Parking it up for the winter.

[350TSS]

Craig at Moto Rapido gives me 10% and I am apparently only a "Registered User".
Some while back I asked what I had to do to become a "Member" but never really got a satisfactory answer. I believe I have paid all that I have ever been asked to pay. From memory (hazy at the best of times) I think your status has to be changed manually and with proposed changes to the format of the site it was to be done together, but I may have dreamt that.

[FrankenDesmo]

Cheers, I messaged Moto Rapido saying that I am a forum member, and they were happy to offer the discount. So I went for a stock solenoid @£35 inc p&p - price has probably gone up recently (compared to those who paid ~£21) as all of the new ones that I saw around ebay and the like were around £37 without the postage.

Originally Posted by FrankenDesmo

In other non-Monster news, I've purchased the frame/engine/tank of a '73 Suzuki GT550 triple as the basis of a new project. Besides the Monster, I'm a big fan of two-strokes ��

Itching to get back out there riding!

Oh, Good Man! I'm in the final stages (I hope!) of putting the motor back into my '75 GT550 and am looking forward to making a different kind of music on the road soon. I have a Cagiva Planet 125cc 2T too, and there's something strangely attractive about the drone and wail of a two-stroke. Can't say I'm a fan of the smell or smoke, but that's much less with synthetic oil and anyway it's Behind You!

Nick

[FrankenDesmo]

Oooh I love that 2T smell!

I'm aiming to do a 'special' with this one - GSXR front end & wheels, custom monoshock swingarm, single seat with a GS550 tail piece, full rebuild of the motor with a wee road tune and some custom expansion chambers (hoping to get it to Mick Abbey for the tuning & spannies). It'll be a long project as I'll also be redecorating my house and going on holidays, but I'm hoping to have it finished within 2-4 years.

I'm also planning to get into racing twins with an SV650 at some stage (I dabbled in a bit of racing with a Suzuki RG150 around 10 years ago back in NZ), and I'd like to get a dirt bike (2T of course!), aaand I'm bound to start another 2T road bike project (GT750? T500? RD350?) and/or strip the Monster down for a full rebuild... I'm not exactly sure where all the money will come from

[FrankenDesmo]

...I just googled the Cagiva Planet, which then lead me to the Mito. Oooooh me likey!!

[FrankenDesmo]

It's alive!

I spent the evening fitting the new Mosfet RR kit, and the battery now charges at a healthy 14ish volts. So naturally I've purchased the insurance and road tax, ready for me to tidy up the wiring tomorrow.

Next up: Replace the dirty airfilter (pipercross on its way) and put a fresh set of plugs in as I have no idea when they were last changed... which leads to the obvious question:

What plugs for a 93 900 lump with V2 heads? I'm picking that the Iridiums wemoto suggest are probably on point? (https://www.wemoto.com/bikes/ducati/...ug_ngk_iridium)

I think I'm gonna need to spend some time tuning this as it is running quite rich at the moment. Need to give it a chance of a proper run and get through some of the 4-month old fuel first.

Over the next few weeks I'll be attending to various bits and bobs - gotta get that headlight that Moco1961 sold to me fitted (and banish those godawful streetfighter twin headlights for good!). Starter is definitely slow, I've got a new relay to go on as the one on it tends to stick, and I've got my eye on a set of hicap leads on ebay (not cheap but cheaper than that american outfit).

[350TSS]

Others speak highly of Exactfit leads - look on Ducati Forum.
I used 16mm welding cable as my leads were always going to be non standard

[FrankenDesmo]

Originally Posted by 350TSS

Others speak highly of Exactfit leads - look on Ducati Forum.
I used 16mm welding cable as my leads were always going to be non standard

Those are indeed the ones I will be going for, unless the chap that has been making leads for half the price with good reviews is able to produce another monster kit.

[FrankenDesmo]

Oh I forgot to mention that - after seeing mention of the elephant logo elsewhere on this site, and how it only appears on the early models, it looks like my frankenstein is made up of period parts - at least the tank cap and belt covers have the logo so far. I'll see if any others pop up when I'm working on it.

Not surprising really - it's a 94 M600 originally, and it's had the V2 head 900 lump put in, so I suspect a 93/94 M900 donated the pieces for the conversion.

[350TSS]

If you pay the subscription to Ducati Forum I believe Exactfit will give you 10% discount on cables or belts and the Forum will send you a Halford's trade card which is also -10% on any Halford's purchases

[FrankenDesmo]

Cheers for the heads up, I'll have a look into it and see about subscribing.

I took it out for a ride this evening after tidying up the RR wiring (and double checking that it hadn't all decided to pack up on me overnight - it hadn't ) - unfortunately it was hesitating and popping through much of the rev range, and decided to idle at 3-3.5k . It does pull like a train when I'm able to open it up (and tbh I barely hit half throttle it pulls that hard!), still with hesitations on the way up but not as bad as when doing low speed stuff.

Definitely wasn't this bad before I put it to bed for 4 or so months, but it did have moments of hesitation back in September/October when I was briefly riding it before realising the RR had packed up. The airfilter is filthy, I've got a pipercross on the way (arrives Monday), as well as a pair of DR9EA spark plugs. The fuel is 4+ month old unleaded from morrisons, so I guess that could have gone bad? I thought petrol lasted a bit longer than that tbh.

I suspect I'll need to make adjustments on the carbs, so I'm reading up all about that now as I've never been one to touch them previously. Looks like I might need to invest in a decent sync tool, and depending how bad things are I may look at getting the emulsion tubes & carb kit from Factory Pro.

Trouble is, I really have no idea about the history of this bike, and the engine really does feel especially powerful - much more so than the '99 M900 I originally had and the '05 S2R 800 that followed. They were both more or less on-par, with the 800 possibly being a little more powerful (the '99 had about 85,000k - 52500mi - on the clock and would have been a W-head model). So I'm wondering if this is just the difference between an elderly small valve and a (potentially) well-kept big valve, or if this motor has been breathed on. That might make tuning a bit more difficult. But then again, it's already got the airbox lid chop and a full exhaust system, so it's not going to be stock settings anyway.

Ah well, should be fun figuring this bike out!

[Luddite]

If your old fuel was E5, then it will probably have gone off after three months so, after over four, you'll definitely have problems. The ethanol absorbs moisture from the air and, when it becomes saturated and can't absorb any more, it comes out of suspension, separates from the petrol, and you have a horrible cocktail of water and ethanol sitting at the bottom of your tank. How quickly this happens depends on how humid your garage is - the more moisture that's in the air, the quicker the ethanol will separate.

If your old fuel was ethanol-free, then it will still go off over time, but should last about six months. It won't absorb water but the lighter chemicals in the fuel, the 'volatiles' will evaporate leaving a less combustible mixture behind. Also, the fuel reacts with the oxygen in the air and oxidises, which is not good for combustion. (If the fuel smells sour or has turned dark, then it's probably oxidised.)

Either way, I wouldn't try to use up the old fuel if I were you. You'd be better off draining the system completely and refilling with an ethanol-free brand like Esso Synergy Supreme+. The hesitancy you are experiencing is probably a combination of varnish in the fuel system components, water in the fuel and the fuel itself going off.

You may find running a couple of tanks of fresh fuel through the system cures the problem or you may have to add a cleaning additive. If that doesn't work, then you may have to look at removal and deep cleaning the carbs.

[FrankenDesmo]

Thanks for that explanation Luddite, you've just surfaced a whole bunch of memories from when I used to work in service stations around the time ethanol blends were introduced by Mobil (Esso in NZ, basically). It didn't cross my mind, and yeah, it's E5, and I suspect the lock-up at my old flat wasn't particularly dry!

I'll get a jerry can to drain it off tomorrow and replace with some decent fuel. Need to dispose of the old fuel somewhere - I'm sure I've got some weeds or moss that needs killing

[FrankenDesmo]

Would water in the fuel & evaporated volatiles cause the high idle? My understanding is you get that when you're running lean (and I'm fairly certain the idle was already a bit higher than normal when I got the bike), so I'm guessing that water + poor fuel = lean mix?

[Luddite]

Originally Posted by FrankenDesmo

...so I'm guessing that water + poor fuel = lean mix?

Or maybe gum in the carbs is stopping the slides from closing fully?

When you drain the tank, make sure you get every last drop out because, if the ethanol has separated out, then it will be sitting below the fuel. If you don't remove it, then it'll just sit under any fresh fuel and could still cause you problems down the line.