me a ring back and I laid out exactly what was going on, what I was interested in and what the time constraints were. Anthony didn’t blink. Actually he was pretty awesome about it all, and even though he didn’t have the unit in gold in stock, he got right on the horn and a few minutes later was able to unequivocally tell me that he would be able to drop ship the unit directly from his distributor and guaranteed that it’d be in LA by the next afternoon, which would give me plenty of time to install it before the coming adventure. So really, how can you say no to customer service like that? And sure enough less than 24 hours later my favorite UPS guy was standing at my door with another box in hand.
What was inside is just magical…
The Bitubo unit is brilliantly machined, it looks awesome, but of course the directions for installation are, well, typically Italian. There’s lot of words and numbers, but um.. well some interesting translation. Of course having never installed a steering damper myself before, part of me was certainly more than a bit nervous. Not so much about the bolting on as the idea that I was about to unscrew and re-screw two of the bolts that directly attach the handlebars to the triple clamps and somewhere in the back of my mind the image of riding down the road as the bars came off in my hands flashed before my eyes. But, one of the great things about installing something yourself is that as you do it images like that are lessened by the fact that you begin to gain an understanding of what you’re fixing/adding/altering and in the case of the damper it didn’t take long to realize that this was really no big deal. If you can screw in a lightbulb, you can put one of these suckers on your bike. It’s really that simple.
The biggest issue I encountered during the entire install was that the unit shipped with the riser attached to the wrong side of the bracket that comes off the handlebars, so the first time I put it on the bike the steering damper and the bracket didn’t line up correctly. But after a quick smoke break, I took a step back, double checked that everything in the package had S2R written somewhere on it and gave it a quick think. There didn’t seem to be anything to lose by trying to flip-flop the riser and once I did everything worked perfectly. All in all it was like a hour of total wrenching time, including the upside down riser fiasco. For the first mod, I’d say that’s not to shabby
And I could be happier, it’s a sweet looking unit and thus far seems to work rather well. Of course the proof will be in the pudding, as they say, and that’s about to come…
Before Picts…
Brilliant machining
The difference between the stock bolts holding bar clamps to the triple clamps and the new Bitubo bolts…
After pict #1
After pict #2
Monster Mod #1: Boomshackalacka… Here Come The BoomTubes
Some Custom BoomTubes by Mark Savory @ MotoCreations
Over the past couple of weeks a barrage of parts have made their way into the garage and while on one level it’s somewhat insane to already be planning the destruction of a perfectly good motorcycle only so you can recreate it in your own vision, I’m also fairly certain that somewhere in the basic genetic structure of a Monster lies a series of base pairs that if analyzed would blueprint the need for modification. It seems like something that is intrinsically part of the bike’s soul. Something it doesn’t need, but rather asks for… Rather loudly…
Hunting these parts down has been both an absolute joy and an odyssey in and of itself to say the least. It is amazing how one small picture in a tiny quadrant of the internet can launch your mind in fifteen different directions all at once and lead to several hours of web surfing all in the name of a part that nobody seems to stock stateside. Page after page you struggle to find what you’re looking for. Hours of links later, you’re saying to yourself perhaps it’s not meant to be… But then, just for the shits and giggles of it, you click on that one last link… That one last remaining hope before you truly pack it in and give up… Of course at this point, you’re fully expecting to be let down once again… Only this time, you’re not… Instead you finally see it and this odd sense of web-surfing accomplishment takes hold, as you slightly smirk to yourself and think, ‘Ah ha, I finally found it!’.
Needless to say there’s a certain satisfaction in the picking and choosing of what you want to go on your bike. I know this might sound crazy, but it feels soooooo radically different than the knee-dragging need-for-speed aesthetic of a full-blown sportbike, where the parts you lust after are purely performance based. There’s something quite addictive about starring at a web-page and asking yourself whether or not this bit or that fits with your vision of your own bike and there’s something quite refreshing about equally caring about the looks and the functionality.
One might suggest that you could do the same with a full-blown sportbike but I think that’s a bit of a false assumption in many ways — At some point we all lose focus on the visuals and instead turn our attention to the ends that justify the means. After all, on the most basic level, all sportbike riders subscribe to one simple truth, we run our bikes at cathedrals of speed and we always want to go faster. We want to raise our skills and perfect the craft of performance riding. Amazingly it doesn’t really matter what level you ride at either, the desire for adding bits to increase personal speed exists in exactly the same manor in everyone from the first time track rider to the WERA or CSS vet, I simply think they show it in different ways and on different levels. Ultimately irregardless of whether you time your laps or just count them, in the end everyone wants the illusion that the bits they’re putting on their bikes are making them go faster.
With the Monster it feels different. There’s no pressure to go fast. No need to press the ‘metal’ so to speak. No desire to be the quickest up the mountain. I’ve got other rides built for that purpose. Instead, with the Monster, I feel this strange yet wicked sense of visual adventure. A desire to craft and create a unique personality for the bike and one that echoes both the machine’s soul and mine. Don’t get me wrong, I want the bike to be peppy and go well, but I also want it to be something that’s been created, if not by me, certainly because of me. Something that speaks to my ideals. My desires. My dreams.
Of course every custom project needs a beginning and even though the idea of picking up a Monster has been festering inside for quite awhile, the inspirational launching pad for exactly what kind of Monster it’s going to turn out to be was missing…
But not anymore…
Over the years while shooting different motor-oil based documentaries I’ve had the good fortune to meet quite a few auto industry designers and regardless of whether they’re penning supercars, daily drivers or motorcycles, I’ve come to the conclusion that they’re all remarkably similar in one respect — If you ask them where their inspiration for one of their designs originally came from it’s rarely a big object but rather something very small and particular. A pen, a watch, a toaster, a woman, the eyes of an animal. As a group, almost to a T, they all seem to gravitate towards a specific bit or two of an object that most of us would find quite ordinary and yet they see something magical in it and take that hint of a tread of a thought and build an their vision from it. At first this sort of mindset struck me as a bit odd, but I guess as happens in life sometimes, the more you hang around something you don’t quite understand, the more you begin to get it. And so with the Monster I’ve found myself searching for that one bit that can become the genesis of a well thought out idea. That one particular element that leads to unified vision.
And I found it… In a set of MotoCreations’ BoomTubes…
The second I laid eyes on a set of the Boomtubes I knew I had found my Monster’s inspiration.
The S2R just had to have them. It was that simple. While Termi’s excite me like everyone else, here, with the BoomTubes, was something unusual, super trick and yet also nicely understated. If James Dean rode a Monster, this would be the exhaust system he’d put on. In addition ordering up a set of BoomTubes offered an awesome solution to the most glaring eye-sore on the entire bike, the garish 1 into 2 catalytic converter abomination. (Every time I look at it I shutter. It’s the least Italian looking part of an entirely Italian bike).
Avid Monster fans of course will already know the name MotoCreations - For the past six years Mark Savory and his crew have been knocking out one of a kind custom Ducati bikes, their work has been featured in a number of moto-mags and if you’ve been a Ducati Monster Challenge event, there’ a good chance you’ve even seen their work in person. They’ve especially garnered quite a bit of recognition for their DesmoDevil custom Ducati-Chopper. It’s a love it or hate it kind of bike, but one that is extremely unique no matter how you cut it. (You can read the full backstory on the DesmoDevil here).
The success of the DesmoDevil, along with the rest of their custom business, has lead to Mark and his crew at MotoCreations going into the custom parts business. I say custom and not production because while they are selling their wares to Monster owners around the world, these are unique bits that you’re not going to find on your local Ducati dealership’s website any time soon (At least I don’t think so) and they’re built to order, so if for instance you want a particular tweak done here or there based on your personal taste, for a few extra bucks they’re willing to craft it anyway you want.
In the case of my set of BoomTubes, I was a bit worried about how loud they’d be — I’m all for nice sounding bikes, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve also got a neighborhood full of folks who don’t take kindly to Sunday morning moto-madness wake up calls. A few emails later, Mark worked up a nice set of custom baffles and we were on our way. Problem solved.
Now I’ve just got to find some time to get’em on the bike
It’s Alive!… The 999 Returns ( Sort of )…
It's Alive - The 999 Returns
After spending a week getting my feet back underneath me after the latest European Adventure, Friday afternoon I finally got that one phone call I’d been waiting for, “Dylan, why don’t you come on over, the 999 is basically done“… And a half-hour later I entered Alex White’s Motorcycle Performance Services shop in LA unsure of what I’d find…
Unsure, you ask? Yep…
This has been the first bike build I’ve at least tangentially been a part of outside of a 1:12 scale model as a child — only instead of glue and xacto blades, this one is comprised of real world materials — so I don’t have a ton of experiences to compare it to, really just what I’ve seen on TV (oddly enough) or witnessed during motorsport shoots for various documentaries, but I suspect it’s been somewhat unusual since during most of the build process I’ve been out of the country.
In the past when I’ve day-dreamed about rebuilding a bike the images that flashed through my mind were always very hands on in nature. This however has not been hands on by any means. But I knew that going in.
We all have to work in order to pay the bills and as it happened to turn out, since March we’ve more or less hit our ‘busy season’ when it comes to work (which continues to be busy and in this economy that’s not such a bad thing)… So instead of worrying about it or obsessing about the things I couldn’t control, I decided to go in a different direction — I compiled a ’short list’ of qualified bike builders based on the recommendations of several individuals I trust (both within and outside of the industry itself) and then went with the individuals I felt I hit it off with and who seemed talented at what they do. I walked them through what I was thinking and then basically let them do their thing…
It seemed like a logical and sensible approach. Yet through our shoot in Europe it was damn near impossible during idle times not to wonder how the build was progressing, especially while standing around a variety of OEM factories and OEM supplier shops… You see enough parts getting manufactured and you simply can’t ignore the rebuild that’s going on back home…
But bike builds are not linear, simple, easy to detail events. Rather they strike me as somewhat organic in nature - like any rebuild for that matter - where within the process of fixing one piece, you suddenly find the need or the rational to fix or change another…
And when I walked in Alex’s shop that’s exactly what I found — A bike, quite similar to what I’d seen in my mind, yet different as well…
Better picts are coming shortly (I had the brains to take the digital camera but not its battery!) but Matt Polosky of Color Zone Designs took a basic concept and ran with it, in a very low-key mellow kind of way, which is exactly what I’d wanted… It’s hard to see in the iPhone snapped digital still, but Matt extended the Italian Tri-Colore color scheme from the belly pan of the bike to all the number plates and the top of the gas tank. I never even thought of that stuff… He also did a quite a number on the carbon fiber front fender…
The dark gray base coat on the bike is a bit different than I thought it would be — Though I have a feeling it’s actually cooler… Instead of the shiny light gray from the Lamborghini Gallardo that I’d more or less based the bike on, Matt took it more gun-metal gray metallic direction. It’s flat, like he and I discussed, and is sort of the ultimate sleeper look because from a distance the bike vaguely reminds one of a 749 Dark, but up close it’s a very subtle and nice metallic vibe that’s altogether a different beast…
In terms of bits, as I was standing next to the bike, it was suddenly clear to me why folks always talk about bike builds as never-ending projects. The second you upgrade one bit, almost instantly the unchanged bits stand out as glaring mistakes. The 9 is no different. The Sato Rearsets, STM slipper clutch and Speedymoto clutch cover have made the unchanged fuel filler cap, exhaust system and Showa forks look completely out of place, along with some other minor bits. Basic, silver alloy is just dull compared to the rest of the machine’s new soul. So undoubtedly it’s time to save some coin to upgrade the rest of the bits too…
But these are minor thoughts, the bottom line is that the bike is awesome! It’s everything I wanted it to be and more. Something unique, different and not even comparable to what it had been in its last iteration. Plus, and perhaps most importantly, it’s just comforting to have the original Diva back — And surprise, surprise, I feel a strong need to get it out on the track…
The 999 Rebuild Continues
Over the weekend I got a chance to pop over to Alex White’s Motorcycle Performance Services shop in LA and take a peek at the beginning of the 999 rebuild. I say ‘the beginning’, because it was my first time seeing the Duc up on the work bench, but in truth Alex and his crew have been cranking pretty good.
So far the new fairings have been fit on the bike using a set of Dzuz fastners, the new fairing stay has been installed, the gauge set has been put back into place, the rearsets have been put on the bike, new tires mounted, and the clutch has been disassembled.
While we wait for the STM Slipper to arrive, the disassembly of the clutch has brought another decision to the forefront.
As it turns out MotorMilt, myself or perhaps both of us, apparently are quite hard on the clutch. Once the guys got it apart it was fairly obvious that the clutch basket was pretty well shot and needed to be replaced too. Option 1 was to use a similar to stock steel basket, which can take a more strenuous pounding, or Option 2, order a new aluminum basket, which is lighter and therefore creates less rotating mass but wears out quicker. Given that the bike is going to headed for the track, we’ve decided on the latter. Time will tell if that was a correct decision or not…
Next up, painting…
Trading Paint On The 999
So while I was out of town, the rebuild of the 999 got into full swing and surprisingly it was a rather painless process. Much simpler then the last time I dealt with the insurance company back in 2004 when the 749’s were stolen. This time around the insurance company cut a check for repairs in record time - though frankly I suspect this was a pretty easy deal in their eyes since after all it was a single vehicle accident.
The only real concern was just how big the repair estimate would turn out to be, because, as my insurance rep pointed out, if the estimate hit or exceeded 70% of the bike’s current blue book value the insurance company would declare it totaled. But that didn’t happen, as the estimate came in just under the magic mark… Though to be honest, I’ve got no idea what blue book they’re using since Ducati 999 prices are currently plummeting on the used market… But perhaps that’s a discussion best left for the Ducati-Superbike Forum
So the other day I popped over to Alex White’s shop on La Brea Ave in LA and counter-signed the payout check in order to get the rebuild process really started. As I type this, Alex is busy filling and parting a laundry list of bits for the bike. It is rather remarkable how many pieces one must repair or replace for a simple 20-30 mph get off…
Of course the list of parts that are required to repair the machine depends greatly on what that machine is being asked to do. It’s form follows function with a bit of purpose tossed in… In this particular case, after much deliberation, the old man and I have come to the conclusion that it’s time to give the 999 a new lease on life… It’s time to simplify it’s purpose in the garage.
So with that in mind, we’ve decided to have the bike reborn as a dedicated trackday machine.
That is to say, not a race bike, but a machine intended for enjoying the track — I have no delusions of grandeur here, I’m not a racer, and perhaps never will be one. (Though at some point I’d like to try chasing an amateur license but for a variety of reasons right now isn’t that moment). Therefore nothing is going to be safety wired and we’re not tearing down the engine or doing anything that is remotely headed down the path of dedication required to ‘go racing’.
Instead what we’re after is a machine built to mean something to us and not a lap timer.
Yet the decision to take a production street bike and turn it into a trackday toy still means a fair number of additions and subtractions. For starters a whole bunch of stuff is getting jettisoned, such as the mirrors, kickstand, and stock master brake cylinder (which is broken). The busted headlight assembly is also on it’s way out and will be replaced with a racing styled fairing stay.
However mechanically the biggest change will be a new clutch — and not just any clutch — but a brand new STM slipper clutch… Without a doubt this is the part I’m most looking forward to and frankly it was an easy call since the OEM stock clutch got pretty well torn up by the get off…
Cosmetically, a bunch of stuff is also getting swapped out. MotorMilt and I have never really been keen on the fact that the ‘9 was a biposto. Now seems like the perfect time to fix that, so in short order the OEM biposto rear subframe will soon find its way to eBay and will subsequently be replaced with a monoposto tail. The stock fairings are also on the way out and will be replaced with a set of Catalyst Racing Composites which will be adorned with Dzuz fasteners for easy on and off of the plastics…
Of course the new bodywork has created a new question, since in effect we’re now staring at a blank canvass — What do we want the reborn 999 to look like?
A whole bunch of ideas have crossed my mind thus far, and quite possibly all of this could change yet again, but at the moment my thinking is that I’d like to do something tasteful, but Italian… Something that’s clean, but not blingy or poser-ish… One of the things that keeps sticking in my mind is that whenever I’m at the track and see other race-replica Ducati’s they almost always seem relatively similar. Most of the time they either follow the Bayliss Xerox look or are derivatives of the Marlboro GP look. Nothing wrong with either one, but I feel like I’d like to do something a little different… And in strange twist of fate, it’s a former project of ours that lead to the inspiration…
Last year we did a few short webisodes for the Discovery Turbo website under the name ‘Amazing Machines’ and in one of them we got a chance to take a Lamborghini Gallardo out for a spin. Obviously the car is great fun, but it’s only slightly out of my price range — well, actually it’s well out of my price range — what isn’t however is the color!
Most of the time Lambo’s are outrageously colored — that’s what they’re known for! — but in this particular case the car that they lent us was a brilliant gun metal gray and the image of the car has stuck with me ever since. It was clearly Italian, but clean. Simple. Glossy but not overtly showy. And I dug it. So at the moment the thinking is that we’re going to try and replicate that same color for most of the fairings.
But an entirely gray bike seems a touch dull, no? So assuming everything works out in terms of the rebuild budget, the plan at the moment is to do an Italian flag look (ok, ok, that’s not so creative, but alas it is an Italian machine!), only instead of the more atypical ‘hardlined’ racing belly pan looks, what I’d like to see happen is something that feels more organic and ’swoopy’ without being a Nike swoosh… Perhaps that makes sense, perhaps it doesn’t. At the moment Matt Polosky of Color Zone Designs is mulling the scheme over and we’ll see what he thinks/comes up…
Returning to Rearsets
Sato Rear Sets for The 999
While the jet lag that goes along with international travel is never any fun, I’ve got to say that coming home to find shiny new motorcycle parts eagerly waiting to be unboxed is one of the great joys of the moto-world!
Certainly makes waking up from a full nights sleep at 3 AM seem much more palatable
And so the 999 Rebuild begin - With a brand new set of Sato Racing Rearsets…
How and why I ended up going with the Sato rearsets is a bit of an elongated story — The short version goes like this — Over the holidays MotorMilt surprised me with a set of rearsets for the 1098 as a Christmas present, but I hadn’t had time to install them and then the next thing I knew the 999 went down. This clearly shifted the priorities in the garage but thankfully the folks from Motostrano in Redwood City, CA were super cool about it and agreed to let me exchange the first set for the Sato ones.
Thus the second choice of the 999 rebuild has been dealt with — What to do about the torn up stock pegs and brake lever… In my mind nifty rear sets seemed like the logical decision for two reasons, a) the OEM prices seem totally out of whack with reality and b) more importantly why not?
I mean who has ever looked at the original stock Ducati footpeg assembly and thought, ‘Gee now that’s a great looking part?‘… I’d venture to guess absolutely no one… Clearly it’s an area where Ducati saves some coin and frankly it shows. Of course would I have considered or thought to replace them if the crash had not taken place?
Probably not…
But since it did, it only seemed to make sense to put a better looking, perhaps better performing piece on the rebuilt bike.
Replacing the stock pegs and levers of course raised another question — minor sidebar: but it seems like every part of the rebuild process raises more questions than it answers but I digress — Do you stick with the stock shifting pattern or switch to a ‘race pattern’?
After a bit of thought and a few conversations with MotorMilt, I’ve decided that at least for the moment I’m going to stick with a standard street shift pattern on the rebuilt 999 — To be perfectly honest I’m not sure I’m quite ready to deal with retraining my brain to deal with reversing a decade of riding and the subsequent rewiring of my subconscious mind. Life right now seems to have enough to chew on without having to come into Turn 2 at Buttonwillow and wonder which way I’m supposed to click the shift lever. Perhaps that will change later on, but for right now it seems prudent to leave well enough alone… Needless to say I look forward to hoisting an adult beverage of choice in the garage, standing back and admiring the craftsmanship of the Sato rearsets once machine is reborn Right now that - just that - sure sounds like fun…
The Rebuild Begins
999 Rebuild at Motorcycle Performance by Alex White
And so it begins — A mere six days after laying the 999 down, it is time to officially tackle its reincarnation… What that means exactly is still up in the air, however where it will take place is not…
Ideally of course if time, money and legality were not issues that required consideration in this process then I’d be the first to tell you that this would have been the perfect time to roll up our own sleeves and wrench the bike back to health ourselves.
But the reality is that isn’t a realistic option right now. For starters there’s the time thing. In short order life will once again ramp up as we start production on our next motorcycle documentary, so I find myself asking the question, on those intermittent days off would I rather be wrenching or riding? Clearly the answer keeps coming back as the later…
Perhaps more importantly however, the insurance company has legal concerns revolving around one’s own wrenching versus an actual repair shop, which at first blush seem somewhat annoying, but on the other hand I certainly can’t fault them for having these sort of concerns in today’s litigious world. If someone can sue McDonald’s for coffee that’s to hot, then who knows what they could do in a rebuild situation if something were to go wrong down the road…
So, after spending a few hours dealing with the insurance company and sending out a dozen or more emails and/or placing phone calls to some of the various folks we’ve met in the motorcycle industry over the past four or five years, the old man and I have finally settled on a local motorcycle repair shop to tackle the 999’s rebuild — Alex White’s Motorcycle Performance Shop in LA. Alex is a former racer and long time mechanic, who came highly recommended to us by three different folks whose opinions I greatly admire and trust…
So now we wait for the insurance claim adjuster… And then the fun begins…
