Bikesure_adrianflux

Selling my late-father's Unique Monster

His list of mods, from my link, doesn't mention a frame. I remember him writing about it not being straight forward and always thought it was dropped. Am I wrong? From what you guys are saying, it sounds so.
 
That link was from 2009 though.
The ally frame didn't happen until at least 3 or 4 years later.

Other later mods I can recall .....
There was a custom ally catch tank made for the cooling system which was undersized, to shed a little weight of coolant. I know this because I made the threaded bosses for the filler and delivery necks. The bike ran a special waterless coolant whose name escapes me, ( later note .. Evans' coolant ?) but was more efficient than regular water based coolants.
I believe the front discs were eventually replaced with carbon-ceramic items.
And it gained a quickshifter. I made the link rods for it ... (had to be carbon fibre of course .. with ally ends).
A titanium swingarm spindle with "diamond-like" hard coating, made by "Titanium Pete" from up north somewhere.
A titanium spring on the rear shock.
The titanium parts for the seat lock I've mentioned previously. That's actually my lock from my 750, but with the barrel swapped for his. He had already previously stripped his to chrome plate the dull zinc'd parts so we thought it better to modify my original one .. and I have his chromed original on my bike. You really can't put a value on that sort of stuff.
I'm going out on a bit of a limb here but I remember helping him refit the engine to the new ally frame and I possibly recall the engine bolts being titanium at that stage. Can't be certain.
Carbon airbox lid ... which is interesting because I managed to persuade him that materials science and economics suggested that the main airbox wasn't worth changing for carbon as the original plastic did a perfectly good job, but cosmetics suggested a fake carbon dip !! Almost sacrilege but that's what was done. Kinda the opposite of hiding the ally frame too, which was a chuckle.
The screen support struts were changed for hollow carbon fibre ones for which I made the ally end fittings. The fittings were anodised black by a club member who did really posh anodising for a living. The thing here was the pigment, which was super high quality and fade-free. Gram for gram more expensive than .... a certain white "pigment" apparently. Again, I have stuff from the same anodising batch on my 750. Still jet black.
Carbon fibre handlebars were one of the last changes. Wasn't too sure about those myself but by then Stewart had eyes for nothing less. I do know that he once considered gold anodised Renthal bars because I now have the very items fitted to my Raleigh bicycle. Too brash for the monster though (his nor mine).
 
That's a great update Jeff and fills the gap after the Capo de Tuti Capi posts. That was sign written on the tail fairing btw and means Boss of all the Bosses. We also engraved that on the memorial plaque on the bench at Wimbotsham.

I think the anodising chappie was Mr Gremlin? One time partner of Gremlin. he moved to France to set up there and as far as I know no longer has anything to do with anodising. I think he was bought out by a French company?

Good to know you inherited some of the bits and pieces that didn't make it onto his bike... The fish that John West threw out!

Are we going to try and visit the bike before it disappears?
 
Well, earlier today as I was writing the previous post, I had an unexpected thought.
How many of us would need to club together to buy it ?
I mean, if there were 12, then a grand each would be peanuts.
I doubt there would be 12, ....but 6 ? ...or 4 ?
There would obviously be complications too.
Its a daft notion ..isn't it ??

Dunno whether to post this now.

Yes, the anodising chappie was Mr Gremlin.

And yes, my bike has many little bits and pieces that didn't make the final cut, eg the Ti front spindle nut, the Ti rear caliper rod, the carbon headlight mountings, various Ti or ally fixings, The red LED array rear light. Oh, and my reconstructed Sil-Moto exhaust has a replacement section which I cut from the original std exhaust link pipes from Stewart's bike (same bore and tubing gauge, which was a happy coincidence).
It also has many items that are ex other ukmoc members ... at the last count around 20 folk had donated or sold me bits and pieces, ...yourself included. I should do a thread one day.
Its one (or many) of the hidden charms of the bike.

Still not sure whether to post the first bit.
The trouble is, the real value of that bike goes way beyond the value of the various bits and pieces.
And yet its value on the open market is difficult to pin down and it would probably be far easier to sell a std S4R.
I think that (much like my own bike, in fact) it has transcended the whole rude notion of monetary value.
I certainly know for a fact that Stewart had long since disregarded any consideration of cost.

Equally, like Lars said, no matter how special the bike is, we would all build it differently ourselves.
Again, my 750 is an illustration. Its a far, far less technically advanced build but its the bike that I built to be the way I wanted it ....and in that sense I value it higher than Capo's bike.
I would probably struggle to sell it for much more than £3k though. Good job I never will, eh ?

Its a shame that the club is not in a stronger position.
If we were like the 100HP club and had a clubhouse, it would sit very nicely on a plinth (and to be rolled out and ridden on special occasions of course).
I'm in fantasy land now.
Which is probably where this post started, ha ha.
 
Interesting point about people clubbing together to buy the bike.That would raise a lot of questions,where to keep it,who could ride it,the list goes on.Personally I would love to have it but finances and lack of storage space doesn't help.I really hope it goes to a good home

Kimbo
 
On the wall in a dealer's location? Well known track club house? They'd have to pay for it, of course.

My bike is as special, as in the distance from stock, with more focus on track and sport. Almost nothing original - it has done 268,000km. Enormously expensive, but worth nothing. I've told my friends that, when I'm gone, I want them to water/laser jet my bike in two halves and find a wall to hang it on. One half with the outside out and the other with all the internals visible.

Most of us are not sensible any longer - why ask us? 😆 😆 😆
 
utopia said:
Well, earlier today as I was writing the previous post, I had an unexpected thought.
How many of us would need to club together to buy it ?
I mean, if there were 12, then a grand each would be peanuts.
I doubt there would be 12, ....but 6 ? ...or 4 ?
There would obviously be complications too.
Its a daft notion ..isn't it ??
Click to expand...
I don't think it is a daft notion, I had similar thoughts myself.
Unfortunately I am both morally and financially bankrupt, on a state pension and have the social skills of Victor Meldrew.
Time was when I would have happily bunged a grand in the pot.

It would be worth asking round for sure, but I cringe at the the thought of the legal document needed for such an arrangement.
 
Can't help smiling at the thought of ringing up the insurance company and telling them I would like to insure my Ducati Monster S4R.......... yes sir,is it standard?..........um....hang on,I'll get my list :ROFLMAO:
 
Hmm... when buying a modified bike, left over stock parts are usually included - right? Maybe the amount of special parts means that "someone" or a group can finance the deal by building a standard bike from those parts. Maybe with a creative name :cool:

Yes, yes, I know I'm a genious :rolleyes::):geek:
 
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