1. I have not been a rider for long, and have owned my bike a bit less than that, but I have an '06 Ninjette that I have been enjoying. For most trivial things, I'm a DIY person - such as changing the oil. I noticed when I first changed it after getting my used bike, the plastic filler cap's grip fin had a few bite marks in it, and I ended up adding a few of my own by using an adjustable wrench to loosen it. This also was necessary for topping off my oil more recently. Is there a specific tool or trick with an off-the-beaten-path object that I can use to loosen the oil filler cap without causing further damage to it? I'm sure it'll last for a long time, but I hate to continue to put bite marks in it.

2. When I bought my bike used, I took off the fairings to check most things, one thing was the coolant and rear brake fluid reservoir. I noticed that one of the screws that holds the side fairing on was mostly stripped, and is very difficult to actually remove. I replaced it, but have been meaning to get it replaced with one that is not stripped. I don't mind ordering OEM if I need to, but I was wondering if anyone knows the size and thread pitch or whatnot for the lower bolt of the side panel?

http://i.imgur.com/xKVmD2P.jpg

1) I use a crescent wrench.

2) I don't know the size, but you can measure how many mm the diameter is, then find any M(mm of diameter) fine thread screw.
Pepboys has a good assortment of fine threaded bolts in drawers by the back of the stores.
You could convert the current screw to be suitable flat-head screwdriver, using a hacksaw.

I have used an adjustable wrench to remove the oil filler cap without any problems.

Here is the bolt:

http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/hh578/conrya5/2006Ninja250.jpg


Another method for finding the correct bolt that I like to use. Take the non-stripped bolt to the hardware store. Find a nut that the non-stripped bolt will fit into. Find a new bolt that will fit into that nut.

The bolt is labeled as 6x28, does that mean an M6, 28mm long bolt? 28 seems like an odd number, though.

I had planned on hopping over to the local hardware store. I found new engine mounting nuts there, but the FAQ on the other site had the hardware size numbers listed for me, so it wasn't too bad. I guess I could just take it in with me and measure everything up, though. Maybe they'll have a hex-headed bolt in that size, as those hold up longer against stripping, I find.

http://i.imgur.com/kKsyGu9.jpg

As for the oil cap, I don't think it's going to fail any time soon, but it just seems like a terrible way to remove it, lol. Maybe there are some decent aftermarket ones that can twist off with a socket wrench or something that I can find. I just hate to make it look any worse than it is, lol.

http://i.imgur.com/jPYf4XZ.jpg

The bolt is labeled as 6x28, does that mean an M6, 28mm long bolt? 28 seems like an odd number, though.

As for the oil cap............I just hate to make it look any worse than it is, lol.

Yes, M6x28 mm long (note that it must be fine thread; which is rare in hardware stores).

The wrench goes sideways and leaves no mark.

Alright, so I went down to Ace Hardware and browsed their nuts and bolts section, and found an M6x30, which I Dremeled off the tip to force it to be a 28mm instead. I took the bolt with me and tried out the nuts, and a pitch of 1.00 seemed to be the best fit. 0.90 and 1.25 (the next on either side) were a bit wrong. The next closest size that they had was an M6x25, and I wasn't sure that it would have been long enough or not.

http://i.imgur.com/y6otLv4.jpg

I did some Google searches and found several oil cap replacements that are aluminum or something. I didn't see any for my year model, but I haven't dug very deep yet. I'm sure they have them, but most places I saw just had the newer '08+ ones. I don't know offhand if they have the same size cap, but I wouldn't assume that.