This Month's Featured Bike:
Warren (Spidey)'s Flight Cycles M1000SS

Stuart Baker from Flight Cycles Project notes

Warren (Spidey) first contacted me about rebuilding his wrecked M1000S in the fall of 2005.

We weren’t sure where exactly we wanted to go with the project, so I had Warren send me everything about every motorcycle that he either loved, or hated.
Warren came through on that, and over the next few weeks I just read all of his emails and put them into a special folder. When the emails faded a bit, I began to rummage through all of them and pull out everything that he loved, and began to copy and paste it into one email.
I sent that email back to him and he was thrilled. So, I began to work off of that email and sort out what mods we could make to a Monster that would follow in that same vein.

It took me a few weeks to come up with the use of a SS swing-arm and suspension on a Monster frame, but I liked the way it opened up the bike behind the engine. With the rear opened up, and the air-box (and wiring bits) gone, it forces your eye right to the heart of the equation: the engine. I had no idea the hell that awaited me to make the SS swing-arm suspended Monster a reality, but it was worth it IMHO.

At some point in the build, Warren and I began to discuss what we should call the finished product. The idea of the ‘M1000SS’ came up, and it stuck. The SS for three reasons:
1) SuperSport (obvious)
2) Super Senna
3) Screaming Subtlety

We really wanted to keep the whole factory Senna scheme with regards to the attitude of the bike. The Senna red wheels were a must, and varying shades of grey were the order of the day for the rest of the frame and bodywork.

Screaming Subtlety became my own goal within the project. I really tried to push my own limits of how clean I could make a Monster look. Making the bike look so clean was a tremendous effort. The ignition cylinder is under the tank, there are supports under the tank to hold the tank up to eliminate the rubber blocks on the upper frame tube, the ends of the frame tubes under the seat were filled and smoothed, etc. It was tremendous challenge to hide as much as was hidden on this bike, but in the end…totally worth it. Warren pushed for the use of the Pingel switches on the handlebars, but I was unsure if I could make it all work with the stock Ducati hardware and all. I was also facing the issue of running out of room to fit anything anywhere. In the end, four latching and one standard relays were used to convert all the momentary switch inputs from the Pingel switches to on/off inputs to be fed to the Ducati hardware. Tricky indeed, but the switch gear really makes for a nice ‘cock-pit’ on the bike.

In the end, I’m very happy with the result and I know that Warren is also.

Before shot

Completed Project

Picking Stu for this project was a no-brainer. For those of you who have had the opportunity to see his Cafe Racer in person and to have met Stu, you'll know what I'm talking about. Stu has a particular eye for Monsters, and one that matches well with how I view Monster modification. Stu puts an ungodly amount of energy into making "less is more" a reality. With each of his bikes, he creates something where the more you look at it, the more you see. At first glance, it looks simple and clean. Then you look again. There's more. You look deeper. There's more. And it just keeps going. It's truly amazing.

But it's not just the bikes. Stu's a madman for Monsters. He genuinely loves them, and obsesses about them. He's completely out of his mind -- I love it! I can't tell you the number of times during this project, I'd get a phone call or an email from Stu and he'd be excitedly ranting and raving on the other end about what a part of the project he'd just figured out. It was an amazing experience to share Stu's enthusiasm and to be able to have him match my own.

Stu's general vision about of bikes and Monsters fit perfectly with what I wanted from the M1000SS. When we began this project, I had no idea what I wanted the M1000SS to look like. I had only very general ideas about what I liked and what I didn't like. I knew that I didn't want bling. I wanted a monster that was unique without resorting to a flamed paint job or lots of chrome or billet. I didn't want an amalgam of shiny aftermarket parts, or to follow any set formula for how to "mod" a Monster. I wanted the mods to make sense, to be a part the whole, each one there to serve a specific purpose and to blend with an overall theme. It was important to me to keep the basic stock monster look and the Senna colors. I also wanted to make it look as clean and as smooth as possible. The Monsters that have always appealed to me are the ones that flow well visually -- with the tank, the frame and body all blending into a single form. The more "stuff" you can see on a Monster or the more that stands out, the more I find the entire effect visually distracting. (which, BTW, is why I like the aircooled Monsters so much). I also wanted to still maintain the "on it's haunches" aggressive look of a Monster with a clean rear and low clip-ons. And I really wanted a Monster that was like nothing else out there, but without going to showy extremes to make it unique. That's a really hard thing to do. And luckily, what I was hoping for fit Stu's style perfectly -- keep it looking simple, while making it a one-of-a-kind, and let the overall simplicity of the bike speak for itself. From having spoken with him on many occasions, I knew he would be the right person to take my very general likes and dislikes and form them into a single coherent vision. And I was excited to be a part of the beginning of Flight Cycles. Stu had just opened his shop after winning the Monster Challenge. There are so few people who customize Monsters and I wanted to be able to support Stu in choosing to live out his dream.

It was a pretty instructive process trying to figure out what the bike should look like. I sent email after email to Stu with pics of bikes I liked and ones I disliked. I trolled the DML for things that looked "right" and those that were "off." And when he sent back the rough sketches for the M1000SS, I knew that he had it. It was going to be beautiful. And it is.

My thoughts on the completed project? I could write a book, but I'll try to keep it short. The M1000SS is phenomenal, and even more so than I could have ever imagined. We started out with the idea of making the Monster that Ducati *should* have built. The one that looks stock and retains the basic look of a stock Monster, but is anything but. I love that there's nothing on it that forces it to stand out in a crowd. Nothing that screams "look at me!" It's just simple and clean, but aggressive, just like a Monster should be.

The result? In a crowd of Monsters or next to Stu's Coup d’Etat, your eyes can easily pass over the M1000ss. But your eyes will always come back to it. It forces you to looks closer. And closer. And then step back. And then look again. It has something different about it. Something more "Monster". Which is exactly what I had hoped for. The other thing that continues to suprise me is how true it is to the themes we discussed throughout the process.

The real test is when I show it to people who know absolutely nothing about bikes, without fail, their jaws drop and they say, “Oh my God! That's beautiful."' I couldn't agree more.

This project started life as “Spidey”s wrecked ’03 M1000S.

Mods:
Marchesini Forged Aluminum 10-spoke wheels 17x3.5 front 17x5.5 rear in Viper Red
Michelin Pilot Power tires (120/70 front & 180/55 rear)
BrakeTech Axis full-floating Stainless steel rotors in a round style (only set in existence)
Ducati 749 four-piston, four-pad calipers w/Sintered pads
Sebimoto front fender 916-style w/screens
Screens painted black
‘Hump’ at rear of fender for brake-line filled, and smoothed
Stock ’03 M1000 front forks rebuilt
Outer tubes clear hard anodized
Race-Tech Gold valves installed
M1000 lower triple clamp w/casting ridge smoothed off
M620 upper triple
Handlebar risers cut off, holes welded up and smoothed
Pins for gauge cluster mount smoothed out
Brake line retaining tabs ground off stock headlight ‘U’

Powder coated black
Headlight bucket
Steering damper mount
Gas cap base
Bodywork painted Lexus dark sapphire metallic, Audi grey, & pinstriped in red

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