Thankfully I’m not the only one who has seen the potential in Ducati’s Monster. However, unlike me, he actually went ahead and built one. That someone is none other than fellow blogger and Ducati connoisseur Patrick Flynn of ‘The Bullitt’.
“I’ve always loved the Ducati Monster and had been eyeing them off for a long time. I picked up the Bullitt 821 while working at Ducati North America soon after finishing up a Hypermotard SP build,” says Pat.
During his time at the Ducati dealership, Pat put together an elaborate plan for the rebuild of his Monster. The concept was to create an ‘821 R’ using design influences and a few parts from Ducati’s revered Panigale R. The idea involved chopping up a Panigale fuel tank and mating it to the base of the Monster tank to adapt the Panigales lines to the Monster chassis. This would then be accompanied by a redesigned, Panigale influenced tail end, carbon wheels, a single-sided swingarm, and Öhlins all round. As these things tend to go, however, the plan took a different direction after Pat changed his place of employment.
Once it was decided that the Panigale tank transplant wasn’t going to happen the original Monster fuel tank was retained. This didn’t stop Pat from continuing to take inspiration from the Panigale though. “I absolutely love the raw aluminum and gloss paint combo on the “R” tank. I could stare at it for hours!” He confesses. “I teamed up with fellow Bay Area Ducati Owners Club member, Ronnie Simmons, on the paint. We ended up stripping the Monster tank completely bare and then applying a Panigale R inspired paint scheme. Opting for gloss black over the classic red and adding bronze accents to match the finish of the engine and swingarm.”
The Ducati logos on the fuel tank were masked out before laying down the black paint to give them the same raw finish as the stripe down the spine of the bike. Since the tail is made from composite materials Pat and Ronnie had to mix a color as close to the tank’s alloy as possible.
“I was really into Motodemic’s headlight conversions for some time and thought the Bullitt 821 was a great candidate. Working with Motodemic’s owner, Brad, we made a custom solution utilizing a round Triumph bucket. It pays homage to the original Monsters.” Pat finished his headlight conversion by applying a mix of gloss and satin black paint that ties it in seamlessly with the rest of the bike.
To extract some additional horses from the 821cc Testastretta engine Pat fit the bike with a Competition Werkes slip-on exhaust. Once again to ensure the aftermarket system looked right at home on the bike he de-badged the muffler before having the entire system ceramic coated in burnt bronze to match the swingarm and engine cases. Since the Competition Werkes badge was finished in red he contacted them to arrange a specially made, raw aluminum version that tied in with the rest of his design and satisfied his fastidious requirements.
Although the idea of an entire Öhlins overhaul had been terminated Pat still retrofit a Monster 1200S Öhlins shock in the rear. To get it to fit right he used a Dremel to notch the rear wheel hugger and had the yellow spring repainted black. Since Pat’s big on carving up the Californian canyons he also added a set of Ducabike billet rear sets for improved road clearance and ditched the passenger pegs. Pat shares our view on stock motorcycle indicators (big and unsightly) so the Monster now runs a very discrete set of fork tube mounted indicators up front and an eliminator kit out back from the crew ay New Rage Cycles.
The finished bike is something that could easily be described as subtle. In fact, to the untrained eye, the Bullitt 821 could easily be mistaken with being a bike that rolled straight out of the Ducati factory in Bologna. That may seem like a fruitless exercise to some, but to us, it’s proof of a job well done. Pat’s now looking to sell his 821 R to fund his next project which he tells us will be of a different Italian flavor, namely a Moto Guzzi which we can’t wait to see. If you’re interested in buying the Monster 821 you can contact Pat here.
