[liquidnine]

Question first: I've seen a fair share of 250's, chain guard removed. What's your opinion on safety? I think deleting the chain guard would look good on my bike, but I wouldn't want to sacrifice safety for aesthetics.


The work in progress...

I started riding about 8 months ago. The bikes this board includes inspired me to tinker with my stock 250. It didn’t take long for before my first bike turned in to my first project bike! No need to describe the desire to modify, given the audience here. I would like to say thanks, though, to all the contributors. You will probably see reflections of your own ideas in the pictures below. I kept things simple, since this was a novice attempt.


Plastics

I cut down the side panels quite a bit, and the rest are sitting in my garage right now. Given that this was my first project, I wanted to avoid things that seemed a little too ambitious. As such, I left the air box and battery right where they were. The side panels serve to hide those components. The fluid reservoirs peek out from the sides, but I don’t mind it at all.

The front fender was cut down too. I failed to get a perfectly symmetrical arc across the front… I may ask a pro to shape it a bit if I ever get the bike painted.
The inside fender plastics I cut down too. I wanted to keep the top part of that fender to keep the underside of the seat clean, but wanted to see daylight from the side. I moved some of the electric bits, as you can see below, to the top of the inside fender. Clearance with the seat isn’t a problem and both are nice and secure. With those moved, I used a Dremel cut off the sides of the inside fender while it was still on the bike, following the contours as best I could (since I had a very hard time trying to remove the fender).

The tail is an off-the-shelf Thruxton style tail. Basically, the center is cut out of the seat pan area so all that is left is an L shaped side that covers the frame. Notches were cut in to it so the stock seat frame rests fit nicely inside them. Right now, the tail isn’t fastened to seat or frame. The notching is snug enough to where it isn’t going anywhere. Once I get the seat properly upholstered, I’ll fasten the tail either to the frame, or to the bottom of the seat.


Seat

I pulled back the vinyl and cut the plastic seat pan to where it will fit with where I wanted the tail to be placed. Shaving down the foam, I just trimmed and stapled the vinyl back in place. It almost turned out how I expected. I wanted a more defined ‘edge’ to the top, where it meets the seat pan, but it compressed the vinyl and rounded instead. It was worth a shot! I’m interested in a real upholstery job on the seat, at some point. I think it would add a finished look that I just won’t be able to replicate at home. As far as seat security is concerned, I needed a new way to fasten the seat to the bike now that the stock bracket was removed. I placed a T-nut (epoxied in) and bolt in the bottom of the seat which passes through a hole in the rear bracket I made. A threaded knob is accessed from under the seat that locks it in place. I was worried about it coming loose while riding, but I’ve never had a problem after a thousand or so miles.


Frame

The reciprocating saw removed newly unnecessary tabs and the rear foot pegs. A few inches were trimmed off the back of the frame before I had decided to get that café tail. Fortunately, that change of direction didn’t cause too much trouble for me. I don’t have a grinder, so the tab removal doesn’t look perfect, but it looks just fine from a few feet away. A little black paint did the trick.


Lights

I sourced the headlight and turn signals from the same place and got the tail light from Amazon. The front lights were the more straight forward. I’m not entirely happy with the headlight fork brackets (felt cheap and not a spot-on fit despite my forks matching their size spec) but they’ve held up just fine over the thousand or so miles I’ve ridden with it on. The rears required a bracket. Remember, my tool selection is limited, as is my experience. Using steel and aluminum, I cut, bent and bolted together a bracket to hold both the tail light and the turn signals. I ended up having to reinforce it a few times in order to get it to hold up over speed bumps and what not. The only part I’m keen to replace is the bar holding the rear turn signals. The aluminum I used for that just isn’t strong enough –a heavier gauge will do the trick.
The wiring was largely trial and error. The signals, for example, are three wire lights. I’d pair off two of the wires with my Ninja and see how well it worked. I’m certain some research would have made the job easier… next time!


Gauges

I went with the Trail-Tech Vapor. The Ninja250.org page made a suggestion as to the exact model number and that is what I bought. Most of the wiring was easy enough, but I couldn’t get the Tach to work well. More internet digging uncovered that I needed the resistor equipped Tach wire and Trail Tech sent me one for free. It is wired directly to my left hand coil as opposed to doing the wrap-around technique.


Plasti-dip

I’m unsure what to do about paint, so I just used plasti-dip. I’m very careful when fueling the bike since gasoline is the bane of dip, but it is all just peel-away temporary color anyways. I used the Anthracite metallic plasti-dip and it looks pretty darn good. The new Dip Coat spray removes 90% of that rubbery feel and helps it stand up to more abuse.