Ducati Mobster

maxBetteridge

New Member
Not much of a forum user if I'm honest.. This is my first post on this site, pretty much my first post on any forum.

I'm 24, live in Auckland, New Zealand, and work as a product development engineer.
So I got my first bike just over a year ago, a suzuki GSX400. Here's the finished product:

http://www.returnofthecaferacers.com/2016/01/first-timer-gsx400-cafe-racer.html

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I might share some of the build later on in another post but for now you can see some build photos on my website:
http://www.maxbetteridgedesign.com/#!building-the-gsx400-cafe-racer/jm2qa

I bought the GSX as a project and planned to keep it. I had never ridden a bike when I bought it so I had to learn and get my licence before I could really get into the build. After I finished it I enjoyed riding it for a few weeks but realised I enjoyed the building much more than the riding so I sold it to start the next project.

In NZ we are limited to 650cc for learners licence and below a power to weight ratio. The GSX was a good compromise toward the upper end of the power to weight limit. We are also limited on the types of modifications we are allowed before it becomes a non-learner bike, hence the mods on the GSX were pretty conservative.

The new bike is a 2005 Ducati Monster:
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And here's the first concept sketch:
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It's a 400cc so it's still a learner bike. This time I want to do something which is a bit less edgy with more subtle styling. I had my first experience with fibreglassing on the GSX and was surprised at how easy it was so this time I have been talked into doing a full composite belly pan, tail, and tank. I want to use exposed basalt fiber for it's amazing colour and texture, and because it seems like nobody has really done it before. I want to make features of the frame, the engine, and the basalt and most importantly get rid of the bubbly curves and get rid of the red!

I got the bike in December, about a month ago, and I've been doing a lot of designing and planning. I finally got some good 'before' photos last weekend so I've got stuck into pulling it apart, ordering bits, and building parts. More updates on what I've already done will come soon.

Follow me on instagram for build pics @max_betteridge_design
www.instagram.com/max_betteridge_design/
 
Nice work, digin the concept bike for sure.

You must be a lightweight, that katana has a small saddle
 
Did you say your Monster is 400cc? I thought the smallest monster that year was a 620cc.
 
Welcome! I really like how that Zuki came out. Look forward to watching the Duc come around too.
 
In Newmarket then fella. Do you visit the Carbon Cafe? Some niicce scooters there mate! I try to get down once a month or so for lunch with a mate just to have a squizz
http://www.carbon-garage.com/ worth a coffee
following along, always liked the Dukes
 
The GSX looks sweet.

Concept bike could do with the tank/seat being much lower as it looks top heavy and the seat is higher than stock and looks perched. I'm sure the tank/side fairing could be made to hug the trellis frame much more. Lose the horrendous end can, for a tucked under silencer maybe?

Looking forward to your updates fella.
 
NoRiders said:
The GSX looks sweet.

Concept bike could do with the tank/seat being much lower as it looks top heavy and the seat is higher than stock and looks perched. I'm sure the tank/side fairing could be made to hug the trellis frame much more. Lose the horrendous end can, for a tucked under silencer maybe?

Looking forward to your updates fella.

I was thinking same... look closer, the seat is in the same sweet spot and only if any slightly elevated .5" maybe. Look from frame to top of ride position, it's super close.
 
kiwiguy said:
In Newmarket then fella. Do you visit the Carbon Cafe?
Hey Kiwiguy, just started looking through your build, haven't get very far through it yet but I'm seriously impressed!
Yeah those pics are in Newmarket. I'm out in Mt Wellington though. I'm a big fan of Carbon Garage! I try to get there every second Saturday if I can too. Might see you there sometime.
 
The first thing I started on was CADing up some of the bodywork too see if I could make it look nice from other angles, not just the side. I will make all of my mould plugs either from a laser-cut waffle skeleton or CNC it from foam or MDF. Either way I will eventually use these CAD models to create the parts.
I was able to find a model of the bike on Grabcad which got me started but I didn't trust it much. I know it is based on an older frame than what I've got and I know there are at least a few inaccuracies, but it was enough to make a start.
Here's a bit of the progression:
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I worked out pretty quickly that having the tank drop down below the level of the frame it would need to be REALLY wide. It would be a huge part to make a mould for (too wide for any of the CNCs I have access to I think) and the top and bottom halves of the tank would be much harder to make and to make them fit together seamlessly. So reluctantly I re-caded it to follow the top of the frame and I think I have come to qiute like the new look it gives

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I bought a 3d scanner to help me build the GSX last year so I was glad to be able to make use of it again for the mobster. When I bought it it seemed like a bit of a waste of money and time but it was awesome to have it ready to go for this project :)

The scanner is just an xbox kinect camera connected to a pc with some free software. It works pretty well but lacks a bit of fine resolution. I have found that if you scan the entire bike it will come out quite well and fairly accurate, but the definition really suffers. To get good detail you need to focus on small areas of the bike at a time and stitch them together in cad later. At the moment I am interested in the details under the tank (battery, air box etc.) so I know how big to design my new tank.

Here's the setup:
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And here's a scan of just the details under the tank:
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And finally some more CAD with the new scan:
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You can see the air box is going to have to go, and the ecu and bits around the battery will need shuffling around.

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BTW if any builders around Auckland want to give the scanner a go just flick me a message and we should be able to sort something out :) The more use it gets the better.
 
Impressive first effort. Looks like you started with a pretty complete machine. Smart move.
 
Your use of the open source Kinect stuff is pretty cool. I've got one I've been playing with. Nice work.
 
maxBetteridge said:
Hey Kiwiguy, just started looking through your build, haven't get very far through it yet but I'm seriously impressed!
Yeah those pics are in Newmarket. I'm out in Mt Wellington though. I'm a big fan of Carbon Garage! I try to get there every second Saturday if I can too. Might see you there sometime.
Thanks mate, taken some time to get to where I am at with mine, but more about the build at the moment.
your tank and seat design is the ducks nuts, love the lines and the short kick up seat, very close to what I have floating in my head for my build. You have some cool skills with the CAD mate! Are you going to run the exhaust cans like that, have you thought about something different? Perhaps make up a 1 piece muffler to run up between the rear of the engine and rear wheel?? I made a new stainless muffler for a mates 1050 Sprint that would be about that size. Just a thought. Looking forward to this build fella
 
I have been planning to keep the termi cans but almost everyone I speak to about it thinks I should get rid of them! I am planning on building everything on this in such a way that I can sell this one and easily duplicate it and build a second one almost identical. So thinking about it that way I would probably be better off designing it around a new set of cans or something custom because chances are the next one won't have the same termis on it.

Here's my problem; these exhausts sound awesome, I'm addicted to the sound and I think if someone takes it for a test ride the sound will really sell it to them. These termis are nice and deep and probably fool people into thinking it's bigger than a 400 (and considering the type of person who might buy this will be a learner who's not allowed a bike much bigger than this, I think that they'd like to fool people into thinking it is a bigger bike)

So if anyone can give me some advise on some exhaust options which will sound equally awesome and look better then I'm keen to hear them. I'm also very open to the idea of welding op my own segmented pipes in ss or something but again I'm just worried that they'll sound awful.. Am I right?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I like what this guy did, they look like they're just the cheap GP pipes you find on ebay. Would you guys think these would sound any good compared to the Termigninis I've got?
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looks like a hand made tuned exhaust to me, If it performs then the noise is Ducati Music. The classic color is spot on badass.
 
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