[tfkrocks]

I realized I didn't mention my adventures with a theft attempt last summer! Parked in Oakland for literally only just 2-3 hours directly outside the building I was in and came back out to find that someone had clearly tried to steal my bike via brute forcing the ignition. The backside was cracked but not broken through. The top part was damaged enough that I could no longer stick a key in to disengage the steering lock to tow it myself. Oh and they dented the top of my headlight for some reason???

I bought a complete used key set off ebay and got to work trying to figure out how to replace everything. Couldn't remove the top triple tree with the steering lock still in place and couldn't make a proper attempt to drill out the ignition module with it still on the bike cuz drilling upside down in a cramped spot isn't great. I ended up just obliterating the ignition so that the internal parts fell out and disengaged the steering lock.

Now the security screws... I tried drilling them out but damn that metal is hard and I gave up on that. I needed to use my bike immediately though so in the meantime, I essentially figured out how to hotwire my bike and then threw on a secondary kill-switch hidden elsewhere on the bike. I won't go into wiring details publicly because I don't want to make things easier for lurking thieves but I will say that Kawi's ignition design is so simple yet genius for preventing petty thieves from easily hotwiring the bike without knowledge of the design. It certainly frustrated me to hell when I could get the display to turn on but the bike just wouldn't start lol.

Anyway, I got my mechanic to drill out the security screws for me and then installing and connecting the new ignition was simple. I certainly learned some new things from this experience but l hope to never have to do this again.

Kinda sad that my little Ninja doesn't get much use nowadays since the NC700X has taken over primary commuting duties.