Bikesure_adrianflux

Weight Watchers Milestone

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Bitza

platinum with diamond studs member ;-)
Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
760
Location
Poole
Bike
M900ie
Well this is simply an update, to say that the Heap is now officially "Sub 160kgs" 159.9 sounds so much better. Back in 2019 when the bike first hit the road with the DS engine, I was very disappointed to find it weighed in at about 170gs (ready to go but no fuel) and I've been on a bit of a mission since to shred the excess weight. Have to admit that last 500gms was simply a matter of spending money on a set of CF belt covers and a front mudguard, but it all counts!
 
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Bitza said:
Well this is simply an update, to say that the Heap is now officially "Sub 160kgs" 159.9 sounds so much better. Back in 2019 when the bike first hit the road with the DS engine, I was very disappointed to find it weighed in at about 170gs (ready to go but no fuel) and I've been on a bit of a mission since to shred the excess weight. Have to admit that last 500gms was simply a matter of spending money on a set of CF belt covers and a front mudguard, but it all counts!
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Excellent work. What's next though?
 
You're getting there, A stone and half is good going.
Capo managed to shed 6 stone from his sensational S4R, but he told me it cost in the region of £30k to do so, making that bike an absolute steal at the current asking price. https://www.ukmonster.co.uk/monster/index.php?threads/selling-my-late-fathers-unique-monster.61283/

My newest ride is 220kg dry and I put 18ltrs of petrol in it the other day! Funny thing is it rides beautifully and it would be utterly pointless going on a weight saving crusade with that one.
The best investment, as we know is to chop off all the unsprung weight possible. I lost 1.7kg unsprung in one go on my Zero by losing the stupid number plate arm. I put 300g of home spun carbon on the tail to carry the number plate.
I have a cunning plan to bin about 3kg off the back wheel of the '77 Triumph Tiger, of which at least 2kg will be unsprung by binning the 2.4kg cast iron caliper and putting a 400g Brembo one on.
 
Well first it's always good to know there's someONE out there who reads my posts, so thanks David.
Re future weight saving projects, there's limited scope now. The fuel tank is the original steel one adapted to take a pump, the exhaust is all stainless (MADASL spaghetti header, home grown cans), so some potential there. I still have the original footpeg hanger brackets (rearseted and minus pillion pegs) so could make forged CF versions but they are relatively big and complex with threaded bits. The last area is under serious consideration, which is to replace most of the back end with an all in one CF version. Absolute max total savings must be 7kgs?
 
CF seat base with hollow pillion hump?
Or have you already got your battery there?
 
Maybe already done so? but lighter wheels will give the biggest benefit of weight loss and there is significant scope if you still have OEM wheels - can get expensive though.
 
Have considered CF seat base but not sure how to affix cover, on plastic it's held on with staples. (yes battery is in the hump).
Re wheels have fitted BTS CF ones (bargain Triumph versions).
 

don’t know if he’s still making cf parts?speaks pretty good english, i haven’t spoken to him for a few years. lou s cannon and i met him on our german travels in 09
 

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dacs said:
How about a project to see how much weight you could ADD to it? 🤭
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Easy..
I've got a nice long pillion seat you could ride on, then I could bolt a nice big comfy sidecar on, so Her Radiance The Lady Dacs could come along too. It would only remain to fill the sidecar boot with a luxurious picnic and we'd be getting there.. 🫣
 
Bitza said:
Have considered CF seat base but not sure how to affix cover, on plastic it's held on with staples. (yes battery is in the hump).
Re wheels have fitted BTS CF ones (bargain Triumph versions).
Click to expand...
My Suzuki has a fiberglass seat pan and the cover is fixed with glue and rivets.
 
Impressed with the fit between seat and tank achieved by Mr Michel, but in my case I'm trying to keep it looking close to the look of the "Original Monster" that I fell in love with back in 98 (but of course much lighter).
 
Re weighing the bike, a simple way is with two bathroom scales to balance the bike on, then just add the two measurements. (you really need assistance to balance the bike and to take the readings.)
For me I have a friend with pukka weigh scales, the same idea but probably more accurate.
Oh yes I also empty the petrol to make comparisons easier.
 
we used to use one bathroom scale at the last mot place i worked at... but the same approach, weigh both ends and add results. they had a little ramp arrangement to assist rolling on/off and keep everything level.
 
I also use the weigh one end at a time technique and have a ramp to get onto the quite fancy digital scales I bought for that purpose. Good for weighing ebay parcels too..

Not Monster I know but I weighed the 1977 Triumph Tiger before and after fitting twin discs on the front. I gained a mere 200 grams and a fantastic stopper.
Going to set about the rear brake when I have a break from riding it. Hoping to save in the region of 3kg with that exercise.:p
 
Mr Gazza said:
I also use the weigh one end at a time technique and have a ramp to get onto the quite fancy digital scales I bought for that purpose. Good for weighing ebay parcels too..

Not Monster I know but I weighed the 1977 Triumph Tiger before and after fitting twin discs on the front. I gained a mere 200 grams and a fantastic stopper.
Going to set about the rear brake when I have a break from riding it. Hoping to save in the region of 3kg with that exercise.:p
Click to expand...
Oh right, were they still using actual ship's anchors back then?
 
Without looking in the book for what Triumph claimed back in the day, my very standard Tiger weighed 191.2kg with a full tank and the standard single front disc.
In that trim the front was 86kg and the rear 105.2 with an empty leather tool roll on the rear @500g

After the conversion the front is 86.2kg and the rear 104.9 without the tool roll. Total 191.1.

The standard lockheed cast Iron caliper weighed 2.283kg complete with pads and pins and with the chrome steel cover came to 2.398kg
The two new alloy Girling callipers weighed in at 1.772kg together but without pads.
Standard disc is about 2kg and the new ones are 2.936kg for the pair.

I tried to shave the conversion down to as close to the weight or lower than the original as I could by substituting Ti fasteners wherever I could, but not possible with some of the imperial sizes.
The discs are retained by four long steel 3/8" through bolts (about 4 1/2") which I changed to M10 Ti bolts and clawed back loads on bolts of that size, but can't find the figures right now, it was big numbers, if you want to talk orange!
I seem to remember working out that the gain would be about 400g with the conversion, but I've only gained 200g according to the scales, so it's worked out very well I think. The big plus is the improved rideability with the now excellent stopper, and the much better balance to the front end.

I've got moulds I made about 40 years ago for '60's era side panel and dummy oil tank. I hope to make some carbon panels from those, or modified moulds and will probably lose a couple of kilos, but it's no challenge really on a bike like this as they built them to last in them days! :D
 
I used to use the old bathroom scales that my parents threw out sometime in the early seventies.
Still do in fact.
But I once had a friendly "issue" with Capo when I claimed that my monster weighed in at 165kg.
He disputed the accuracy of my method (one wheel at a time) and the bathroom equipment.
His S4R had most recently tipped the scales at JHP Ducati Coventry at around 158kg if I remember correctly .... but featured titanium, carbon and magnesium everything at a "no expense spared" cost.
My M750 was relatively peanuts, and it makes me smile to remember that was the order of things.
It was almost accepted that I should graciously concede that my 165kg figure must be way optimistic.
And Stewart had since fitted his aluminium frame .... so a weigh-in was on the cards.
That's how I came to have a pair of China's best, heavy duty, digital hanging scales.
Stewart arrived on the bike one day, bringing the aforementioned scales and we strung both bikes up in turn from the big beam in my garage.
My bike registered pretty much exactly 165kg. I tried to be as humble about that as I could.
Stewart's S4R clocked 153kg that day, as I have mentioned before. Stunning for a water-cooled, single sided, 4-valver.


By the way, Gary.
When you say "it was big numbers, if you want to talk orange" I presume you mean bigly big. Probably bigger than anything else has ever been in the history of bigness ?
 
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