This Month's Featured Bike:
Gabriel Blevins' 02Monster 620

This bike was alot of fun to build. The first thing that I want to say about it is that it was built for a purpose (racing) so function was much more important than fashion. Most of the featured bikes are great looking machines that the owners put alot of time into making look great and this bike is certainly rough around the edges compared to those.
This bike was purchased from a fellow DML'er who crashed it. I bought it and immediately tore it down to the frame. Luckily, the damage was to the exhaust and DOT stuff but all that was destined for the garbage anyway. So, starting with the frame, I had to build it back for racing and keep it SuperSport legal.
So, with limited money and mods that could be done, I built a barebones racer.

I didn't do much cosmetically. Painted frame, fixed dented tank, painted body, wheel stripes, that's about it. I had to focus on making the monster track worthy. When Ducati started rummaging through the parts bins to come up with the Monster, they weren't thinking of making a streetbike with track capabilities. They set out to build a street bike with street bike capabilities using leftover trackbike parts and they were successful. So, some things needed to be addressed.

Clearance
As many Monster owners know, you can't corner without dragging stuff. Rearsets by CycleCat solve part of the problem but then there's that exhaust. I used 900 SS slipons and modified the stock header pipe to turn them up. Then I fabricated exhaust hangers that are welded to the frame.

Suspension and cornering

Here again, Ducati built a streetbike that sits you upright and somewhat comfy for your cruizing around town. The weight bias is waaaay too far back to handle the track. I had a rear ride height adjuster machined out of aluminum that allowed me to raise the rear end way up. Then bolt on Penske rear shock and all is good there. On the front, clipons and lowered the front a little.

Race bodywork
To be race legal, you have to have an oil catcher so, I used a 999 race body made by Sebimoto. When people mount bodies to their monsters, they have always used the 916 style or supersport bodies. I wanted to do something different so I used the 999 style and was pleasantly surprised that very little modification was needed to get a good fit. I welded mounting tabs to the frame and fabricated a bracket out of tubing that is mounted to the steering tube. So, now I have a racing upper and lower that is all mounted with Dzeus fastners and comes on and off very easily.

The tail is a fiberglass racing tail from a GSXR. I mounted the tail to the stock seat pan (removed pading), by making a little subframe that is sandwiched between the tail and seat pan. This allows me to remove the entire tail section in a snap just like in stock form. (except the lock is removed)

That covers the big stuff. Otherwise it's safetywiring, framesliders, barsliders, tuning, and of course, race tires every two weekends! Next plans are to upgrade the front suspension, and brakes.

This bike makes a really fun track bike and is very competitive in the Ultralight Supersport class. These changes that I made are necessary to be track worthy and well worth the effort. I had alot of fun with this project.

I would like to give a big thanks to friends, family, and sponsors.
Manley Cycle in Minneapolis. www.manleycycle.com 612-822-7377 (performance tuning)
Monstergirl (photos and support)
Caztek contract engineering (lots of help)
my kids (support and patience)
Tony (advice, support, inspiration) momentumphoto.net (racing photos)
sara (selling this toy to me! and encouragement)

Click here for past featured bikes