Some of you saw my original thread:
http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=3104.0Well, I got my bike back together and I'm finally back on the road! What should have been a simple project, turned out to become more than I originally planned. When I started to take my bike apart, the plan was to black it out by getting some parts powdercoated; however, the project evolved into much more...
First some before pics: 
After: Black Gold!
I wanted to do something a little different with the swingarm. Instead of powdercoating it, I decided to polish and anodize it to match the deep gold color of my CRG levers. The polishing was a ton of work, but after getting it back from the anodizer, I realized it was worth it. To keep the swingarm from getting nicked, I went with a Shift-Tech carbon hugger.
While I had the swingarm off, it was a perfect time to upgrade the Sachs shock. An Ohlins gold shock was the obvious choice to keep with the theme, but I found a great deal on an S4R Showa adjustable shock, I decided to use the $$$ I saved to buy some other bling - like the gold sprocket nuts, Sato rearsets, and the Rizoma billet CF sprocket cover.
Since I upgraded the rear suspension, I needed to upgrade the front as well. I sent the Marzocchis to Jason at Dept. of Suspension and he installed the Matris cartridge kit and anodized the fork tubes while he was at it. I think the fork and swingarm really balance each other out. The stock silver tank decals no longer matched, so a heat gun to remove them and some ol' skool gold decals in their place.
Now that the bike is pretty much blacked out, the stainless pipes on the Zards seem out of place. I'm thinking ceramic coating this winter. I also have a pair of 4-pad calipers and 320mm rotors to install, but I didn't feel like waiting for new brake lines, so they too will have to wait for this winter.
The windscreen helps when riding on the freeway, but I like the look without it; I guess I'll ride it this way for a bit. I like the barend mirrors the best when the windscreen is removed, so CRG LS it is. DP billet signals replace the bulky stockers and a DP diversion fender wraps the front tire. When I reinstalled the triples, I took the opportunity to upgrade to tapered bearings.
All in all, I'm really happy the way it turned out. Although it took much longer than I would have liked, at least I can say I did most of the work myself. Now that I have the confidence, I'm going to tackle the 6k valve adjustment pretty soon!
