Well after some extensive admiring of many of the beautiful bikes on here, I finally got round to giving my own Monster (Dark 600) a few little beauty treatments. So I thought I'd share them with you all!

Here's how she was for starters:



First up was the tail chop. So I ordered myself an integrated LED taillight from Motodynamic.com and when it arrived I went for the relatively low-tech method of just throwing a little masking tape on the frame for a guideline, and then going at it with a hack-saw...



It seemed to do the trick. I then smoothed the rough edges of the chop out with a drill and metal-sander-attachment-thingy, and presto! The my bike was officially chopped. The next step was going to be to paint the exposed ends of the frame to help protect them from rust (and not look ridiculous), however it then occurred to me that the yellow paint underlying the entirety of my frame (which was seemingly yellow originally) was poking its head out in quite a few places around the frame, where the newer black coat had chipped off... so I decided to repaint the entire frame!



I masked the bike up, sanded it down, and proceeded to go at it with a gloss black chassis paint that the guys at Autobarn (a chain of automotive supermarkets down under) recommended to me. I'm satisfied but not really thrilled with how the final result came out - for a supposedly tough paint, 8 coats of it seem alarmingly fragile. Here she is freshly painted:

The next step was to fashion some sort of holder for my licence plate. The integrated taillight meant I didn't need to worry about attachments for the indicators, so I did this with two 75mm pre-drilled brackets ($6 from the hardware store) that I bent to an angle with a hammer and a small bench clamp.



Two weeks ago, when I collected the new registration for my bike, the old rego holder disintegrated in my hands when I tried to remove it. So I ordered a sexier replacement in the form of a tubular rego-holder. This I now attached to the top holes of the brackets, before attaching my freshly drilled licence plate to the lower holes of the bracket:



I still haven't been able to find plugs for the exposed ends of the frame yet, so if anyone has any suggestions they'd be much appreciated.

Next up was replacing the handlebar (which appeared to have been a little bent in a drop):



And although getting the old one off wasn't a big deal, by the time I got round to reattaching all of the switches to the new handlebar (the following day) I'd forgotten the order of most things, so had a hell of a time putting it all back on in the correct order (the lesson to be learnt here, is for me to always take 'before' photos of everything I'm about to mess around with! ). I also swapped out the old grips for some thicker foam ones which I'm hoping will be a bit more comfortable.

The most remarkable thing about changing the handlebars however, was the fact that it massively improved the bike's rideablility - I can only assume that it must be a result of having dismantled the throttle switch, giving it a little clean and putting it back together properly (i.e. the throttle cables or something were slightly off beforehand) because the throttle response on the bike is MUCH smoother now, much easier to control. The bike is also running much more confidently at idle now (when cold) for some reason. So whatever it was that I've done, I'm glad I did it! :thumbsup:

I've also ordered some Rizoma Class Retro mirrors and a Monza-style belly pan, so hopefully they'll arrive soon, but until then here's how she's looking in her newly beautified state:

And a few more: 

  Looks great

looking good!!

do note, spray paint, will cure to the touch in a day, but if you leave it to cure in hte sun outside, youll notice it become harder over time.

"I still haven't been able to find plugs for the exposed ends of the frame yet, so if anyone has any suggestions they'd be much appreciated."
Home depot/lowes has them. Or use the brass from 20Ga. shotgun shells. 

Good looking chop!  and I love your home make license holder.  LOL  I also fashioned a set myself, with metal strips from Home Depot.  As for the plug, try this:

http://corsair-industries.com/parts/Ducati%20Billet%20Parts/Ducati%20Tail%20Plug/

look forward to more pics from your "operation".

Quote from: ducrider45 on April 21, 2009, 09:43:37 AM
Or use the brass from 20Ga. shotgun shells. 

this is what i want to do. dont have any spent ones so i have to wait until a good day to visit the range 

and to the OP. you rock! way to mod recklessly i love it. and the bike looks very very nice. ty for doing away with the mickey ears 


p.s. what kind of rearstand is that?

Never seen anyone paint the frame while it was still attached to the motor! Awesome....

Quote from: NAKID on April 21, 2009, 03:29:12 PM
Never seen anyone paint the frame while it was still attached to the motor! Awesome....

WERD.

looks awesome with the tail chop I was so pleased when I did mine!

Thanks guys, glad you like it! 

Quote from: ducrider45 on April 21, 2009, 09:43:37 AM
"I still haven't been able to find plugs for the exposed ends of the frame yet, so if anyone has any suggestions they'd be much appreciated."
Home depot/lowes has them. Or use the brass from 20Ga. shotgun shells. 

I've tried 3 different hardware stores down here for plugs without any luck, but I'll keep looking. And as for shotgun shells, I think they look awesome, but I'm in Melbourne, Australia, and finding any kind of ammunition down here (even spent stuff) is damn near impossible

Quote from: Goat_Herder on April 21, 2009, 10:32:24 AM
Good looking chop!  and I love your home make license holder.  LOL  I also fashioned a set myself, with metal strips from Home Depot.  As for the plug, try this:

http://corsair-industries.com/parts/Ducati%20Billet%20Parts/Ducati%20Tail%20Plug/

look forward to more pics from your "operation".

Cheers! They look great. I'll definitely order a pair if I continue to have no luck with local sources.

Quote from: redial on April 21, 2009, 10:41:42 AM
p.s. what kind of rearstand is that?

It's an "RJays" (Australian brand) stand, made in Taiwan I think, but it works great and only cost me $100 AUD (that's about $70 USD)

The stand looks like a PitBull knock-off...

Nice job

+1 on the shotgun shells ..also any bicycle place will have caps that will fit  ( they use them on there handlebars )

couple other thoughts remove the hugger for a clean lie

and use header wrap on the pipes....or paint with bbq paint  ( untill you get your pan )

There is something so rewarding about getting an older bike and slowly bringing it back to top shape  I love new bikes, but the feeling is completely different from restoring an older one. Your bike is really coming together nicely. Please post more photos as you keep working on it because if I can assure you, you will never be done!!

Quote from: Grug on April 21, 2009, 07:31:55 AM
Well after some extensive admiring of many of the beautiful bikes on here, I finally got round to giving my own Monster (Dark 600) a few little beauty treatments. So I thought I'd share them with you all!

Here's how she was for starters:



First up was the tail chop. So I ordered myself an integrated LED taillight from Motodynamic.com and when it arrived I went for the relatively low-tech method of just throwing a little masking tape on the frame for a guideline, and then going at it with a hack-saw...



It seemed to do the trick. I then smoothed the rough edges of the chop out with a drill and metal-sander-attachment-thingy, and presto! The my bike was officially chopped. The next step was going to be to paint the exposed ends of the frame to help protect them from rust (and not look ridiculous), however it then occurred to me that the yellow paint underlying the entirety of my frame (which was seemingly yellow originally) was poking its head out in quite a few places around the frame, where the newer black coat had chipped off... so I decided to repaint the entire frame!



I masked the bike up, sanded it down, and proceeded to go at it with a gloss black chassis paint that the guys at Autobarn (a chain of automotive supermarkets down under) recommended to me. I'm satisfied but not really thrilled with how the final result came out - for a supposedly tough paint, 8 coats of it seem alarmingly fragile. Here she is freshly painted: