Turbo Monster

TURBO MONSTER

Duck of a different feather

IF YOUR DUCATI MONSTER IS BEGINNING TO FEEL A bit dull of tooth, if your 900 or 750SS needs a boost, Personal Cycle Services sells a $4000 turbocharger kit that’ll truly make your Duck truck. PCS owner Tony Foster invited CW to have a taste of the Daytona Beach shop’s latest force-fed hotrod, a tastefully tweaked M-900.

Now, before dismissing turbocharging as just some bad idea abandoned by the major motorcycle manufacturers back in the early ’80s, understand that a lot has changed since those bad ol’ days. Turbos have gained widespread acceptance in the automotive sector, and benefited from years of refinement.

Mike Lee of High Gear Specialties, the man behind the development of PCS’s turbo kit, credits oil-seal technology as a major factor in improved turbo efficiency. According to Lee, not only has this eliminated the oil consumption and smoking associated with older turbos, but the latest seals also induce less drag on the turbine. The result is improved throttle response and a more linear increase in boost. A far cry from the infamous turbo-lag of yore.

Modern turbos have become more compact as well, making clean integration on a motorcycle much easier. Another key feature of the turbo unit selected by PCS (594 Ballough Rd., Daytona Beach, FL 32114; 904/2532586) is its integral exhaust wastegate. Built right into the turbine housing, the wastegate not only makes for a tidy package, but routes bypass gas back into the exhaust system downstream of the turbine so no tell-tale stains are left on boots or bike from spewed exhaust.

Because the PCS kit is a blow-through system-which means intake air passes through the turbo compressor before reaching the carburetors-the stock airbox and carbs are retained. While the kit includes the necessary custom-bent exhaust pipes (available in either ceramic-coated mild steel or stainless), it makes full use of the stock mufflers-or aftermarket slip-ons. Also, the rear cylinder’s stock headpipe is utilized to ease installation.

The kit includes everything needed to make the conversion something even the mechanically challenged can tackle. According to PCS, no more than an afternoon in the garage and standard tools are required. Foster and Lee also point out that not a single stock bracket on the bike need be modified, a real bonus if an owner should decide to return the bike to stock form.

Therein lies the real beauty of turbocharging compared with building horsepower through more conventional, laborintensive methods. With the PCS turbo, there’s no need to split your Duck open and fiddle with its innards. No call to bore cylinders, fit high-compression pistons or high-lift cams. Simply bolting on the turbo kit, and rejetting the Monster’s stock Mikunis with the supplied Factory jets, produced 104 peak rear-wheel horsepower on the bike we rode. That’s a 50-percent increase over stock with a relatively conservative 5 pounds of boost and running on pump gas.

Pretty astounding, I thought to myself as I prepared to venture into the Florida outback to experience a bit of boost firsthand.

Punching the starter button brings the Monster immediately to life. A few blips of the throttle and the engine falls into a normal rumpity-rump idle as though nothing had been changed. Although the exhaust note coming from the pair of Hindle carbon-fiber silencers is subdued by the turbo plumbing, it speaks pure Ducati.

Feeling a bit like cop-bait in my Captain America race leathers, I kept the revs below 5000 rpm and my throttle hand well-tempered while cruising along in city traffic. Ridden in this fashion, the presence of the turbo is transparent-aside from the bark emitted from the exhaust as the wastegate opens when the throttle is chopped while on boost. Where many hot-rodded motors might lurch and stumble at low rpm, the PCS Monster was as civil as a stocker. Things were not so sweet, however, between 5000 and 6500 rpm. Partial throttle openings and steady-state cruising in this rev range produced a pronounced stumble due to overly rich carburetion. According to Lee, a revised carburetor needle has since cured the problem. Once clear of suburbia and the public eye, it was time to roost on the boost. Rolling the throttle open at 3000 rpm in third gear produced crisp response followed by a steady and surprisingly linear increase in acceleration: no lag or sudden hit of tire-shredding power. After a couple more repeated roll-ons, I was ready to give low gear a try and see how she wheelied. As the Italian-made GiaCaMoto tachometer’s LED display swept through 4500 rpm, the front wheel aviated and continued its ascent until I quickly ran out of revs at the 8500-rpm redline. Yeow! Would it do the same in second? No problemo: Sitting back in the saddle and giving a light tug on the bars at 6500 rpm does the trick. Too much fun! (One question: Do the Sunshine State’s finest have a reciprocal agreement with the CHP?)

Midrange jetting problems aside, the PCS Turbo Duck delivered much of what it had promised-an incredible gain in peak power without sacrificing low-end ridability. And happily on the main jet, it produced a linear spread of power I never thought possible through turbocharging.

Now, if I can just arrange a re-ride with the proper needle jet installed. After all, I’ll be in town for the 200...

Don Canet