[Rudemouthsky]

Hiya folks. I wanted to drop by and post the details of my build, which I've dubbed: "M944SS". After a string of mechanical frustrations with my M750 including a failed 900 motor swap I decided: "enough is enough". I would build my Monster from the frame up, sparing no expense which would include
having my favorite air cooled carby motor of all time fully rebuilt and blueprinted for a lifetime of performance and reliability, and exclusively use NOS OE parts as to have a "brand new" first generation carby Monster, but with the aftermarket upgrades I wanted.

Motor: '96 900ss, fully torn down to the case halves and bare heads & powder coated.

Motor/Performance/Electrical upgrades

- 94mm over bore and plating by Millennium
- crank balanced by Ducshop
- oversize Kibblewhite valve install with multi angle competition valve job, head porting with matched intakes, and motor assembly by Chris Birkle/Racing Sport Services.
- Nichols light flywheel & Electrex pulse coils
- Ricks MOSFET R/R
- Ricks starter
- Custom made 4 gauge ultra flexible battery>solenoid>starter and 2 gauge battery to motor ground wiring with Mil-spec heatshrink, Ancor tinned lugs, Blue Sea Systems cable caps, all assembled with a professional grade Grote lug crimper
- Shorai battery
- Keihin FCR 41mm carburetors
- Cosentino Engineering custom velocity stacks with K&N pods
- Ca-Cycleworks ignition coils
- Ignitech TCIP4 programmable ignition with custom map
- Ducati Performance billet oil breather/charcoal canister delete w/K&N filter
- Ducabike slipper clutch
- Oberon clutch slave
- Modified Roadracing Italia full exhaust system with Car Chemistry disc inserts & custom machined end caps

Braking/Suspension/Drivetrain

- Brembo RCS brake and clutch masters
- Matris F12 fork cartridges
- Matris M5 steering damper
- Bitubo XZE rear shock
- Brembo Goldline 4 pot calipers
- Sixity wave rotors
- FrenTubo hoses
- S&P billet suspension hoop with upgraded 316L stainless Teflon rod end bearings
- IMA MOD4 upper and lower yokes with 30mm offset
- IMA adjustable clip ons w/risers
- Rizoma rearsets
- Titanium axles and hardware
- EK Quadra-X ring chain
- Driven sprockets (14/41)
- Carrozerria V-Track forged wheels
- Pirelli Diablo tires

NOS factory parts

- NOS unstamped 2000 M600 frame
- NOS Cagiva era (black w/lil elephant head) belt covers
- NOS switchgears
- NOS lockset; ignition, tank, seat
- NOS fuel tank & seat cowl
- NOS engine covers/clutch side machined/vented
- NOS swingarm end caps and sliding blocks
- NOS grips
- NOS sidestand from an SS800 (20mm longer)
- NOS oil cooler
- genuine 851/888 alloy swingarm was not NOS unfortunately, but was fully restored and powder coated by Bonehead Performance

All hardware throughout entire bike replaced with 316L stainless and titanium; axle, brake rotors/calipers, axle pinch bolts, shock, slave cylinder, all banjo bolts, sidestand, and triple clamps mounted with Ti.

Other goodies worth mentioning:

- STM Italia front & rear fluid reservoirs w/custom machined mc mounts and Tygon hoses
- Oberon fuel cap
- Oberon 2 way billet turn signals
- SSR billet crank case cover
- Speedymoto "flow" clutch cover
- JMT oil temp gauge oil cap
- Motodemic drop in LED conversion with Motowheels carbon fiber bucket
(Replaced Motowheels LED headlight kit which was a Truck-Lite with billet adapter ring. Excellent unit but lacks the fit and finish of the Motodemic/JWS EVO II by a mile)
- Vizi-Tec Supanova
- CNC Racing billet headlight mounting collars/U-bracket delete
- Motowheels billet valve covers
- Motowheels custom alloy battery box
- Motowheels billet steering stem nut
- Custom FrenTubo Hypermotard oil cooler lines (routes under front cylinder, much cleaner)
- Cox Racing oil cooler cover
- Zeta levers
- Corsair billet ignition key cover/shroud
- Corsair billet axle/chain adjustment plates
- Corsair billet frame and tail chop plugs
- Sargent seat
- Rizoma carbon fiber heel guards
- Speedhut all in one clocks w/GPS speedometer, tach, and shift light
- Ducati Performance alloy fender
- Ducati Performance alloy nose fairing
- Motowheels billet exhaust collets
- Competition Werkes fender eliminator shortened to delete plate light mount, rewelded, and powder coated by Bonehead Performance

Future mods short list:

- update shifting parts; return spring, retainer plate, gear selector fork to Corsa spec components and add Factory Pro shift detent micro bearing upgrade.
- Redfox adjustable cam pullies
- Ferrodo brake pads
- Nichols motor mount studs
- Motogadget M-unit + complete rewire
- Tekarbon shorty rear carbon hugger
- SSR billet cam covers

 

[Rudemouthsky]

 

[Rudemouthsky]

Early, before the "de-golding"...ditched the decals. Plan to add machined billet swingarm end caps in red from MVS Germany.



Exhaust was originally for a 750 so the vertical header needed to be chopped and have an additional 2" or so added, afterwards I had the entire setup ceramikoted. My fabricator Jimmy did a fantastic job both with the exhaust:



And the end caps which were originally meant for an SL:

Before:



And after:

 

[Rudemouthsky]

He also did the clutch side case cover which came out great:





The velocity stacks are by Cosentino Engineering but they needed to be modified to fit my racked FCR's. I've stripped the orange and am thinking black anodizing when I ceramikote my intakes. Hippie/Chris of RSS is very wary of me coating the intakes as they've been matched to my ported heads.



Special thank you to Bernard at Vizi-Tec for helping me sort the last available Supanova tail light on earth:











My setup for escaping OH winter:



HUGE thank you to Brad at Motodemic for the trick new LED headlight upgrade:




Thanks so much for viewing, I hope you enjoyed.

 

[[email protected]]

Dayuuuum that's some nice work.

 

[219R]

GR8 work on a super nice set-up! Do you have a link for Brad @ Motodemic?
Thanks for the post!

 

[daledo]

Pffft!........................Show off!:cross:


Just kidding! That is some really nice work!

 

[savetheclutch]

WOW!!! that is one beautiful monster!

 

[Rudemouthsky]

219R; [email protected]. Tell him Eli sent ya

 

[cb4265]

Congrats on the great work!

Most engine mods normally include ST2 Cams, did you use these or just miss them off your massive list?
Some photos show a front scoop and others it is missing, I like it better without, but the monster full belly pan might look better, but because of the exhaust, you may have to mod it too.

Good job

Craig

 

[Rudemouthsky]

Congrats on the great work!

Most engine mods normally include ST2 Cams, did you use these or just miss them off your massive list?
Some photos show a front scoop and others it is missing, I like it better without, but the monster full belly pan might look better, but because of the exhaust, you may have to mod it too.

Good job

Craig

No, I considered either ST, I.E, or 210 grind VeeTwo/DP cams. I don't think there was a single thing I "missed", I was obsessive to the point I nearly got myself a divorce to go along with the bike, lol. In the end we determined:

The VeeTwo or I.E cams would have been a waste of money without short manifolds and split FCR's. I already had racked FCR's and my long manifolds were already ported. Now I'm def not shy about admitting a mistake and redoing at a big loss of $ (at the time) but on top of all that, I'd achieve a few extra HP but at the expense of low and midrange torque.

That's when I considered the 210 grind cams. Nothing but problems it seemed from others who had done it. Script is somewhat flipped with these; they hurt top end and exaggerate cylinder pressure at low RPM so lots of worries about pinging on anything less than race gas or 94 octane plus additives. On top of all that the additional lift/longer duration can cause valve to piston contact unless pockets are machined in the piston crowns. F all that!

In the end my motor builder and I felt the stock V2/SS carby cams plus larger valves plus port matched stock manifolds would give me the best balance of reliability, low-mid range grunt, and more than enough HP for a street bike.

I owe most of this ^ information to Brad Black's site bikeboy.org, and reading about Guy Martin and Chris Kelley's "100hp 2v" motor build.

The only things I regret/would do over are:

- My classic Cycle Cat triple with a NOS Ducati dash I had scored at one time.

- lightweight adjustable cam pulleys

- SBK front end rebuilt/resprung by Racetech, Traxxis or similar and monoblock calipers. The Matris carts and 4 pot Brembos are great, all that is about looks mainly.

-lightly polish the alloy swingarm instead of powder coating it.

- pass on the NOS/unstamped frame and powder coated a used frame instead. This would have saved me a bunch of $, registration headaches, and allowed me to grind off all the useless tabs and add additional bracing before PC. I probably would do a glossy black frame and fully blacked out motor instead of the silver frame and silver accents too. Something about that NOS frame cast a spell on me, lol.

Zero regrets on the motor mods, I should be over 90hp in the end and I have an insane amount of torque. 2nd gear wheelies are no problem. still have some carb and ignition tuning to do, just need to find the right guy.

 

[rubbish]

Wow! Now that's a monster!

 

[FourRings]

Really nice build!

I did a similar engine build for my SS FE last winter - Pistals, Carrillos, SSie cams, J Precision head work w/long intakes, racked FCR 41s, etc. Mine dyno'd at 94 hp / 71 tq. Of course, dyno numbers are, well, just dyno numbers. That said, your guess that you've got over 90 hp is well founded. Congrats!

Btw, check out the adjustable pulleys from Redfox-Grinta Engine Parts |

 

[Rudemouthsky]

Really nice build!

I did a similar engine build for my SS FE last winter - Pistals, Carrillos, SSie cams, J Precision head work w/long intakes, racked FCR 41s, etc. Mine dyno'd at 94 hp / 71 tq. Of course, dyno numbers are, well, just dyno numbers. That said, your guess that you've got over 90 hp is well founded. Congrats!

Btw, check out the adjustable pulleys from Redfox-Grinta Engine Parts |

Thanks for the input 4R. I was very close to throwing down for Ti rods since it was a full tear down/rebuild and I was having everything balanced anyway, just had to curb the insanity at SOME point, lol. Every mod opens a can of worms, Ti rods would have basically necessitated lightening and balancing the primaries, which would have led to an SBK oil pump swap, which would have...well I don't need to tell you.

I would've been ALL over those Redfox pullies had he been willing to take PayPal. The dude was adamant about a bank transfer only and it's not that I didn't trust him it was just too much hassle. I ordered a set from Desmo-Racing and wound up cancelling the order because they were back ordered at the time and had no idea when they'd be back in stock.

I WILL have those Redfox pullies one day...should probably get those then dial in the cams before I dump a bunch more money into tuning. My "should be well over 90hp" statement was more than a wild guess, I had a base run done shortly after getting the bike put back together with no carb tuning whatsoever done that showed 88rwhp on a Dynojet 250. I am really stoked on the job my engine builder, Chris Birkle of RSS did.

 

[219R]

Do you folks know of anyone stroking crankshafts on Monster motors?

 

[FourRings]

Do you folks know of anyone stroking crankshafts on Monster motors?

If I were to do it again, I'd give a lot of thought to transplanting a 1000 DS or Evo motor.

 

[FourRings]

Thanks for the input 4R. I was very close to throwing down for Ti rods since it was a full tear down/rebuild and I was having everything balanced anyway, just had to curb the insanity at SOME point, lol. Every mod opens a can of worms, Ti rods would have basically necessitated lightening and balancing the primaries, which would have led to an SBK oil pump swap, which would have...well I don't need to tell you.

I would've been ALL over those Redfox pullies had he been willing to take PayPal. The dude was adamant about a bank transfer only and it's not that I didn't trust him it was just too much hassle. I ordered a set from Desmo-Racing and wound up cancelling the order because they were back ordered at the time and had no idea when they'd be back in stock.

I WILL have those Redfox pullies one day...should probably get those then dial in the cams before I dump a bunch more money into tuning. My "should be well over 90hp" statement was more than a wild guess, I had a base run done shortly after getting the bike put back together with no carb tuning whatsoever done that showed 88rwhp on a Dynojet 250. I am really stoked on the job my engine builder, Chris Birkle of RSS did.

In case you're interested, here's my build: SS FE ground-up rebuild - Ducati.ms - The Ultimate Ducati Forum

...and you really owe it to yourself to read this one: 900ss FE Performance Resturation - Ducati.ms - The Ultimate Ducati Forum

 

[Rudemouthsky]

Just finished your build thread. Wow just wow, such a nice job. I'm flattered you'd even comment on mine after going through that. Couple questions:

- how did your freshly coated headers stand up to the heat of a fresh motor break in? Sadly, mine not so well. Ended up looking like a mediocre high heat rattle can paint job within 500 miles. I was actually warned about this by my ceramikote guy.

- Maybe I missed it but did you upgrade the 10mm motor mount bolts to Nichols or TPO? I noticed you fussed somewhat over frame gussets and additional stiffening, but everything I've ever read says those pathetic 10mm studs are the biggest weak point in terms of "wiggle". I agonized about doing the Nichols studs but there were just too many anecdotal reports of the cases needing to be reamed even with their smaller ones meant for our motors, and drilling out my cases was NOT something I have the testicular fortitude to tackle.

- you wound up with 15/41 gearing, yes? That's what I chose originally and was very satisfied. However, due to the length if my Bitubo shock and the very tall S&P hoop there was a macrometer of clearance between my front sprocket and swingarm. It was actually slowly eating into my chain guard. I swapped a 14t in for that reason and was too lazy to do anything about the rear but ended up loving it. Cruising RPM on the freeway at 60 mph is about 4500 which is about perfect, and 80- 90 mph is about 5500- 6000k which is buzzy for sure but I like having the additional power at the ready for when a douchebag in a Mustang or Camaro wants to box me in. Which seems to happen a lot.

I also considered the Nichols head studs you chose but went with APE/Ca-Cycleworks instead. They should give me a lifetime of joy. Agree with your comment; "it's pretty cool having a 17 year old bike that's basically brand new!" That was my #1 goal! I sometimes have SS envy, as in wishing I'd done a carby Supersport with SL fairings or just completely naked with an M-Unit to keep it clean, but I'm glad I stuck with a Monster as it's my dedicated street bike.

 

[Rudemouthsky]

Argh, none of the photos in the 8four8 build threads you've posted are showing up for me, 4R. May need to haul out my laptop.

 

[FourRings]

Thanks for the compliment. Don't kid yourself, your build is damned impressive.

I have not installed the ceramic coated Termi exhaust yet, so I can't comment on it's durability. The Termi is a very tight fit around the swing arm, particularly as I've raised the back end of my bike a far amount. When I was putting my bike back together in April, I wanted to ride more than I wanted to mess with it so I stuck with the OEM headers. I'll mess with it this winter.

I'd installed the Nichols motor mount bolts prior to the rebuild. They did require some drilling of the frame and the cases. It wasn't difficult though. In fact, I think it would be difficult to screw it up. The key, I believe, is to follow the instruction, use a quality drill bit in the right size, and go slowly. Due to my lack of patience, each of these steps are very difficult .

As far as gearing, I was using 15/41 initially but I'm now using 15/39. I found that with all of the additional torque, I didn't need the 41. Fortunately, I haven't had any clearance issues with the 15.

I'm really intrigued by the M-unit. The idea of having a really clean/simple loom is very attractive. Maybe next winter. I'm working on my 999 now :yo:.