A tale of two (Ducati) Monsters

Ducati motors are very rolly poly. I know, because I had one roll away once and break stuff. In order to not damage my precious 1100, I fabbed up a jack adapter. It made pulling the motor a very easy one man job. Combined with the old hanging the bike from a ladder trick, it was a cake walk.

And just like that, a 2011 1100 Evo jammed into a 2002 Monster 620 frame.

jsudar said:

And just like that, a 2011 1100 Evo jammed into a 2002 Monster 620 frame.
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I love the jack platform. I have been considering doing the same with my old floor jack.

glockman said:

I love the jack platform. I have been considering doing the same with my old floor jack.

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I highly recommend it. It made things so much easier. I tapped the post that interfaces with the floor jack so I can thread a bolt with a big washer in from the underside so there is no way the platform can separate from the jack. It probably doesn’t need it, but it’s nice to know I can REALLY get after it. Gives it more resilience in seismic situations.

There she is, with suspension at full droop in a poser shot with the MX seat. After spending several evenings in the garage messing with different swingarms, links and frames, I determined the Hypermotard frame was much better suited for my purposes.
This kind of makes me sad because now the only Monster parts on the Monster Moto are the wheels and rear brake caliper and master. It’s not really a monster moto anymore. It’s a Hypermotard with a fork swap, swingarm swap and custom subframe.
What’s worse is that it’s basically just a Hypermotard SP. Ducati made version of the Hyper for racing that had more travel —195 mm front/156 rear. I’m sitting at 200 mm on both ends, so marginally better, but at this point I’ve basically built a bike I could have bought. Dang it. The SPs are pretty hard to find though.
I was going to sell the Hyper frame since I have a clear title for it and that makes it worth lots more than the salvaged ones, but now I’m going to use it. I still have the Monster frame (also a clean title) but I’ve welded on and removed enough parts it’s not really useful to anyone besides me.
So it’s time for a new plan.
Everything is coming together nicely on the Hyper. If I’m diligent I can probably being riding by summer, since will use many more factory parts and less crazy custom fab. It should do a phenomenal job of scratching my itch for a SuMo.
What to do with the Monster? I was relying heavily on modified Hyper parts when it was still a Monster. Now I have another set of Hyper triple clamps which I can bore to fit KTM WP forks. I’ve already done it once. That means I could use dirt bike KTM forks and go full 300 mm travel and swap in a PDS swingarm and shock to match. I can use one of the three 600cc motors have laying around and build something like an overweight, air cooled Aprilia XSV 550. Should be great, right?
And it won’t matter how many years it takes to complete since I already have my Husaberg if I actually want to ride.

The suspension rocker on the Hyper has slightly different geometry than the Monster. I had my MockShox set up for 330mm length/81mm travel for the Monster. I used the rod ends to reduce the length to 325mm, but this was still too much for the Hyper link and it was crashing. It was also giving me 216mm travel and too much ride height. Math says 216/81=2.67 wheel travel to shock travel ratio.
I peened (heh heh, I said peened) a piece of 1/4” aluminum rod into my MockShox to reduce length and travel to 320mm/75mm.
Using the above ratio, I should have gotten exactly 200mm of wheel travel, but no, I got 194mm. Sigh. I guess the rocker makes the shock travel vs wheel travel ratio non-linear.
This makes me worried I’m overdriving the linkage too much and may be getting into the very progressive or regressive parts of its travel. Oh well, all part of the adventure.

I'm so excited for this build! It looks awesome. So no custom swingarm needed using the Hyper frame?

Yeah, the swing arm from a 2002 Multistrada 620 bolts right in and clears the 1100 exhaust and mostly works with the Hypermotard suspension. Who would have thought? I guess the Ducati engineers are not big fans of reinventing the wheel every couple years. There is a fairly high level of interchangeability across years and models.
Nobody likes the 620 Multistrada so the swing arms are like $40 shipped on eBay. I have two now 😁

Made a little more progress today. I thought I had all my rear suspension shock length and travel measurements nailed down. Then I had the thought: is my garage floor level? I’m making all these calculations based on the assumption that the bike is level.
No, the garage floor isn’t level. It has almost 1.5” of slope across the wheelbase of the bike. I leveled a big piece of C channel and started over. This changed things quite a bit. Glad I realized the error of my ways when I did.

Had to shorten the pushrod 10mm to make things work. It would be ideal if I could shorten the shock eye to eye to 315mm, but I’ll need to contact Race Tech to see if that’s doable.


The last thing that’s concerning to me is the chain angle going on to the countershaft sprocket. It seems to be riding the chain guard thing on the swingarm pretty hard.
This pic was taken with the suspension at 30% sag with a 48t rear sprocket and 15t up front. That’s about the biggest sprocket I can find with getting a stunting sprocket. I think I can squeeze in a 16t counter shaft sprocket which will raise the chain 2.5mm. Maybe that’s enough? I may have to lower the bike to make things work.

Got bored over the weekend. Drilled some speed holes in the plate mount of the S4Rs. This will help diffuse any high pressure that forms under the subframe to keep the bike planted at high speed. The holes are dimpled to increase rigidity so I don’t get the dreaded license plate flutter. And let’s not forget the weight savings…

Regarding the concern of the chain rubbing the swingarm guard, I wouldn't worry about it. The ATK is way worse than that and it's fine. I will have to get a picture.