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Old October 27th, 2020, 03:54 PM   #1
Veloandy
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Name: Andy
Location: Fort Collins, CO
Join Date: Oct 2020

Motorcycle(s): 2006 Ninja 250, 1976 Honda Trail 90, 1977 Honda CB750 Super Sport

Posts: 2
Saddest little Ninja in Fort Collins

Hello Everyone!

I’ve always wanted to wrench on and ride a Ninja 250 and now I have one!

I also have a 1977 Honda CB750 Super Sport, and a 1976 Honda Trail 90. Both are great, but I wanted a fun, cheap, high MPG bike that can keep up with traffic on arterial toads better than my Trail 90 and is less of a handful than my cb750. I’ve always been blown away by the Ninja 250’s fuel economy, insane redline, great handling, chap consumables, and general mechanical toughness.

So, I found mine. It’s a 2006 with 16k miles and was stolen from the P.O. about a year ago and recently recovered and returned to him after a police chase and minor crash. The bike was originally blue. The thief painted it green and then spray bombed it black; broke every lock on the bike; added a cheesy toggle switch to turn it on; and added a cheesy USB/cigarette lighter plug on top of the instruments that only fit when half the windscreen bolts are removed. The thief was a piece of work. He attached a plastic window cup holder to the front fairing with a drywall screw (wtf???). All of his electrical mods were done with wire nuts and blue wire stripped by human incisors. The shifter foot peg was broken in the crash and the belly pan was cracked in two.

So, I dragged it home, transferred the title in my name and got to work. I put on a new (used) shifter foot peg, new ignition switch, and new speedo cable. I pulled the fairings and glued the belly pan together with ABS cement and built up some missing fairing pieces with bits of ABS sheet, artistically stuck together with yet more cement.

I got it to run with a jump start, but it sounded really bad. I drained the filthy oil and cleaned the oil screen and it looked basically OK in there (just plastic grit from either the cam chain guides or clutch bushings and some barely visible bronze flakes that didn’t seem atypical for a bike whose oil is shared by the gearbox).

So I pulled the valve cover to check valve clearances and found a slack cam chain (from a jammed tensioner) and a broken rocker arm. I bought a rocker arm from a friendly member here and can’t wait to see what happens when I get it all back together!

I’m excited about getting it going again. I’m thinking of trying out putting on some really obnoxious vinyl wrap on the tank and fairings. I’m so excited that there is a forum like this that I can share the process with!
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Old October 27th, 2020, 04:14 PM   #2
gfloyd2002
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Name: Floyd
Location: Barbados
Join Date: Dec 2010

Motorcycle(s): '10 Ninja 250R Special Edition Green

Posts: A lot.
Blog Entries: 13
MOTM - Feb '12
Veloandy! Glad to have you aboard...
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"Improvement makes straight roads, but the crooked roads without improvement, are roads of genius." — William Blake
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Old October 27th, 2020, 04:18 PM   #3
Triple Jim
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Name: Jim
Location: North Carolina
Join Date: Jul 2016

Motorcycle(s): Ninja 250

Posts: A lot.
MOTM - Oct '18, Aug '17, Aug '16
That's funny... when I got my 2005 250 it looked very nearly the same as yours. The owner had painted over the blue with black Plasti Dip. I had a fair amount of peeling and rubbing before I could start the body repairs, modifications, and painting.

Here is is after some trimming of plastic, but before the bodywork, and after.
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Old October 27th, 2020, 06:35 PM   #4
Ceeloo Yello
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Location: Hawaii
Join Date: May 2011

Motorcycle(s): 250

Posts: 472
Welcome.
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Old October 27th, 2020, 07:05 PM   #5
Veloandy
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Name: Andy
Location: Fort Collins, CO
Join Date: Oct 2020

Motorcycle(s): 2006 Ninja 250, 1976 Honda Trail 90, 1977 Honda CB750 Super Sport

Posts: 2
Thanks guys!
@Triple Jim I’m actually a fan of blitz black, but something has to be prepped properly for it to look good. Spray paint or plastidip over dirt (like our bikes came with) doesn’t cut it! ;-) Your bike looks awesome now! How’d you do it? Rattle cans? Spray gun? Pro job? I painted my cb750 with gloss black Krylon cans (after a ton of prep) and clear coated it with a 2K rattle can. It came out really well and has held up well for the last couple of years.
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Old October 27th, 2020, 07:21 PM   #6
Triple Jim
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Name: Jim
Location: North Carolina
Join Date: Jul 2016

Motorcycle(s): Ninja 250

Posts: A lot.
MOTM - Oct '18, Aug '17, Aug '16
Thanks Andy. I did this one using Dupli-Color lacquer spray cans with Spraymax 2K clear over it. I'll never use lacquer again though. It is everything I don't want in a paint... finicky to apply and totally non-durable. Gasoline dissolves it! The Spraymax 2K is doing a good job of protecting it though. It's the real thing.

By contrast, the Imron I put on my '72 H2 around 1979 still looks pretty good and is about as durable as it gets.
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Old October 27th, 2020, 10:34 PM   #7
DannoXYZ
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Name: AKA JacRyann
Location: Mesa, AZ
Join Date: Dec 2011

Motorcycle(s): CB125T CBR250R-MC19 CBR250RR-MC22 NSR350R-MC21 VF500F CBR600RR SFV650 VFR750F R1M ST1300PA Valkyrie-F6C

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Greeting & Salutations Andy!!!
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Old October 30th, 2020, 05:11 AM   #8
csmith12
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Name: Chris (aka Reactor)
Location: Northern KY
Join Date: May 2011

Motorcycle(s): 2010 250 (track), 1992 250, 2006 R6 (street/track), 2008 R6 (track)

Posts: Too much.
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Old November 17th, 2020, 07:09 PM   #9
Snake
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Name: Rick
Location: Alexandria, Louisiana
Join Date: Jan 2009

Motorcycle(s): 05 Blue Ninja 250

Posts: Too much.
MOTY - 2017, MOTM - Jan '19, Oct '16, May '14
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Old December 15th, 2020, 01:03 PM   #10
CaliGrrl
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Name: Kerry
Location: Ventura, CA
Join Date: Jan 2016

Motorcycle(s): Ninja650

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