I've been lurking around this site gather info and ideas for a few months now and finally decided to put together a proper build thread so that others can steal ideas from me if they so choose. I picked up this unloved ninja, running and titled for $250 and man was it ugly when I got it. But after a spin around the block, it ran pretty good so i took it home. After diagnosing the hesitation issue it had on the test ride, i found that carb boots were not seated all the way thanks in part to the spring retainers instead of clamps. After I fixed that, it ran like it was brand new. The gauges that came with the bike read about 10k miles and the engines was in good enough shape and ran well enough for me to believe that. On to making it look pretty.
I didn't really have a plan, I know that I wanted it to look cool and be under $1000. As of now, I'm almost at $1100 but i also included registration and tax. First thing that had to go was the ugly and completely useless headlight that put out about as much light as a candle in the wind. following that were the ugly and not bright enough turn signals and rear tail light.
I was able to find a set of 4 bright, led turn signals on eBay for $12 shipped. The best part about them, the fronts doubled as white marker lights and the rears doubled as brake lights.
Next thing to go was the passenger pegs and most of the brackets on the subframe support....then the subframe support. I didnt like the angle that it was at and I also don't plan on having a passenger(sorry wife). So it got chopped off and rewelded closer up.
To address the headlight, I decided to go with something that looked nice and output enough light. So to check both of those boxes, streetfighter rules say it must be one of three lights. Vrod, dominators or an MT03. I always liked the MT03 so I bought a new one off ebay and proceeded to have no clue how to mount it. I began learning to TIG weld with this project so a lot of the welds you will see are due to the fact that i was/am still learning. I decided to use 1/4" steel rod to make the mount and found that the bolt holes for the horn mount would work nicely for secure it to the bike. I ended up scraping this design because I ended up hating the way it looked and wanted something slimmer and less seen.
I also wanted to do something about the ugly tank that these bikes come with. With the fairings on, i don't mind the tank. It's when the fairing come off that you see the line in the tank and the bolt holes. That's when i thought of making radiator shrouds to hide them. I though about buying a broken stock fairing and cutting it but after a quick peruse of eBay, I said no thanks to those prices and decided to buy more 1/4" steel rod and try to form my own. My buddy even lent me some kx80 plastics to see if they would fit and I actually kinda liked the way they looked but decided against it because it didn't fit what I was looking for and it wasn't even close to the radiator. They would have been purely cosmetic and not even that great looking. So I began slowly building my own. It's nice that My wife works on the weekends, it gives me all day to sit in the garage and swear to myself when things don't go right.
I actually really like the stock tachometer and stock gauges but they were really big and were going to stick out like a sore thumb with my new sexy headlight so they had to go. It was actually harder than I had imagined to find a tachometer that went to 14k rpm. I really like the trail tech vapor and I've used it before but it only went to 12k. I ended up finding a nice Koso digital gauge that read to 14k and i also happened to have an ebay coupon code to get for $60 shipped. I mounted it using the supplied bracket and using longer allen head bolts for the clip ons and secured it underneath the top triple.
Next on the list was the wheels. I liked the stock red wheels for the fact that they were red while everything else was black. That's it though. I didn't like the design or the tires available. So after a bad day at work, I said eff it and ordered a set of new gen wheels off ebay. And of course, they were black.
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At this point, I had the structural part of the shrouds done. I just needed something to put on top of them to make them, well, not ugly. I had planned to use fiberglass buy my buddy talked me into using sheet metal. i used some cardboard to get the rough shape and design then cut out the metal.
I also scored a used Yoshi exhaust for the old gen bikes. Its a bit rusty and the can is dented but the tubing is solid. After a little sanding(a lot of sanding) it will look not crap any more.
Moving to the back of the bikes, I needed a way to hold the turn signals and plate. I had bought 2 6' sections of 1/4" rod for the shrouds and only ended up using not quite 6' for both of them so i had a lot left. So 1/4" rod it was. The led turn signals served as the brake lights for the back but i needed some running lights and plate lights. I was able to find those stud lights for fairly cheap and installed those in the lower holes of the plate.
All of that(if you're still reading and not just looking at the pictures) brings you up to speed with where I am currently. All that's left on my to do list is as follows
-center front wheel
-front caliper bracket
-figure out coolant expansion chamber relocation
-smooth and paint the shrouds
-paint all the parts of the frame that got stripped and welded
-finish cleaning up the exhaust
-jet the carbs for the new exhaust
-Muffler support bracket
-new tires
-Enjoy
I would love your guy's feedback on what I've done so far or any thoughts or ideas that you have on finishing things up. This build has been a major learning experience for me. I done things, mostly with the TIG welder I never though I would be able to do. My other builds have been far less enjoyable. Maybe It's because I'm older and wiser than I was a few years ago, Maybe it's the fact that I have more disposable income now to buy the parts I need faster and not having to cheap out. I have had numerous bikes over my 10ish years of riding and I think that I'm most excited to ride this one. Currently, this is my only bike. I had sold a '17 grom and an '05 fz1 to put money down for my house that I'm building.
To anyone who actually makes it this far down, It's been a while since I've made a build thread so I don't know how to make the pictures smaller. I apologize for the massive pictures.