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Monster 937 Build

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Durtb1ker

Member
Howdy,

This forum seems like the right place to share the spirit of modification that used to be so common in the Ducati community.

These changes all happened slowly since 2021. Initially, there was little available so the machine changed bit by bit over the last 2 years.

To begin:

Here is the bike all stock, but with the euro flush mount signals being added at delivery, and halfway home from Nebraska.

There is a hole in the clutch cover that is no longer used, I found out that the case had a crack there about 5 hours into my drive home. Ducati warrantied it.
 

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Durtb1ker

Member
The next step was to immediately remove the giant, blurry mirrors and put on a set of cheap aftermarket ones that I had in the toolbox. The mirror bolts hold on the reservoirs so this resulted in a less than smooth situation until I found the mirror block offs from corsair. There are a bunch available from other brands now, but at the time I had to do some sleuthing. In the meantime a plastic spacer from a TV stand did the trick.
 

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Durtb1ker

Member
After I picked up the bike I reached out to my old friend Simon at R&G and got on the list for frame and axle sliders. The tail wasn't ready yet so we will see that later. I like the R&G sliders because they don't have a large mount that gets into your knees. Also added a Quadlock mount for the soundtrack and nav. The bike has a usb under the seat so adding the wireless charger was easy. At this point the bike didn't have a steering damper so I put it smack in the middle of the bars which is perfect for visibility, but would be a problem later on. The bar clamp wraps all the way around the handlebars so putting the quadlock clamp there is a bit of a pain as you have to loosen the bars, position the quadlock, then tighten the bars and hope the angle is correct on the quadlock.
 

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Durtb1ker

Member
Once the R&G tail tidy arrived I picked up a set of Ducati Performance sequential led turn signals for the rear. These flash "audi-style" (mercury XR7 style if you are old!) like the fronts. This shot of the tail kit isn't great but it is much more compact than factory while retaining a little coverage since I ride this thing on the street, in the rain, through puddles, etc. Basically, it looks stock, but better.
 

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Durtb1ker

Member
With a few cosmetic changes handled. It was time to look at ergonomics. I'm a full size american, so I had ordered the "tall" seat with the bike. I installed it as soon as it arrived and it is a must have if you are over 6ft tall. The contour makes braking much more secure and I can go 300-500 miles in a day with no posterior problems. I also put a set of Rizoma billet pegs on. These are miles more secure than the rubber padded stock pegs. The rizoma adapter also raises the pegs just slightly. This bike handles sharply so extra clearance is nice, but without the taller seat they would have been a little cramped.
 

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Durtb1ker

Member
At this point the bike was a comfortable naked sport tourer and so I took a few trips down the coast. I found out pretty quick that the stock fasteners hate salty sand, and stainless replacements were nearly as costly as titanium. So I spent the winter sprinkling titanium fasteners around. And breaking a torx bit on the front brake disc bolts. For good measure and convenience I added the Shift-tech fuel cap which makes it much easier to refuel with gloves on and dropped a half a pound. It's affordable and not bad looking either.
 

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Durtb1ker

Member
Luimoto was kind enough to borrow my spare seat to make a seat cover fitment for the machine. I liked the look, but the suede was a little grippy and I was looking for something a little less flashy. So back to stock it went.
 

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Durtb1ker

Member
The factory regina chain needed adjustment every 500 miles, and just felt draggy. Maybe I got a friday chain. Since I was bored I went ahead and replaced the chain and sprockets with AFAM Superlite in the stock 520 15/43 gearing. The 937 runs cleanly much lower in the RPM than my previous Ducatis, and I spend a decent amount of time at 80+ mph so I wasn't tempted to change the gearing really. Of course the Superlite bits and DIDERV chain are handsome and don't require the same constant adjustments. I also installed a titanium rear axle from podium since I was in the neighborhood. In the oem size and pitch aftermarket bits were a little over 1/2 pound lighter. The rear axle was nearly a pound lighter.
 

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Durtb1ker

Member
A few more titanium fasteners and a surprise. When I was working on the bike I noticed the brake disc carriers are magnetic. They are steel. As you can see they did a fine job making them look identical to the higher end model which have alloy carriers. I was able to snag a set of oem take off discs from a HyperMotard 950SP which are 1.5 lbs lighter, and otherwise identical.

Note: this is all happening before the Monster SP was announced so you can imagine where this is going. The SP has the lighter carriers and and lithium battery, among other things.
 

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Durtb1ker

Member
After what seemed like an eternity, a few aftermarket slip ons were released. I didn't want to pay 4k for the Termi full exhaust because I knew I would end up getting the bike tuned and I really wanted a single exhaust cosmetically. Most of the pipes for these new bikes are E5 approved which means the DB killer isn't really meant to be removed. Or at least they need to make it a challenge. You can see the bolt that retains the exhaust tip is under the carbon cap so to access it you must drill. After a few minutes with my uni-bit the bolt head was uncovered. It is on the back side of the pipe so I fit a press in rubber firewall plug to clean up the looks. With the stock headers/cat you will need the baffle out or it sounds almost identical to stock. With the cat delete pipe the baffle out is too loud for my taste. Enter my hybrid solution from the old Arrow DB killers. Just cut the length until the sound level suits you. And so I did. FYI titanium is a real pain to cut. The slip on dropped a little over 2lbs. It didn't make a big difference to power but definitely sounds like a proper Duc.
 

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Durtb1ker

Member
At this point spring had sprung and Ohlins finally sent me the shock I had ordered the previous winter. I had to wait for a quick road trip to MOTOGP COTA and then I got to work. If you remove the swingarm caps you can buy big metric bolts at your local big-box store and that makes supporting the bike a breeze. You have to have some kind of support because on these bikes the shock mounts to the rear cylinder head and the swingarm. I didn't weigh the new ohlins but surely it is heavier than the oem unit? Either way, the difference is night and day. The bike immediately becomes aggressive as the rear is properly sprung and damped. The makes the stock setup feel like a chopper by comparison. It really turns in quickly and will come off of a corner much harder. A little tight on some of the bad roads we have, but more than worth it on the better roads. I put the podium racing titanium end caps on even though the stockers are aluminum because their head details match the other fasteners. And I prefer the allen.
 

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Durtb1ker

Member
After a few 500 mile rides I wanted to try a little windprotection so I added the Powerbronze windshield. It is the largest version. The screen makes a big difference, basically it adds 10-15mph to your comfort level. 80mph feels like 65mph or so. I didn't care for the mount which attached to the back of the gauge cluster. The screen looks great from the rider perspective but it seems tacked on from some other angles. So I removed the screen and waited for another option. I also switched to CNC Racing arrow mirrors. They are very nice, built much better than my generic ones, but I still wonder if the round would better. Such is life.

Also the long-awaited Arrow mid-pipe arrived. Deleting the cat removes 7-8 lbs of weight and makes a massive difference to sound. It turns out most of the muffling is happening there. So after a test ride, the db killer went back in. At this point there were no mapping options except for buying the full termi system so I ran it as is. It ran beautifully, no check lights, no change to temperature. These new bikes don't have a flapper valve to worry about so that was easy. And there was a noticeable difference in the 4-6k range. Much better pull down low.

At this point the bike weighs about 385lb with gas in it.
 

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Durtb1ker

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Ducabike was the first option available for rearsets. I don't ever ride with a passenger so I'd probably get the CNC racing rearsets now that they are out. They cost a bit more, but are a bit finer finished. Still, the Ducabike are pretty, adjustable, and durable. I also added a rubber cap to the rear shock mount hole in the swingarm because it comes from the factory unfinished. These pegs are adjustable and I have them about 1" higher and back from stock. I've never drug them on the street, and only came close once at COTA. These pegs are solid so they also make a good support point or tie-down location, and would act as a slider in a crash.
 

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Durtb1ker

Member
With the shock sprung for my weight the forks were next. They had good damping quality but the springs were massively light and with upgraded SBS brake pads, the dive was severe under hard braking. I waited as long as I could for Ohlins to release the NIX30 kit, but it had now been over a year so I pulled the trigger on the more affordable, and probably less compliant, Andreani setup. You can see that one leg of the forks is just a spring holder. With Andreani both sides are active. One for rebound and one for compression. They are adjustable and I run mine almost all the way out on compression and at the recommended setting for rebound. The compression is a bit harsh on crappy square-edged pot holes. But magical on the brakes and on two lane asphalt. These require the brake mount casting to be removed and re-installed so most people will have to pay a professional to install these. I recommend you pick someone who has done it before. I happened to pick someone with two of the coolest Hondas on display.

And then I took a quick ride to the channel. And it was good.
 

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Durtb1ker

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After not falling in love with the Powerbronze screen I sourced a Barracuda that mounted to the top triple and comes off easily. To add some complexity, the ohlins adjustable steering damper arrived so I had to work with the quadlock mount in order to get everything in place in a useable way. A few bits of carbon arrived as well and I picked matte twill to match the SC Project can as well as possible.
 

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Durtb1ker

Member
From the introduction of the bike I had wondered how the power curve was so massively improved from the 821 version, but the top end power was almost the same. Some of the answer is the 11 degree cams that make the engine so smooth and friendly below 4,000rpm. My last Monster was an 1100, and the torque was phenomenal but they absolutely hate to run under about 4k. The newer bike addresses this but at a cost to the top end vs the other 4 valve motors. It really is a replacement for the 2V bikes more than the S4RS in terms of personality.

Anyway, a quick spin through the microfiche showed that this ~100hp machine was breathing through a snorkel no larger than my pointer finger. Some will say the stock airbox is a carefully engineered piece and that changing it without multiple engineering studies is foolish. Well this is ducatimodified so modify I did.

After showing MWR what I was dealing with, they drew up a 3d printed replacement with much larger surface area. This was complicated by the fact that some of the electronics mount to the lid so you cannot just open it all up like the 950 Hypermotard.

The *entire bike* is bolted to the motor and the airbox is held together with *hundreds* of screws, many of them invisible to the naked eye.

God bless anyone who does a desmo service on one of these because the access takes hours. It would be faster to adjust the cams on my old 748 and I removed the engine for that!

When I do the first desmo, I will definitely be swapping in a set of 848 EVO cams. If you have a set to spare, let me know.
 

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