A tale of two (Ducati) Monsters

Progress has slowed on this project, but it’s still moving forward. Had to take a little beak to build a couple custom bicycle frames. Some of my kids were feeling left out because they didn’t have a full custom frame that dad built in the garage.
Got a 48t rear sprocket (gold to match the rotors). Because of the extra travel the swingarm will see, I didn’t want to drop a tooth on the front sprocket, so I upsized the rear to help keep the chain off the swingarm.
Like Gravy said above, if I’m not planning on ripping around at warp speed all the time, low gearing makes it lots more fun. This was partially determined when I decided to see if my S4Rs would actually do the 155 MPH it’s supposed to do. Turns out, I can’t go that fast. I chickened out around 125 or 130 because I physically couldn’t hang on anymore. The wind load on a naked bike at that speed is incredible. Fairings are important. And 100 is plenty fast.

So the front end is basically finished, now I need to figure out how to get 200mm of suspension travel out of the rear. I toyed with the idea of ditching the linkage and using a matching KTM SMR PDS shock, but that was going to be major(er) frame and swingarm surgery. I scoured the Öhlins site for hours, since they have shock stroke and eye to eye data trying to find a factory shock that would give me the right travel and work with the existing linkage. The closest I could find was a Desert Sled shock at 81mm travel and 335mm eye to eye. But it only had an eyelet at one end and a yoke at the other. I needed eyelets on both ends. And it wouldn’t be valved for my application. It was looking like I needed a custom solution. I found a lot of European companies (a couple in Italy, one in Sweden) that could maybe build me a custom shock, but it was $$$ and a serious language barrier problem. Then I found RaceTech in Southern California. They make full custom shocks— any size, any ends, whatever valving I need. Super cool to work with and I didn’t have to learn Italian. And not as expensive as I thought. Still not cheap though. So, before I committed to having a custom shock built, I decided to verify it was going to work at all and I built my very own custom shock out of square tube. #mockshox

Still need to do some mods to the swingarm to be fully operational, but I turned an adjustable pushrod on the lathe to match the custom shock. Currently getting 205 mm of travel out of the rear end of the Monster. Which matches the 200 mm fork nicely.

Well, lots has happened since my last post. Just not so much with the bike. I quit my cushy, secure government job of nearly sixteen years, but the new job has a full machine shop, welding shop and plastic fab shop. Almost makes up for the fact I could have retired in 14 years if I’d have stayed at the other place. Don’t know if I could have made it though.

Anyway, couple things have happened with the bike— I sectioned the the seat pan to narrow it up— ‘cause I have a plastic fab shop at work.
I really wanted gold bars on this bike, but I also really, really wanted the Renthal 827 Villopoto bend, which didn’t come in gold. Then Renthal did a limited edition run of gold ones. They sold out fast and I was sad. Fortunately, I scored an installed, but never ridden set on eBay. I threaded the ends for some plugs I made for hand guards.
The first time I made threaded bar end plugs for my dirt bike, I made them from mild steel. They worked great, but they are heavy and rusty. I had just enough 303L stainless to make another rust free set. Then I screwed up really bad on the threading and had to scrap them.
Since I had to purchase material, my aircraft mechanic buddy suggested 2024 aluminum. Light, cheap and pretty strong. It’s like 35k psi yield strength, which exceeds the stainless steel. He advised against 7075, which is nearly as strong as mild steel, but has corrosion problems.
The next major thing is I scored a Monster 696 motor off Facebook marketplace. The current 620 I have only has a five speed and it makes 55 HP and 40 ft/lb. The 696 is kind of a hot motor. It makes 80 HP and 50 ft/lb which is the most horsepower per cc of ANY air cooled Ducati motor ever. And it has a six speed. It needs a stator side engine cover and a stator. The seller actually had a brand new stator to go with it, but that motor had two options: 104.5mm and 107.5mm. He bought the 107.5 and of course it needed the smaller one. So, a new stator and eBay stator cover for a 796 (hope it fits) are on the way. The only downside is the exhaust ports are at a different angle than the 620, so my current exhaust won’t work. Now, I get to see how I do building custom exhaust.

The plot continues to thicken…. I scored an amazing deal on a wrecked Monster 797. Not a bike I ever aspired to own, but it was so cheap I would have been an idiot to pass it up.
Now I have three engine options for this build:
1. 620- lowest HP and torque and a five speed, but I do have a wiring harness, ECU and exhaust for this motor.
2. 696- most HP, six speed, but requires adapting the wiring harness from the 620 (fairly easy) and a custom tune for the 620 ECU. Also requires custom head pipes.
3. 797- less HP than the 696, but more torque. Same bore, more stroke. I have the complete bike, so swapping should be straightforwardish, including the exhaust. Has a weird single throttle body with sub butterflies. Also has a cable operated clutch which is weird for a Duc. This doesn’t work with my other plans—

I started buying parts to convert the 696 to dry clutch, mostly because everyone on the interwebs said it can’t be done and because I like the rattle. It’s not a proper Duc if it doesn’t sound like your bike is shaking a bag of loose change. Kind of want to see that project through…
There’s a chance the 797 exhaust will fit the 696, so that may solve that problem.
I’m not sure what to do now. Too many options. And I’m running out of space, because there’s a non running Ducati ST3 on KSL right now for $1100 that needs a good home…
One thing is for sure— my wife thinks I’m like a sad cat lady, but for Ducatis.

Wet cable clutch is where it's at.

Go with the 696 and have no regrets 😎

696 in the Dirtcati.

Through some clever plumbing and machining a special nipple I was able to get the fuel tank and pump from my 2002 Monster to work with the returnless fuel system on the 2017. Surprisingly, they had the same electrical connector. Also stole the battery from the 02. The 797 is now a runner!
She fired right up after I finally got the air bled out. Makes me feel better about my purchase, hearing it purr like that.

Couple things have happened in Ducati land.
1. I knocked my 620 off the pallet it was living on and broke the valve cover and some expensive oil cooler mounting hardware and the ignition pickup 😡
2. I finally got the title for my 2017 Monster. Been buying parts for it and should be able to ride it soon.
3. Built some adapters to hold Ducati motors in my automotive engine stand

4. Discovered my 696 motor I got on Facebook marketplace had a ripped timing belt and the horizontal cam pulley had skipped a couple teeth. Exhaust valve has contacted the piston. Pretty sure the valve is bent.

5. Not really all that sad about it. I have an itch to do a performance motor build. It’s been too long.
I’d like to send the bottom end to Fox Performance in Colorado for crank lightening and knife edging, Carrillo rods, CP 11:1 pistons and balancing.
I want to send the heads to Fast by Ferracci for rebuilding and a mild port and polish.
We’ll have to see what the budget allows.
I’m hoping to lose 10 lbs out of the motor.
I can reasonably loose 2-3 lbs with lighter rods and pistons and crank lightening. The flywheel is very heavy. You can loose over 2 lbs there before rideability is affected much. Aluminum belt pulleys good for another pound. Going to add more speed holes to the various gears in the motor. Ducati Kaemna in Germany has pictures of most of the gears they have lightened so I have some guidance there. It will be a fun experiment.
6. Started working on the dry clutch conversion. Here’s a 748 clutch side case on the 696. It’s like God intended it that way.

The shifter on my wrecked 797 had a problem.


I ordered another from eBay. I didn’t realize it was a Chinese part until I got the shipping notification. At least it was cheap. But pretty much everything looks cheap after pricing things at the Ducati dealer.
The Ducati part had a nice bronze bushing to rotate on and O rings to keep the grease in. The Chinese part was all steel. This made me sad, but not sad enough to pay Ducati dealer prices. Into the lathe it went….



Took .049” out of the bore so I could press the bushing from the Ducati lever into the Chinese one. It was a tight squeeze to turn it. I knew I was all the way through the bore when the tip of the shifter started to scrape the lathe carriage.




Good as new.

Also, I spent a small fortune on tires this weekend. All for bikes that don’t run. Yet.


The wrecked 797 needed tires and so did the Monster Moto. I committed a very egregious sin and did not put Pirelli tires on my Ducatis. The local motorcycle place had some Dunlop Roadsmart tires that fit the 797 in stock and the Dunlop Mutants just looked so freakin’ cool. Whatever. I have Pirellis on my S4Rs Monster.

I’ve been working a lot getting my wrecked Monster 797 running. I got a lot of my parts from eBay. There were a couple things I couldn’t find on eBay or anywhere else, so I broke down and went to the dealer. Spent $200 to get some switches and some special hardware and fittings. While I was there, I thought I’d ask about a new fuel tank. My wrecked bike didn’t come with one. The tanks always get smashed up in a crash.

I had already purchased this one from eBay.


It was ridiculously expensive (it was new) and had to come from Great Britain, but people were asking hundreds of dollars for smashed tanks. I haven’t done a lot of body work, but I could tell it wasn’t going to be easy to fix up a $500 already smashed tank. And good paint work isn’t cheap either. So I bought a new one. I was expensive enough I was stressing that maybe I had gotten ripped off. Sometimes eBay isn’t always the cheapest place for genuine parts (Chinese junk, yes.) So I asked the dealer. The parts guy laughed and shook his head sadly.
It was north of $3000. I suddenly felt pretty good about the deal I scored on eBay.

Moral of this story: don’t ever ever ever drop your Ducati. The tank will dent and you will have to spend almost a third of the original MSRP to fix it. Drop your Duc = total your Duc.
It’s freaking nuts how much this crap costs. Why couldn’t I have fallen in love with Suzukis or Yamahas?

Was bored today and had some Delrin rod that I bought for making RC crawler axles. Turned some bar end sliders on the lathe for the Monster Moto that fit into the counter bore of my Fastway hand guards. Had the use the Husaberg for the glam shots because Fastway hand guards have been on backorder forever and won’t ship for a few more weeks, so I don’t actually have them on the Monster Moto yet.

Rode my 2017 Monster 797 for the first time tonight. Still needs a headlight and a few other odds and ends, but it runs. I only took it around the block a couple times and never got past second gear, but I really liked it. It was very comfortable and easy to ride. I guess I hadn’t realized just how difficult my Monster S4Rs is to ride in a civilized manner. It’s too much race, not enough chill. Power wheelies through third gear are cool, but not all the time…. Really digging this bike. Can’t wait to finish it up and try the commute on it.

From the factory, the white fender is supposed to go with white tank. I couldn’t get a white tank for less than $3k, so I got red. I can get a red fender on eBay for $100ish. What do you guys think? Does the white fender look goofy?

I like the white.

Fastway finally got stock again. The Husaberg got new shields to replace the damaged ones. The Monster Moto got handguards and shields. Used a V3 kit from Fastway along with KTM 125 lower bar clamps that happened to work well with the Hypermotard upper triples. And a poser shot with the new round headlamp. Still needs mounting brackets and some kind of number plate/shield to make it look nice.

I have about a hundred miles on the Monster 797 now. At first, it was a lot of miles around the neighborhood to make sure nothing was going to fall off. Did a longer ride today. Some freeway, highway, residential and some twisties. The more I ride this bike the less I want to sell it. It’s interesting to compare this bike with my other Monster. My S4Rs was the highest spec’d Monster in 2007. The only other factory upgrade it could have had was a red/white/green painted tank and I’m glad it doesn’t. This 797 is the entry level Monster for 2017. It seems Ducati has come a long way in ten years.
It’s just so easy to ride. No heavy clutch pull, no bucking and spitting at low speeds. It has very good handling for what it is. The S4Rs has a full Öhlins setup and I didn’t really miss it much.
I ride over Suncrest in Draper a lot because it’s on the way home for me. The 797 felt very stable and planted. I didn’t once feel like I was going to die. Maybe because I was only doing 55-60 and the S4Rs encourages at least another 10 mph over that, but it was fun on the 797. I didn’t come out at the bottom with a clenched jaw knowing I had just cheated death.
They are both really good looking bikes. The 797 lacks some of the character the S4Rs has. And I don’t just mean the 60 HP and 25 lb/ft power gap between the two. The big 4 valve motor starts to sing at about 6k, like a chorus of angels was hiding in the air box. And then there’s the Heman clutch pull— I do have shorty levers though and the dry clutch rattle. I miss having people tell me I need to adjust my valves every time I park the bike.
I like the ergos of the 797. I rode a lot longer without any hand tingles or knee pain. Not really a fan of the rear sets and low bars on the S4Rs.
The S4Rs is quirky, difficult to ride and fast.
The 797 is relaxed, easy to ride and quick enough. I feel like maybe I’m moving on from midlife crisis to old man mode.
I’ll paraphrase someone else on a Ducati forum who summed things up like this:
The 797 is like being married to an attractive woman who is fun to talk to and great in bed.
The S4Rs is like a coked up hooker dressed in latex with a knife in her thigh high boot. You’ll have the time of your life, but….