Cutting bits off my Monster!

mholc123 - its your bike, you do as you see fit. I must admit on my '93 M900 when I decide to chop stuff, I source a S/H part, chop that and bubble-wrap the original. Possibly why I have shelves of M900 parts!

Been a while since I updated this and in a way there hasn't been any progress made on either rear sets or exhaust.

I decided to buy a 'spare' pair of exhausts to do my cutting on. Blah Blah helpfully supplied them even though he was horrified that I was going to attack them .

Well wrapped


Mmmm lovely parts to chop up!


But first I need to fit them so I know where to chop.



Which reveals a problem. My bike has a tail chop but a kind of half hearted one. The guy adapted the old plastic tea tray and I really never liked it. It has to go so there's no point cutting the pipes to that. I need to cut them to the line of a more drastic chop.



Which is difficult to do until I've actually done that!

Originally Posted by DrD

mholc123 - . I must admit on my '93 M900 when I decide to chop stuff, I source a S/H part, chop that and bubble-wrap the original. Possibly why I have shelves of M900 parts!

Yes, at the moment I'm doing everything with an eye to reverting to standard but I have plans and they are in the non undoable area.

[gary tompkins]

Not much frame left to cut off looking at the last picture

That's as short as mine is

looks about the same as my tail chop - I shortened my termis to 14" to prevent the dreaded 'wheelbarrow effect'

Originally Posted by gary tompkins

Not much frame left to cut off looking at the last picture

That's as short as mine is

It's as short as the metal frame is going (for now, but I have plans ). The plastic tea tray still sticks out so I needed to get rid of that. As the rear light, the indicators and the number plate light all attached to it I had to put away the hacksaw and chisel, hold my chin and have a bit of a think up...

[utopia]

Just a thought, to add to your list.......
I always think that shortened oval cans look a bit disproportioned.
Round cans would be ok to shorten, but to my eye oval ones look oddly stubby when they're cut down.
And then there's the noise. My oval pipes are really a tad too loud without baffles, in my opinion. Shortened pipes would be louder, so you might be tempted to fit baffles to restore/reduce the volume level....but I bet that the engine would run better with the longer, unbaffled pipes. ie. the longer, unbaffled cans would be a better way of controlling the noise than the shorter ones with baffles.
So I was wondering, if you have a spare set of hi-level extension pipes with the spare cans (and I think you do) then is it worth considering shortening those rather than the cans ?
I imagine it would be easier too, although you'd obviously need the services of a welder who could do a neat job on stainless. I'm sure you'd find an exhaust builder somewhere nearby who could do a good job though. I guess you'd cut off the end section that fits to the can, then remove the chosen amount before welding the end bit back on, possibly with a tweek to the angles. Maybe new spring hooks too.
Your heat shields probably wouldn't fit anymore, though I wonder whether you could even get away with cutting them down in a similar way, and relaminating the halves back together on the reverse side. The join would show if you left them in bare carbon, but if it was a neat join, refinished and lacquered on the face side, I don't think that would matter, in fact it might even add to the home modded look in a positive way ...and though they're carbon they don't need to have any particular strength. Or you could spray them in black, high temp paint.

Anyway those were my thoughts as I read the thread, so I thought I may as well chuck them into the melting pot.

I guess a further advantage might be that std length cans would look less likely to get you pulled than short ones which stand out visually as maybe not quite legal.

Yeah, shorten the link pipes.

[gary tompkins]

The cans are too long but the link pipes are part of the problem on DP pipes too

The ones on my Sil's have a taller link pipe with tighter bends, which lifts the can higher and tucks it in next to the suspension hoop. The shorter round can fits fine with the chopped rear end, but they are very loud without DB killers. The oval cans you have would probably foul the suspension hoop if you chopped the link pipes. Which is another reason the round cans work better. As for the rear light indicators you will need to fabricate a plate (mine is 3mm alluminium) to hold numberplate. It bolts on to the old tea tray mounts on frame. I also added some angle brackets to the numperplate hanger to mount the rear light.

I agree, apart from the noise bit. I think my pipes are too quiet at the moment. It's mainly to reduce the wheel barrow effect but noisier is a good secondary reason to cut the pipes down. Link pipe shortening is also a possibility but I don't have the tools or skills so would need to farm the work out and as I see this as just a stop on the journey rather than the end game I'd prefer to keep costs down (as if that will happen!)

But none of the above can happen until I've sorted the rear and got it how I want it. Then I can measure cans, pipes etc.

So I decided to junk everything I had which meant new lights and indicators. It also meant fabricating something to hang them off. I started looking at how others had done it and got some ideas. Decided I wanted a clean, minimal look. Whatever did show I wanted to look like it was supposed to be there. On some bikes when I looked closely you could see exactly how it had been done. Brackets and wires etc. Fine because no one normally looks closely but I get CDO about some things and wanted it all hidden. Bearing in mind that I'm a complete amateur at this sort of thing. I can usually make things work but making them work well, be the size and shape I intended or look pretty tends to be beyond me. I needed a simple clean easy solution.

So I bought a rear LED cheap from eBay (via China) and some Oberon indicators from Funkatronic. I grabbed some cardboard (couldn't find any cornflakes or weetabix boxs but I muddled through) and started cutting. Once I'd got a basic Idea I order some ally angle.

And this


Became this




Then the obligatory satin matt

I'd had my eye on the Oberon indicators and when Funk sold a set I grabbed them. Ideally I'd wanted black but nothing a bit of satin matt can't fix



But lovely, well made, solid pieces though they are I decided they were the wrong shape for the general direction I was going for. When some Oxford Nano's caught my eye I went for them and sold the Oberons on. Smallest legal indicators apparently.

Tiny things


Rear light

The indicators attach with 8mm thread. So I drill 8.2mm holes obviously. But Oxford have seen fit to use connectors that are much bigger than 8mm. They also say the guarantee is void if you cut the wires.



But an email to Oxford customer services was replied to with permission to cut and keep the warranty

Done!


Quite a difference. And a weight saving as well, nearly a whole kilo. By my maths this should push 0-100mph to 2.5 seconds and top speed to around 250mph when you factor in the well known scientific principle that looking good makes it go faster!



I like that it is all in one unit. Undo 2 bolts and disconnect the wiring and the whole lot comes out. Would be useful for track days, if I did track days.





Nice simple number plate bracket




And done



Oddly one indicator very slightly touched the seat cowl. Nothing to do with my bracket, either the seat or the cowl or the frame was a mm or 2 out.

[damien666]

Just a thought for the wiring; have you seen the AMP sealed connectors ( got mine off e-bay ), which are the same as other factory connectors on mine. Available in 2,3,4,5 way etc. They look very pro fit and dissconect even quicker, easier.

I actually just bought some the other week for a project I'm doing on the front. I do intend tidying up the wiring eventually and they will be perfect. At the moment it's easily put back to standard with the current connectors. If things carry on the way they are going I'll be giving up on that pretty soon

So tail tidy done I could now start measuring and cutting. But for a variety of reasons including some of those mentioned above by various sages I'd kind of gone off the idea of cutting them down. It felt like a bit of a half measure, a temporary stop on the way to where I wanted to be. I wanted a QD under engine or the like. I'd seen PaulR's RR exhaust and it just cleans up the rear so nicely. £900 QD is a bit over budget though.

So if anyone wants to buy a pair of high level DP/Remus alloy cans with down tubes, carbon guards etc as pictured above PM me

I have some new plans exhaust wise so if they come to fruition the titanium DP/Remus cans will be for sale too in a few weeks.

There is rear set news though. Stevooo's immaculate garage revealed a set he'd bought for his planned DD bike and they were cheap so I grabbed them. Will upgrade to a hot looking set from Pomp once I start working again but these ones are nice and the simplicity fits with the clean look I want.

Have only fitted the right hand side so far. The brake lever seems to sit under the clutch cover quite a lot so I've spaced it out as far as I dare. It won't actually touch because it is underneath but is still not clear. Will ride it a while and adjust as needed.

Had to buy a 10x1 banjo bolt switch for the rear light. I was dreading this bit as I usually have a nightmare bleeding brakes. Last time i spent 4 days trying to get a Peugeot scooter rear brake bled! It all went strangely well. Not road tested yet as it was wet but there is feel there. I did push it up and down the yard a bit and manage to get it to lock up so signs are good.

Switch not connected yet

[utopia]

One point worth watching is that there is still a little free play between the brake lever and the master cyl operating rod.
Grab the rod and jiggle it (yes, I know, open goal) to check that there's some free movement with the brake lever at rest.

Oh, and the paraffin trick for cutting ally that I was talking about works well to stop files clogging too ...just in case you're doing any more custom bits. You only need the merest smear though.
Tail tidy work looks quite, er ....tidy.