Yeah, what some people say about their motorcycles definitely hold true in my life now. ”Letting someone test ride my bike, is like letting someone throw their legs around my girl,… AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN!”
Having ridden dirt bikes around the farms and fields of Kentucky growing up, I thought it would be fine to take the opportunity to test ride a friends bike when offered. Believe me, I denied the ride since it was the first day of ownership and looking at the fresh odometer just barely showing double digits. But the shiny red and the throaty growl of the Ducati twin just drew me in.
Ducati Monster 696
Check out how this devilish test ride went after the break!
I finally agreed, threw the helmet and gloves on, and straddled the Italian beauty. I then squeezed back the clutch, kicked it into first gear, burped the throttle and pulled up to the edge of the parking lot in Washington, DC with the biggest smile on my face. Something in the back of my head said this was a bad idea, but the 696 kept that voice suppressed as I revved it up for the much-anticipated ride. With the left blinker on I checked right, then left, then slowly let out on the clutch, and glanced right one more time to see a kid turning the corner much to fast! My instincts tried to take over with the “fight or flight” teetering and I drilled the front brake. (Fight my way into the way of this young kid driving way to fast seemed like a bad idea.) Now this is the part of the story that everyone thinks, “Whoa, that was a close call! Well it could have been worse, but the Ducati I was handling was over the loose bits of pavement that would normally sits between a cars track. When I drilled the front brake the Monster dropped to the pavement and I felt horrible immediately.
After the car came to a stop and we picked the bike up, pushed it back into the lot and started the examination of what I had destroyed. If this had been a super sport we would have been talking a couple of thousands to replace fairings and repainting. To my amazement the extra helmet attached to the left side had stopped the Red Ducati paint from receiving one scratch! The mirror bent in like it was design and the left bar end took some slight punishment. The worst we finally found was the shift lever had broken off right at the 90 degree angle for the foot placement. With my embarrassment and guilt setting in, my wallet wasn’t going to be emptied for a 15 second test ride.
Later that night we met up and drilled a hole through the shift lever and a hole through the foot peg and remounted until the new lever arrived from Italy. Yeah, if you break one of these you are gonna have to wait. Seems like no one keeps these in stock! With the newly fabbed botched shifter secure and working properly, the owner accumulated over 200+ miles before the new lever arrived a few days later when the worst happened.
Parked outside work, odometer now in the triple digits and catching a lot of attention, someone pointed out that the new Ducati was leaking oil everywhere. To the owners amazement they were correct. In the fall the kickstand came in contact with pavement. Now the main bolt for the kickstand is mounted directly into the 696 engine block. The weight of the bike caused this to crack but hold through 200+ miles put on it! Needless to say this scenario is not covered by insurance and purchasing a brand new engine to replace a brand new engine is very costly.
We decided to have it fixed. We found a welder, that is a nuclear engineer who hobbies in motorcycles, to weld and restrengthen the area. We drained and removed the engine then tossed it in the trunk to deposit it the caring hands of said engineer. After a few lonely weeks later and $800 bucks shorter the engine was finished. The welder/engineer drilled out the main bolt hole in the block and stacked a set of density washer that had been welded together and inserted this into place. He threaded the area and built a new support from the main bolt to throw the stress away from the refinished block. Brilliant! He said, ”It’s what Ducati should have done if the first place.”
We trucked the engine home and excited readied the garage for an all night with help from a liter bike racer. Since this was my first rebuild of a bike I knew it was going to be a long night and the racer’s help would be much appreciated! After 4 hours in our help had to retire. That left us to tackle the daunting task alone, against the suggestion of the tired friend. I downloaded the repair manual to the Monster 696 and had at it. A couple of knuckle busting hours later and a few extra parts in a 5 gallon bucket, the engine came to life! I couldn’t believe I just rebuilt a motorcycle from engine and separated frames to running and riding straight! I still can’t! The hardest part had to be aligning the bolt that holds the swing arm to the frame/engine. Well the octopus of wires that had us back tracking all night was a nightmare as well, but we did it! THE MONSTER IS ALIVE!!!
Oh and for those extra parts, some found their homes. One was an engine sensor and that other was a heat shield for under the seat, which is much-needed!
Wiring the Monster
Almost there!
The Monster's heart beats again!
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