Bought an old ex race 99 from a fellow in Ireland - sound motor with flowed head and running a dynojet + full race system. Looked like a sad old bus shelter from a bygone era, but for the price of a bag of coal I was in project heaven )
Here it is at the Larne ferry terminal on route to Scotland:
So once I got the bike home I set about stripping off the gubbins to see what was going on underneath - to my delight there was a decent Akrapovic full exhaust system under all of the wrap..no holes and no welds, just a slightly damaged can. The subframe on the first gen Yam's have always annoyed me considerably (why the buggery is it welded into place?!) so out came the grinder and off popped the crap! I had a 2nd gen R6 seat unit knocking about the garage so I proceeded to get the carpet tape out and stuck it on there to see what the overall aesthetic would be like to the beady eye - also cropped n sculpted the skirt of the fairing into a 3/4 job:
The R6 seat unit thang has been done to deaded in my opinion, so I scouted online for something a little different, although it had to be in the same family of Yamaha. Bingo! Came across an R1M unit and call me crazy...but I just had to purchase one so that I could pull off the fancy side flashing aero garb! I reckoned it would take me close to the RC8 unit, which it did, but then I had to whittle away the underside of it to lose a few excess moments. It worked out particularly user friendly, in comparison to the 6 unit it looks like a thoroughbred. Nice one!
As well as trimming a percentage from the underside I cropped it a bit shorter at the front and fashioned it to hug the tank..
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Carpet taped the bugger to the bike and it all started to make sense...
Now the Arty Farty bit! Cut out a couple of side plate templates in 6mm mdf to make like a faux gp-style subframe/battery cage. I wanted it to look as factory as poss so it had to slot into the existing mainframe uprights and also follow the lines of the seat unit - four small triangular billet plates will be welded onto the stems for a clean look:
Sourced a lovely little SC-Performance can and link pipe online, unused and cheap...trouble was the can was jammed so tightly into the link it took me 30mins to hammer the bugger free!
A bit of mucking around is needed to get the overall aesthetic on point..(do I sling it underneath or have it 3/4 length and kicking up?)
In the meantime the old rad is whipped off and replaced with a 'works style' all alloy unit from Poland - the usual clusterfuckery of brackets being on the piss and the fan thermostat hole missing. Fortunately I know a good alloy welder and the entire train crash was properly rectified...
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Got a bit carried away with the grinder and the 3/4 fairing suddenly found itself coming across all bikini-like! Got the skirt aligning with the underside of the seat unit so I reckon it works..
Nice one, Yan! I agree with you on the fairing front, but I wanted to see my new shiny radiator, lol!
...something kinda love/hate quirky about it now, I'll see how it looks with a decent paint scheme and then decide..
I like this combination a lot, the French always do great schemes!
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Not normally much of a 3/4 guy, and def not a bikini guy but you nailed the lines on both concepts and made me like 'em. Killing it with that tail choice, too.
skimming a bit more off the underside of the tail to give it a proper dart-like moment:
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Final cad file of the subframe off to the chaps at Precision Metals for laser cutting - I've popped some holes along the top of the side plates for seat mount brackets n cable ties, an elongated hole detail will run below the mainframe uprights for shock removal and.. proper dandy aesthetics.
On the M it looks cool with the wing things n all..and I did present it onto the old bugger, but it looked humungous..like you could get a sniper rifle through the orifices! Took the concept off to a world of..transformer-style rear meets bulbous imbalance of the year. I've always liked the KTM RC8 tail, but never witnessed a good transitional grafting due to the fact that it's also (away from the bike it belongs to) pretty darned big! On studying the M unit I realised there was a similar design moment that could be unleashed with a spot of casual discarding n cuttytitsnippitypoos!
like most Ducati, tails look great, put them on another bike and they look huge
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