What do you do with a Broken Monster? Part out or rebuild? In July, 2008 my friend was making his way up Palomar and wound up landing on his head and crushing his Monster. How this happened is an interesting story in itself and will be the subject of a future posting. The Monster did cartwheels and bent the frame, front axle, fork internals, severe road rash and totally crushed the tank in addition to breaking the engine cases at the rear mounting point.

I took inventory of the broken/bent/trashed parts and spent time on this forum and others acquiring the parts needed to place it back in service. Can you see the Monster in this picture?, yup it is there on the rack waiting for the right time to get back together. One of the first things to do was to evaluate the amount of "tweak" in the frame. With all the accessories off, the frame was twisted a bit, but not too bad. nearly 1/4" of a twist. Send it to Doctor Johns? Hardly. Steel is steel and can be moved. Before any of you go and get all scientific (your comic book pseudo-science) on me, you can straighten your frame under some circumstances. I've build a 300' long barge (Beluga) that tows reactor plants up the Columbia river to Hanford using plumb-bobs, chalk lines and levels. So long before Lasers were invented, humans could make things straight and level with less sophisticated methods. But I digress....Here is how you take a tweak out of a frame.
A few tons of pressure straightened the frame right out.

OK, so not the most immaculate way to straighten out a frame, but we are descendants of cave-men after all (ugh!). After many months of thinking about how I wanted it to "look", I couldn't get any inspiration. The typical modifications and color schemes have been done by others with great results. I've taken inspiration about personalizing the Monster from this forum and in person (Ducati Island at Laguna Seca). Hmmm, did I want the frame red and the wheels black? Or vice versa? At about this time I came across a biography of Fransesco Baracca...WWI Italian ace and the originator of the famous Scudieria Prancing Horse; Fransesco's father gave the symbol to Enzo Ferrari after the war. I wanted to pay tribute to the merits of signor Baracca, but the era of canvas and spruce doesn't fit well with a modern motorcycle. So, on second thought, Ducati Performance did make quite a few aluminum components that could fit into an aircraft theme.....Working with that idea ,I chose an OD green for the frame and wheels and a OD canvas for the seat. Here is a picture of the work in progress You can tell by the custom rolled rear fender there will be rivets in the finished product. The bike will be together in the next few months and I'll post pictures of the re-worked pieces and finished parts during that time.

Oooh...

that fender is amazing!!
cant wait to see the rest of the build

As I started reading I was thinking "There's nothing left there, you are going to be parting it out."  I am glad you proved me wrong and am really inspired with what you've done already.     I can't wait to see more on this rebuild and the final result.

So can't wait to see more!!!!!

I love the idea of using history to affect a build. Amazing choice and execution so far. Can't wait to see more.

I give massive credit to your efforts and inspiration...but once it is done, are you going to spend a lil $$$ to have someone do a dynamic check to make sure everything is staright and true, or are you going to trust that it is all perfectly aligned and go by feel?

I do look forward to seeing the future outcome...I also am curious about the cracked engine cases, did you weld them or get new motor or new cases or what?

Quote from: zooom on February 20, 2011, 06:22:33 AM
I give massive credit to your efforts and inspiration...but once it is done, are you going to spend a lil $$$ to have someone do a dynamic check to make sure everything is staright and true, or are you going to trust that it is all perfectly aligned and go by feel?

I do look forward to seeing the future outcome...I also am curious about the cracked engine cases, did you weld them or get new motor or new cases or what?

Point well taken: Measuring (and the limits of guessing between 64ths) not withstanding, it is important to make sure the engine is aligned with the frame/wheels.front/back/etc. I will run it up to Riverside county and have it checked. I could not tell by feel, I'm not sensitive enough to know unless it was glaringly obvious. The cracked engine cases were welded . There were back-gouged to provide a full penetration weld and then re drilled for the bolt, but........depending upon the quality of the weld (skill of the weldor) and the stresses placed upon them......I am not a weldor; a local shop in Poway did. They've done welding for friends and they were pleased with the results. I would be disappointed, but not shocked if there were some cracks reappearing. I suppose at that point I could re-weld it with some structural gussets or get a different motor.
   Honestly, I've never ridden a Monster. I've been fascinated with them for years, but haven't thrown a leg over one. I typically ride an Aprila RSVR or my ST4, or a dirt bike or three. I'm anxious to get this on the road and dialed in. I know it isn't the usual course Monster owners choose for their bikes, but the Monster (frame withstanding) is a perfect blank canvas for expression. I'll have the rear wheel mounted and the fender bolted on later this week and post a picture or two. Front wheel is next and then installing hundreds of rivets in the aluminum front cowl, seat cowl, engine cowl, the dog, cat and anything else that isn't moving........
  I know some will think this is an abonimation, but who's milking this cow anyway?

History:  Between 1956 and 1960, Ducati race bikes were decorated with a prancing horse identical except for color to what is now the trademarked emblem of Ferrari today. Fabio Taglioni's father was in fact a companion of the Count Francesco Baracca's (a famous Italian ace) and fought in his famous 91st Air Squadron as well during WW1 which is where the emblem originated. Baracca's family gave it to Enzo many years later to put on his Scuderia Ferrari racers in 1932. Taglioni used it starting in about 1956 on Ducati's but with the original red coloring of Barraca -- but stopped using in about 1960 due to a private agreement between Ducati and Ferrari in regard to its usage.

Taglioni only used the prancing horse itself -- not the yellow background shield ala the Scuderia (and later Ferrari).

Also note there are many variations of the prancing horse itself as Ferrari "revised" it over the decades since.

addendum:  Baracca's "prancing horse" was painted in red on his plane -- after his death his squadron continued to use but it was painted black. (and how it was presented to Enzo for use at the Scuderia)

Hats off to you for taking on such a project and saving another Monster.  Glad to see it not being parted it out and restored back to life.  I'll be following the progress of this post.  Keep up the good work  

Well, who knew finding/scrubbing/cleaning/priming/painting all those little "damits" could take so long? I got the rear wheel back together and put is on to check things out

So far, so good. Fitting the rear fender is proving to be a challenge: the mounting tabs are a bit off ,must be the one-off fender thing, huh? I placed it on the fender and used a rag to provide some spacing so you can see how it (should) look when I get the mounting tabs sorted.
check out that rear sprocket: I got it from oldfatguystryintobestuntas.com and it has all of 46 teeth! (more than entire families in Copperhill TN)

is that a chia seat?