New M600 owner saying hello

[Albie]

Oh man that sucks. Really sorry to hear.

[sram]

Thanks for the sympathy all
I'll be calling Welcome Break tomorrow to see if their CCTV was working (hands up who thinks it was?). I am not holding my breath.

Originally Posted by SteveG

I'm guessing by the extent of the damage that it didn't just do the old Ducati "fall off the rubbish side stand" trick? .. either way best of luck going forward and welcome to the forum. Enjoyed your posts ( the intro ones anyway...)
Steve

Is this a 'thing'? In the months I've been wheeling my original Monster in and out of the garage to work on it, it's never given me the impression that it could topple over by itself. I parked on level ground and, although it was raining, I think the bike was very secure. If I knew that it had fallen over by itself I wouldn't be that upset. I guess there is that chance, but I'd say the likelihood is that someone bumped it as they were pulling into or reversing out of the spot to the right of me.

I was out at the garage this morning to assess the damage and I've found the following so far:

Gear change bent in some wonderful ways
Clutch lever snapped
front l/h indicator shattered and the plastic yoke mount locating pin sheered off and stuck in the yoke
l/h exhaust scratched
l/h grip a bit chewed up
l/h end weight dented
horn button not pressing in or working
l/h mirror scratched
and of course the dent in the l/h side of the tank

I've ordered an indicator but if anyone else has some of the other bits then please drop me a message. I'll take apart the l/h switch assembly over the next couple of days and see if I can fix the horn switch rather than having to replace the whole thing. A genuine Brembo clutch lever would be a nice find. I've seen one in the States for £10 plus about the same shipping. Some UK sellers want £80 for one!

Has anyone tried using one of the paintless dent removal places to remove dents from the tank? I know that access is restricted, but I've seen some stuff online that shows it's possible. Just wondered if anyone had any personal experience or recommendations?

The AA man lashed the bike to the flatbed using nylon straps. He put one through each footpeg hanger and began ratcheting down on them. I winced and said "those brackets are only aluminium" and he said "don't worry, they're very strong"... I looked this morning and the paint has rubbed off of both brackets where the straps were :|

Fortunately, having two identical bikes means that this morning I was able to pinch parts of the non-running bike in order to get the new one ridable again

Now then, could someone please hurry spring along?

[sram]

Originally Posted by utopia

Damn.
On the conking out .. at this time of year a carby monster will suffer carb icing.
The symptoms are mostly duff running at tickover, plus a reluctance for the throttle to shut after a period of constant, steady throttle.
This could well have been the cause of your conking out and quite probably it would have started up fine after you'd warmed yourself up.
The solution is to dose the fuel with pro.fst from silkolene .. and using premium fuel with low ethanol content is said to help (though mine still ices nevertheless, unless I dose the fuel).
Ducati did fit oil-heated and electrically heated systems but neither really work (mine has the electric).
Oh, and it doesn't need to be all that cold ... a damp day can often be the worst.

Anyway .. congratulations on the new bike.
Get yourself a nice paint job maybe ?
Or post some pics and we'll tell you if the tank on the other one will fit.
Are they perchance both red ? ..the odds say that's likely.

Sorry, I should have been clearer on that. The conking out could certainly have been carb icing, but when I attempted to restart, the starter motor wasn't turning the engine over. The instrument lights dimmed when I pushed the starter button and there was a definite almost humming noise, but it didn't actually turn over. When I tried to start it this morning the battery was fairly flat but it did turn over slowly. It wouldn't catch and then the battery died within a few attempts. I then swapped out the recently charged battery from the other bike and it started almost instantly. I'm beginning to wonder if the battery wasn't charging on yesterday's journey :/ I'll have to check it out with my meter.

As for some details on the new bike - I saw it come up on ebay on 30 Dec and I thought 'bloody typical, this is the kind of bike I was searching for 6 months ago'. That night I couldn't sleep, I kept thinking about the bike. I met up with a friend for breakfast on New Year's Eve and we did some man maths. He said it was silly not to buy it and of course I agreed. The plan is to carry on with my light restoration of the original Monster and then try and recoup as much money as possible by selling it. I tell you, the amount of time I've put into it so far, it will make a bloody nice bike for someone!
The new Monster has come with a wealth of history. It has the original sales receipt (to an Italian living in Manchester!) and loads of other cool bits. Original owners manual (searched high and low to find one for mine), brochures, magazine road tests from the era, etc etc. With only 4000 odd miles on the clock, it's going to help me keep it in good condition and also not to ride in all weather (sorry if I am wimping out here). Once I'm down to one from the current three bikes I may once again visit the option of a Honda hack for the mundane journeys in rain.
I was considering keeping two Monsters and maybe redoing the tatty one as a yellow M600. Unfortunately, I don't think funds will allow me to have two Ducatis at the moment!!!

Cheers all

[utopia]

Check your reg/rec.

https://www.electrosport.com/media/p...ng-diagram.pdf

And post a pic of the lever that you require .. I'll see if it matches my old ones.

I've tried diy paintless dent removal.
That didn't work for me but my dent was on a contoured section on the edge of the knee cutaway.
If your dent is on a flat area, its worth a try.
Or professional paintless dent removal, which has more scope, but again not best suited to anything other than uniform, shallow dents with smooth edges.

[Albie]

I have a gear lever and also a left hand exhaust from early model. I know it was better condition than the right hand side. Look at my thread of how to fit the indicator mount location pin using the bottom part of a black number plate screw.
The horn assembly probably needs just checking by opening it up and seeing if the spring is displaced.

[sram]

Originally Posted by Albie

Look at my thread of how to fit the indicator mount location pin using the bottom part of a black number plate screw.

My search foo is failing me. I can't find this thread, could you please give me some pointers? I also searched your blog for indicator but didn't have much luck there either.

[SteveG]

Originally Posted by sram

Is this a 'thing'? ?

Hi sram - maybe not in your case, but not unknown for stand issues, mine went over once but luckily was in gear and landed on the side of the wife's car. Another time I caught it just in time as it sank into the Tarmac ( that was at an M-way service station come to think of it...)

Put " Side stand fall " into the search bar on forum for some hints. It may not be relevant to your situation of course.
Good luck with the fixes.

[NattyBoy]

Bit of a rollercoaster read this but good to see your enthusiasm shining through mate - wishing you an enjoyable monstering year !

[Albie]

Originally Posted by sram

My search foo is failing me. I can't find this thread, could you please give me some pointers? I also searched your blog for indicator but didn't have much luck there either.

Here you go for you I made a thread.

http://www.ukmonster.co.uk/monster/s...463#post521463

[sram]

Thanks Albie!

A couple of pics of bits that aren't yet in the bin:





I might attempt to correct the gear lever, but it appears to have been bent in such a bad way that's it's actually wavy!
If anyone has a Brembo lever in good condition I could buy, that would be fab. I can get a non-Brembo identical looking one for a tenner, but I'd rather have an original just to try and keep the bike in the condition I received it.

[utopia]

I have a genuine clutch lever in good nick.
I absolutely refuse to sell it to you though.
Drop me a pm with your address and I'll post it.

On the gear lever .. its not as bad as you might think because it should have a "dog-leg" bend in it anyway.
The cross section is very oval, so they bend easily sideways.

Woo this is getting scary. Having commented when you first got your bike about my similar experience with my purchase in the summer I then threw it gently down the road in January this year and took out most of the same parts as you have. Is there some weird parallel universe thing going on? I managed to bend the handlebars most significantly to boot. I am somewhat less fastidious about it at the moment as I will see if I can get it to run properly before I throw a lot of money at improving the appearance.

[utopia]

If you need new bars, Renthal ultra lows are very close to pattern of the original monster bars, are anodised ally and probably cost about the same or perhaps even less than the originals.
You would need to drill holes in the right place for the location pegs on the switch units though ... and this can be tricky.
Some folk simply cut off the location pegs but I wouldn't recommend that myself.

Sram, welcome from another new boy! Sad to read about your poor luck though...a thought on that one... how about using a pattern part or two to help get it up and running and save the original parts as and when you source them for a future date? Have done a bit of that with mine, like using secondhand indicators and also buying NOS items! All the best fella!

Thanks Utopia, that is plan B. I managed to order a secondhand Ducati set off the internet but they may have been lost in the post. The buyer and I are searching for it. I have gathered all the other parts.