Bronze Monster

How it started

A boy's dream

When I was a young kid, I always dreamed of owning a Ducati.

Both the yellow 748 and a Monster Dark remain etched in my memory after having them as posters in my room.

The 748 (and its big brother, the 916) is the most beautiful bike ever made, period. The Monster is the one and only mother of all naked bikes.

Ducati Monster 600 (1998) & Ducati 748 (1994) - © Ducati brochure

Enter midlife crisis

Or so they claim... I just see it as finally having the time & financial resources :D

I noticed early model Monsters were available for a relatively low price on the second hand market.

So what started as "I'm just taking a look" inevitable became "honey, look what I bought":

A 2001 Monster 900ie in the recognisable Ducati yellow.

I didn't like the abundance of yellow parts, so I downscaled the look back to a more eye pleasing naked bike, which I called "Ill bombo mostro" or the monster bumblebee.

How it transformed

Engine revision & general maintenance

As the engine reached 60,000 km it was time for a complete revision. Might as well give it a full checkup & service while we're at it. So I dropped my precious bumblebee off at MotoCura.

The dreams didn't fade, they just changed colour

As it often goes, when a dream (owning a Ducati) is fulfilled, a new desire quickly arises in the back of ones head.

The yellow look appealed to me for the 748 model, but not so much for the Monster. The Dark in matte black somehow always looked iconic to me. My bumblebee had the magnesium bronze trellis frame and wheels, so that got me thinking...

What if I had all yellow parts repainted black. And what if I got hold of the correct magnesium bronze colour code and did some extra details in that colour as well.

The colour code is a challenge. Several sources giving different information. Plus the fact that the parts of the bike changed due to exposure to the elements. No way I was going to be able to match newly painted parts with existing parts.

Difficult choice, but since the engine was out already, I opted for a complete strip. Every last nut, bolt & o-ring was disassembled and taken away for painting.

All parts were taken to No Limit Custom Creations for cerakoting. For black, we opted for E-100 Blackout and C-138 Jet Black (whether it could be cured at high temperature or not); for bronze we went for the C & H-148 Burnt bronze.

Transformation from the Bumblebee to a Bronze Monster

Several trips back & forth between Motocura and NLCC happened over a period of 1.5 years. Meanwhile, we opted for some changes of parts as well.

Just some of the changes, I'm sure I'm forgetting some:

The headlamp got a Xenon LED bulb. The dry clutch got exposed with an STM titanium 'cover' (if you can still call that thong a cover :D). All hoses & fluid lines were swapped out for black ones. The SilMotor carbon high exhausts stayed but got DB-killers. A custom licence plate holder was made. The tail light was replaced with a smoked version. Front & rear indicators got replaced by Motogadget M-blaze mini versions. The inner fork tubes got covered. The fuel reservoirs got swapped for Brembo smoked versions. The clutch slave cylinder got upgraded to the Oberon Performance one. The mickey mouse mirrors replaced by bar-end mirrors. The chain was replaced by a black one.