Bike of the Year 2017

[Mr Gazza]

It's been a pretty good year for me and my Monster. I'm still chuffed to bits that she was voted Bike of the Year at the Weekender in May.





I picked her up in 2013 as a non runner, partially dismantled. Getting her running and back together was a pretty swift operation and I've been steadily improving things as we go along.
The philosophy is to retain the essence of Monster, so any alterations have to be subtle in order to respect the original silhouette and keep the bits that I regard as iconic to the Marque and Model. The intention was to add some colour to the rather dull original Sie and bring the contrast up a bit. I chose Gold and Silver as the theme colours, with polished metal making most of the Silver.
The Gold for the wheels was mixed to match the Brembo disc carriers and is used elsewhere.
After carefully re-painting the front disc carriers, all three discs subsequently warped and I replaced them with wavy Arashi ones, which have turned out to be very good indeed.



I painstakingly re-lacquered all the carbon, which was peppered with pin holes. Then using the Gold from the wheels, I sprayed on a translucent stripe to the mudguard, hugger and tea tray, by mixing about 10% colour to clear lacquer and building until satisfied.
It looks like old Gold or sometimes Silver depending on the angle the light hits it, it also shows the carbon weave through in a strong light... I'm pleased with the effect.

Note that it's un-chopped and keeps the original indicators for the reason stated above... The Mk2 versions of the winkers and tea tray are much nicer than the earlier ones in my opinion anyway.