A goodbye to my friend Jessi Combs— educator, welder and fabricator, land speed record holder, motorcycle builder, TV show host, off-road racer, Queen of the Hammers, beautiful, bad ass, intelligent woman.
Goodbye Jessi Combs- Legend, Leader, Lady
Monster Project: Phase 4
I have slacked so hard updating the Monster Project. Maybe it’s because now that I’ve done all I can do, I’m playing the waiting game. I found a really great place to rest and wait…
I have many plans for my monster. Amongst the most important were the new front end and dual disc brake conversion. So, Phase 4 included removing the front wheel to put attach the dual rotors as to make sure they fit and work with the stuff already there. Honestly, this was not a necessary step… but I needed to return my single rotor to the guy I got my parts from. He swapped me a set for the price of one rotor and my loner in trade.
Phase 5 commenced the day after, which included removing the back wheel to change the sprockets and replace the really, really worn out chain. Will post that update very soon.
Pictures and video from Phase 4 below.
Got her up on the front stand and pulled the axle.
Sometimes “man’s work” sure can be vulgar…
Pulling the rod made my hands all dirty…
It’s crazy the difference in size between the new axle to the old one. The 748 is much more beefy, makes me feel a little bit more secure. Not that my whopping 125 lbs is going to put a lot of stress on it or anything, but hey…
This superbike front end conversion process has not been an easy one. Knowing very little about Ducati’s myself, let alone sport bikes, I’ve found it very difficult to learn how to tell what will fit with what. I’ve begun to catch on, but I am still left wide-eyed and overwhelmed when searching for a part or figuring out what kind of customizing I can do on a budget.
Given that this bike is named the Monster, one would think there would be a decent amount of parts for customizing such a bike. There are seemingly few aftermarket parts for bikes this old (sounds hilarious to say that about a 1998), and the ones that do exist are rather pricey. It isn’t surprising to me that a Ducati part will ding the wallet, but none the less one would think with a bike over 10 years old, there’d be some kind of price decrease.
Preparing the rod for re-insertion…
After putting it all back together, I am thinkin’ dual brakes are going to be not only safer, but damn good lookin’.
The audio from the phone cam in the garage is not so good, but none the less… here she is. I cross my fingers hoping to god I reconnected everything correctly after I cleaned the carbs. 😉 This is, I believe, the third time she’s started in over a year, almost two.
Running and revving just a little bit.
Posted on June 22, 2011 in Motorcycles by Alicia Mariah Elfving