Bikesure_adrianflux

1993 M900- It begins.....

Well...... not much happened after that. The new house resto took priority then life took a major change and, as a single dad, my autistic son became my priority. The VFR stayed for a few years and was joined by a Honda Magna VF750C I dragged over from Kommiefornia, and after a few years both went and were replaced by a Honda VTX1800S classic styled bruiser-cruiser also from Kommiefornia. That went after a couple of years and finally admitting to myself that it was far too heavy and front wheel lockups were becoming too frequent. The Monkey is still around and about to enter it's 6th incarnation now with ally swingarm and triple clamps with longer thicker forks as I ran out of ground clearance on a green lane t'other day and flew into the weeds. I'm buying an Emerald Green Chrome Royal Enfield Classic 350 as a random test ride revealed it to be the comfiest bike I have ever ridden and I absolutely love them for pottering around on, but need to sort storage solutions out as my current gaff in Waleshire hath no garage. The Evel Monkey lives in my living room, obviously, but the Enfield won't fit.

So started watching a vid about an M900 Monster the other day and remembered I have one lying about somewhere in self assembly kit form. My brothers live in ,my old house and it's buried under piles of crap where I left it. The big shiny bits are safe but not sure about the various bits I took off the engine when I removed the heads n barrels, which themselves are safe. I even have many boxes of new gold zinc plated bolts for going all round. From what I recall the belt covers and under rubbers are of the knackered variety and the tension pulleys were a bit rusty, but hopefully surface only.

So, I'm feeling the urge to get it sorted this year. Yeah, I've heard it all before too.... But the question is, are parts still readily available? I bought some genuine Ducati belts in 2015 or so which are still in the box. Would they be OK as they've not seen heat, sun or stress? Can I get new tensioners? More importantly, can you still get hi level cans anywhere? What are the Exactfit belts like? Better life than genuine?

Anyone still around from Ye Olden Dayes?
 
Not sure how good the spares situation is these days,I would've thought that you should be able to get enough bits to get the bike back on the road.
There are several discussions about belts,I had Exactfit belts fitted on my Monster as I read they are as good,if not better than standard.

Good luck and in answer to your question about the olden days....me for one!!!

Kimbo (y)
 
Many of us have used Exactfit belts mainly, I suspect for price reasons but as far as I can see they are at least as good as Ducati belts (they claim stronger?) and I don't know of any failures? but then I doubt Ducati belts fail either, at least not now and if fitted/changed appropriately - I know there were a few documented failures in the early days of 4v Ducati but I think they resolved that.

I've used them the last 2 or 3 changes on both my M900 and 916 and had no issues but, to be fair I never had any issues with Ducati belts either and I leave them significantly longer than the 2 years prescribed back in the day (though they have extended that for newer models) and the belts never look significantly worn when I remove them, I reckon I could easily squeeze a few more years/miles out of them.
 
spacemonkey said:
Hi, thanks guys! I remember you both!! What's the consensus on my genuine brand new in the box belts being OK after 10yrs or so?
Click to expand...
I'm not so sure I would trust them after 10 years,for the sake of a hundred or so quid I would get new ones.They might be perfectly ok,will be interesting to see the consensus from the other inmates on here :ROFLMAO:
 
IMO the belts wouldn't deteriorate as quickly when not fitted and I would think they'd be OK if a couple of years old but I couldn't comment on using 10 yr old 'new' belts though, personally I wouldn't use them.

I've never seen any guidance on this but I have seen guidance on tyres which, IIRC is that tyres over 10 years old are not considered safe to use or to fit (even if 'new') due to rubber deterioration but the consensus on how long they can be used for once fitted varies from 5 - 10 years.

In reality it rarely matters especially with bike tyres as they never last that long anyway.

When I bought my Guzzi, it had been part of a collection and not used much, it had tyres that were many years old, they looked OK and on test riding seemed fine but I swapped them anyway once I'd recommissioned it.

The tyres on my old Landrover, on the other hand had plenty of tread but were perished, one of them to the point that it wouldn't hold air for more than a few hours - it had been 'stored' in a field for around 8 years though...
 
Plus they might have sat on a dealer shelf for a further five years, are belts stamped with the date of manufacture?
 
take em out of tge box for a couple of hours and see if the take on a smooth round shape and visually inspect for degredation although as others have said a couple of hundred quid vs major valvetrain damage...
 
Yeah, might just fit new. Probably nowt wrong with them. The tyres were brand new Bt021 or 2s only a month old or so when taken off road. Bike was on double stands too and in the dark... will leave them on for assembly and test ride then go from there as I guess tyre tech has come on a lot in that time. What's the best sports tourer tyre nowadays equivalent of the old 02 series?
 
There will be lots of different opinions on tyres,to be honest I would think that most well known brands will work just fine.
Personally I like Michelins,the ones on my Monster were out of date and I had lost faith in them so was going to fit a pair of Michelin Road 6's but ended up with a pair of Michelin Power 6's which a good friend of mine had in stock.For certain I will never get anywhere near their limits!!
 
I would definitely change the belts (I recently changed them on my M750 .. £82 from Exactfit) but I would use the tyres that you have.
There's a lot of talk about tyres but I've always found that, for normal road use, almost any tyre suits me fine as long as the profile hasn't worn too square.
If the old ones show no sign of cracking and don't feel too hard to a fingernail test I would happily use them.
Confession .... I have a customised Honda Dominator which is still running its original front tyre from 1996 !!! Granted that's a tad extreme but the tyre seems fine (although its knobblies are rather worn down).
 
Just read the whole thread from the beginning, I hope you get the old girl back on the road.
I’ve just picked up a 93 monster M900 myself, from the for sale section on here!
 

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