This Month's Featured Bike: Phil Boncer's 1993 M900

In all her glory

You can see here most of the mods I have made. Barend mirrors right away; the Mousekemirrors had to go. 888 front fender right away also; those sliders just looked too vulnerable to road debris damage. Corbin seat when original wore out.

You can see the chunk taken out of said fender by the disc lock, when my father decided he didn't like where I'd parked it, and didn't know to look for said lock before trying to push it to a new location. You can also see the very simple mods that I haven't done; the reflectors are still there, as well as the silly plastic triangular doohickeys.

Here you can see the rest of the mods that have been done. Braided steel clutch and brake lines. Eject button. Lots of miles.

This pic was taken before going to the MotoGP at Laguna Seca (and Alameda, and Mendocino, and Sacramento, and Reno, and Yosemite, and home to San Diego again); it now reads 121,746.

Onlooker: Does that Eject button really work?
Me: Sure does. If some one pulls out in front of me and I can't stop, BOOM, it launches me over the car to safety.
Onlooker: Really? No. Really?
Me: Absolutely. See that big yellow spring right under the seat there? Zoom. Straight to the moon.
Onlooker: Wow! Every bike should have one of those!

I've had this conversation at least three times.

Left side tank dent. This happened two months from brand new. A guy cut me off with a last-second decision to turn left at the intersection (from the right lane), and I high-sided it not hitting him. He never saw me at all; drove off without a care. With more experience/practice, the accident was probably avoidable. I wasn't yet used to the modern disc brakes after all those years on old drum-braked scooters. Performance Bike magazine was cool, once. They had good stickers with which to enhance your bike.

The young lady in the background is my 13-year-old niece. Back when the bike was new, and I was still washing it regularly, she was just under two years old. She asked me if she could help me wash the bike, so I got her into some suitable clothes and handed her a sponge. A few minutes later, I noticed her trying to drop one of my dad's screwdrivers into the right muffler. It looked just the right fit to her. I told her "no", and we went on. Some years later, I removed that muffler for an experiment at work, and discovered that there was some small object rattling around in there. Apparently, the screwdriver was her second attempt. I couldn't get it out, so it's still in there.

The work experiment involved trying to determine a method of silencing two eductors (jet-pumps) that were operating in a pharmaceutical cleanroom. All the commercially available eductor mufflers were full of particle-shedding materials that cannot be allowed in a cleanroom. The intake airflow was about the same as a large bike pumps through, but I wasn't sure if a bike muffler would be effective on an intake with steady flow, as opposed to an exhaust with pulsed flow, so I pulled off one of mine and tested it in the lab with a smaller eductor that flowed an amount more like one Duc cylinder. It worked fine, so I put it back on the bike, and ordered two 304ss Staintune Bandit 1200 mufflers. The purchasing department gave me a little hassle, but put it through.
It worked out fine. Staintune probably has no idea that their products are being used to manufacture pharmaceuticals.

In early 1993, I had just gotten my first job with a real future, and was looking to get some real transportation. I'd spent the last several years on scooters (a 1960 Heinkel and a 1962 Maicoletta) with occasional assist from a *really ratty* 1971 Honda CL350 that I had literally found in a compost heap. It had been fun, but I was ready for something a bit more fast and reliable. I was looking to spend about $10,000, and was trying to decide on whether I was going to get a decent car and a beater bike, or vice-versa, but was really not seeing any newer bikes that I liked much. I liked light, sporty, and nimble. I liked the power curve of a twin. I'm a vintage-bike kind of guy, and I like a more mechanical look, with no fairing. The only bike available at the time that came close to this was the Buell, but it was (a) too expensive, (b) slow, (c) ugly, and (d) badly built. So I was trying to decide if I was going to skip the twin idea and get a CBR600 and streetfighter it, or if I was going to get a pair of Norton Commandos and rebuild them in alternate years. Then I saw an article in Cycle World about the new Ducati Monster. It was
*exactly* what I had in mind. However, at the time Ducati didn't know if this thing was going to sell, so they stated the intent to build only 5,000 and allot each dealership two, and see what happened. So, no time to waste, I decided that the idea of having a car was overrated, got my money together, looked in the Yellow Pages for the nearest Ducati dealer, and headed on over. This was in July 1993. I handed over my wad o' cash, having never seen the bike I was buying in person, nor having ridden a Ducati of any kind, and hoped that I liked it when it got here.

It took three months to get it, but as y'all can tell by now, I liked it very much.

This is a 1993 M900, purchased new from Sonny Angel Motorcycles in San Diego. It is my regular daily all-year-round rain-or-shine transportation, and as of this writing shows 121,746 miles on the odo. I can work on it myself, but prefer to pay others to do so when finances permit, which they generally do these days. Nearly all of its service has been done at Sonny's since new.

I was very careful when breaking it in, and am generally not a hard rider. It has really been pretty trouble-free so far, aside from usual wear parts (tires, batteries, brakepads, chain & sprockets, etc.). I fitted it with bar-end mirrors right away, and a carbon-fiber front fender from an 888 to better protect the fork tubes. Contrary to most of the other people here, I actually altered the gearing in the other direction. It came with 15/39, which was geared a bit lower than the 900ss, which came with 15/37.

I decided that for better mileage and highway behavior, I would go with the 900ss gearing, and when the original rear sprocket needed replacement, I switched the rear to a 37, which I have kept with at each change since. At about 35,000, I had braided steel brake and clutch lines fitted, which were definitely improvements. At about 60,000 the original seat wore out, and I replaced it with a Corbin. This is now worn out as well; I wasn't really happy with it, so I'm most likely to get the original recovered, with a bit of sculpting for the passenger area. It is otherwise stock and original.

I have the valve clearances looked at about every 5-6,000, and they need adjustment about every other inspection. I've been replacing the cambelts about every 20-25,000 miles (although I forgot once and so that set went for 45,000. Oops!) I have had the fluids (brake, clutch, fork oil, etc.) changed regularly. I've had to replace the fork seals twice. Oilwise, I've generally used Spectro synth, and changed about every 3-4000 miles, with a filter every other oil change. I haven't really been too anal about it.

The original rock-hard Michelins took *forever* to wear out (15,000 for the rear, 32,000 for the front!), but when they did, I switched to Metzelers, which I have used since. Generally I put the stickiest tire available for the front, which still gets me about 15,000 miles each, and a more sport-touring type for the rear, which generally gets me 10-12,000. I've fitted rears from 170/60 to 190/50 in size, but settled on the original 180/55 size as best. The front has had 120/70 (the original size), 120/65, and 120/60. I've found the 120/60 best; I like the sharper steering response. This has altered the speedo/odo readings by about 4% for the last few years, so I may actually have only 118,000 or so on it.

About 70% of my riding is just daily rounds, commuting, grocery shopping, taking the cat to the vet, etc., usually 20-30 miles a trip. About 25% is travelling, where I'll typically do 5-600 miles a day. About 5% is just fun rides, club rides, etc., which are usually about 100 miles.

It initially had some of the batch of weak head studs; one broke at 19,000 and was replaced; another at 22,000 and all were replaced. No trouble with them since. I went through two or three voltage regulators, but I understand they improved the design, and the last one has lasted well. The lines to the oil cooler failed and began to leak at about 50,000, and had to be replaced. At about 60,000, I needed new clutch plates, and have had a couple of that set replaced again recently. The clutch basket shows some wear, but still seems to work fine. Also, at 60,000, I needed valve guide seals, and again at 100,000. The shock (as usual, a forgotten part) was serviced at 110,000, but just needed lube and nitrogen charge. The starter sprag clutch wore out at 110,000; the starter motor was rebuilt at the same time. The rear brake disc reached its thickness limit and was replaced at 90,000; the front discs are nearing theirs and will be replaced soon. I recently got the cush blocks replaced; they were worn out. On this last trip, a wire to the regulator wore through the insulation and shorted against the frame, knocking out the regulator again.

That's about it so far. I'm not seeing shavings on the magnetic oil plug, or any other indicators of real wear. It uses a bit of oil, but not much. The plugs read fine and don't foul unless I forget to turn the choke back off all the way. (Doh!) Power seems fine; on group rides it pulls out of the corners just as well as much newer examples with the same engine design (Monster, 900SS, ST2, etc.).

When I got it, I quickly made a list of all the slick mods I wanted to make. Carbs/exhaust/tuning, big bore, upgraded suspension, clip-ons, powdercoat tank blue and frame black, anodize forks black, nifty brackets and cool turn signals, carbon fiber tank protector, lighter wheels, tachometer, oil pressure gauge, etc., etc. I then proceeded to ride it without ever stopping long enough to get any of it done. As you can see, this is still the case. I've been thinking of getting it rebuilt at 125,000 (which is coming up pretty darn quickly); maybe some of it will get done then.

philb

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