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Old August 26th, 2016, 08:55 AM   #1
LTCTPU
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Just another Ninja Café...finished project.



Back Story

It is my fault…..I guess I encouraged my daughter’s (The Girl) interest in things with throttles, brakes, DIY projects and well, we did take the motorcycle safety class together for her 18th birthday. (I had a lowered a KLR 650 that she could use to ride with me on country rides/ trips all of which needed to be away from the Metro area we live in… (I owned it, I controlled the keys, I wanted her to enjoy riding but to be safe too.)

But Hey, we all know the deal, so it was no surprise that she wanted her own bike configured her way. She would show me pictures of this bike or another, asking if I liked it or not and wouldn’t it be fun to work on one together. Yes it would I thought, but I kept putting her off and saying she probably couldn’t afford one and school was a priority (along with those valid reasons, somewhat worried that while she was really level headed she was /is a little too fearless at times (with the broken bones and many many emergency room visits to prove it)).

Then off to college she went (a SEC school 600mi away). But she is persistent, and after a couple of years of knocking down good grades, garnering some scholarship money, earning some other money and being good at saving it, she was blowing holes in my can’t afford it/schools a priority argument. Then she started to look at used bikes that would fit her budget and I’d get questions like how hard is it to replace a missing title, or hey Dad I’m going to look at a bike this weekend what should I be checking out condition wise?

So it was time (I’m proud of the girl), after conversations with the wife (her Mom) we decided it was best if I helped The Girl with "the project", since she was probably going to get a bike anyway. Yeah!
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Old August 26th, 2016, 09:00 AM   #2
csmith12
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Gratz on the great kid! Hope she enjoys every mile.
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Old August 26th, 2016, 09:09 AM   #3
LTCTPU
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Name: Tom
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Just another Ninja Café


Project ideas and Platform.

The Girl’s research focused her on the Generation 1 Ninja.

I found a 2007 w/11500mi locally, running but low end knock in the motor, it had a clear title, plastics, seat and frame were in very good condition, and new tires to boot. I picked it up and found a motor with 2450 miles on it…all said she is into the that side of the bike project for $Cheap. Plus figured the good fairings may be worth something.

It was fun working with The Girl in deciding what the bike should look like, she had some great ideas about the minimalist look she wanted & cost of the items needed and I was looking at it from 600 mi away dependability as well as cost and quality of the parts. I thought the more we could leave stock the easier for her to maintain, cheaper to build and less time to modify (and still get the look we wanted). So we left the battery & air box (no re-jetting of the carbs) and rear inner fender in place (keeping the rear shock cleaner & didn’t have to relocate electronics) and eventually decided to use a modified OEM seat that still used the seat latch versus a new seat pan and seat.

Chicagobob here on this forum, Blue Collar Bobber’s Ninja kit and Herm Narciso, Dime City Cycles - Makes a Fiberglass Cafe Racer Seat! - Part 2 YouTube video, along with many other forums, forums posters and web pic’s, were influences on our design, process and parts used.

A key feature we wanted in the tail was to be able drop it over and lower on the frame creating a more visual straight line café look without having to significantly modify the frame. This required us to make our own.
Couldn’t figure a way to use the stock speedometer set up that looked good enough and it was important to keep all the functionality of the indicator lights and coolant temp & oil pressure. The Trail Tech Vapor with Dashboard (as used by Chicagobob) filled the requirement.

Side panels and tank blanks we decided could be made out of Kydex sheet 12”x24”x .125”

Here is a list-of the parts & Tools we used and were we bought them (usually best prices too).

Amazon
Emgo Honda Style 6 1/4in. Headlight Assembly - Black 66-64313 $31
BikeMaster 122-9835 MINISTALK MARK LT VSHP BLK/CLR (turn signals) 2 sets $30.3
HTT GROUP Motorcycle Black 2PCs Adjustable Heavy Duty Round Mirror $16.66
KYDEX V PLASTIC SHEET - 12"X24"X0.125" THICK (BLACK) 2 sheets $23

Ebay
Headlight mounting brackets Honda CB650 CB750 fits 35mm Fork Tube Chrome $19.95
Red 3" Round 15 LED Surface Mount Brake Stop Turn Tail Lights / Red Lens pair $25.50
White LED SMD Motorcycle & Car License Plate Screw Bolt Light lamp bulb 12V $5.49

Phat Performance
Trail Tech Vapor 752-300 $96.95
Trail Tech Vector Indicator Dashboard $44.95

Home Depot Bondo fiberglass resin, Bondo filler, Bondo fiberglass cloth & mat, Cheap paint brushes

Tools (already had these); Metric wrenches & Sockets, Heat gun (harbor freight), 4 ½” angle grinder with cut off disks & Dremel tool, Drill & Bits & Taps of various sizes and Stapler
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Old August 26th, 2016, 09:26 AM   #4
LTCTPU
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Name: Tom
Location: Missouri City TX
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Just another Ninja Café

Project execution

Figuring out when to begin the project was complicated in that The Girl had stayed at school to work over the summer on a part time internship as well as a part time job. So we picked a 10 day period where she could both get home to visit and to do “the project”. Of course it was the hottest part of the year. Damn it was Hot.

Motor/Maintenance

First thing was to change out the bad motor for the good motor and get the maintenance up to date. Ideally this would have all been done and bike running around and maintenance all up to date and have had put some miles on the bike before starting any mods. It was decided do not do it that way so we could do the motor change and maintenance together, all from a project and learning more about the bike perspective as well saving time by not putting the fairings back on. Best decision for us, but it had its trouble shooting consequences later.


Fiberglass tail

Next part was to get started on the making the tail. We had never worked with fiberglass before, so did a lot of looking at the DIY sites and YouTube to figure that out …. Invaluable advice gleamed early on was: to draw it out in exact detail first and the smoother and more correctly shaped the form was the better the end product.

We decided on a shape and cut out cardboard templates for sides & top and test fit them on the bike.


Bobbed the rear of the frame about 5” which was into the weld joint where the lower frame joins into the tail frame and removed old tail mounting tabs so the new tail would lower over the frame.



Made and prepped a form, got out the fiberglass: resin, cloth & mat and just got after it…we like how it came out. Mounted it at three points; two screws drilled and tapped in to side frame rails and 3rd point was via a bracket we made for the old rear seat support.






Seat
Heat gunned the seat base and formed it around the tail seat curve. Trimmed to shape with a Dremel tool and angle grinder. Trimmed the OEM foam and covered with the OEM seat cover, trimmed and heated to form. It is serviceable for now but needs some more smoothing and reinforcing the rear base to fill some holes that ended up right in the rear seat curve. Just ran out of time.

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Old August 26th, 2016, 09:28 AM   #5
LTCTPU
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Just another Ninja Café

Trailtech Vapor 752-300

Chicagobob’s posts on the install of a trail tech vapor on his ninja were so helpful and on our install we mirror much what he had done. So a shout out of thanks to him for taking time almost 4 years ago to write such a helpful post, it is still helping!!

Mounting- Used the mount that came with the dashboard and attached it to the front of the Ninja’s ignition switch by drilling & tapping for 2 #6x32 stainless screws. Modified the angle of the mount from 90 degrees to closer to 60 for a better look and trimmed some of the excess metal away on the lower portion. Looks good there and is secure.

Wiring- used the harness and the 4 indicator lights pulled off the back of the OEM cluster. The indicator lights plugs are plug and play into the Vapor’s dashboard.

Power- we cut the Trail Tech Vapor power lead to length, soldered and shrink wrapped in flat connectors and plugged those into the front OEM Ninja accessory plugs.

Coolant Temp- we just switched out the OEM temp sensor using the Trail Tech sensor pulled from the hose adapter. Resealed with new thread tape and as it is a pretty long lead, secured the excess with a shrink wrap band and secured it under the tank.

Tach-shortened the Trail Tech Vapor tach lead (a lot), soldered in a 1M ohm ¼ watt resistor (from a local Radio Shack) then soldered it to the black tach wire lead on the OEM harness from the back of the cluster. A resistor was added as a preemptive measure based on recommendations from various forums for eliminating erratic tach readings. You can get the resistor tach wire from Trail Tech for $9.95 + shipping. The resistor for a pack of 5 was only $1.70 at Radio Shack, plus a bit of soldering and shrink wrapping, which we were doing anyway.

Speed Sensor Lead- drilled and tapped a hole on the front caliper bracket for the speed sensor and zip tied the lead alongside the front brake line. Drilled and tapped the front rotor for the M6 magnet bolt, trimmed it to rotor width and Loctited it in place. As the lead and its protective plastic tube are so long on the Ninja we ended up shortening the lead a lot and splicing the Trail Tech connector back into place to reducing wiring clutter. Figured and plugged in the speed ratio IAW Trail Tech directions and tested it against one of those “watch your speed” radars in our neighborhood…speed indicated was dead on.

Wiring clean up- There are some leads like the coolant temp and background cluster lights that were now excess in the cluster OEM harness that we were able to eliminate/cap off. Along with a bit of rerouting by cutting and re-splicing indicator light leads and shortening the Trail Tech leads we were able to really clean up the clutter and streamline the wiring. Solder and shrink wrapping was used for all splices or added connectors...did not want any wiring problems later on.

Lessons learned-Recommend using a different model Vapor that has the tach resistor wire and shorter speed sensor lead. Looks like the 75-600 kit for the Suzuki sv650 may be a better choice. Call Trail Tech to be sure. Don’t insert the Indicator lights too deep into the dashboard as the bulbs then contact the plastic indicator covers and melt them.
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Old August 26th, 2016, 09:33 AM   #6
LTCTPU
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Name: Tom
Location: Missouri City TX
Join Date: Jun 2016

Motorcycle(s): BMW R1200gsa, KLR650

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Just another Ninja Café

Side covers & tank blanks

Cut out cardboard templates for the side covers and tank blanks, then fit them on the bike. It took several revisions to get them to look right and to determine mounting locations, but think we accomplished that. The template worked for both sides just had to flip it over for left or right. Cut out the Kydex with the angle grinder, wood rasp, and sand paper, then formed to fit with the heat gun. Used M6 stainless pan head screws to attach the side cover at the old rear and lower OEM Side Cover mount points and at the rear tank mount. (used a M6 coupling nut for as a spacer for the lower mount point).

Headlight. Overall very pleased with this set up: very solid, bright light, fairly easy install, plug and play.


Bracket-the eBay headlight brackets turned out to be a pretty solid, rubber mounted set up and pulling the top of the triple clamp to put them on was quick and easy, a little oil on the bushings and they slid right on.

Bucket- the EMGO headlight bucket is a nice steel unit that came with an H4 bulb that it is plug and play into the Ninja harness

Minor negatives- the “chrome” bolts on the brackets started to rust right away, had to trim down some of the plastic at the headlight bolts mounting point for a better fit and the M10 bucket mount bolts were not included.

Turn signals
Front- drilled holes for the front turn signals in the aluminum side plates of the headlight mounting bracket.

Rear- made some brackets out of aluminum bar stock, mounted it to the rear frame via drilling and tapping for 10-24 screws. With a little bend & twist of the bar stock ended up with the turn signals horizontal.

Plugs-with a slight stretch to the OEM harness receptacles, the turn signals plugged right in. I chucked up a nail into my drill and turned it down on my bench sander to the size tool needed and used that to stretch the receptacles to size.

Taillight

Taillight- Had to purchase as a pair to get this light and it seemed at first a bit pricey compared to other options, but after a money wasting misfire on a supposedly cheaper option, went with this light.
Very glad we did as it very good quality, well-sealed unit that we then integrated into the tail.

License plate bracket-
Made a bracket for the license plate out of some aluminum plate and cut it to shape with the angle grinder.

Mounting- attached the license plate bracket at the taillight pocket in the tail. Drilled and tapped the bracket for 4 holes, 2 under the taillight to secure the bracket to the tail and 2 through the taillight mount holes to secure both light and bracket. (#8x32 stainless screws)

Wiring- soldered in the new taillight to the OEM taillight light harness plug we had cut from the removed OEM tail. Used LED lighted license plate bolts plugged into the old plate light harness via soldered in connectors.

Mirrors
By eliminating the bar end bolt mounts that came with the mirrors and using Kydex spacers we made we were able to get the HTT mirrors to tighten on the OEM bar ends. Seems to work ok, a bit small for my tastes but....

Front fender
Cut back and trimmed the OEM fender to get a more of a café look.

Color Change Vinyl Wrap
Used Avery Dennison color change wrap for the tank, tail, front fender, side cover and tank blanks. First time ever to use that stuff and well...... that is another whole story
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Old August 26th, 2016, 09:36 AM   #7
LTCTPU
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Name: Tom
Location: Missouri City TX
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Just another Ninja Café

All in all
The Girl was happy with how out the project came out and now has the bike at school.


I know I had a blast: working on it with my daughter was pretty cool and I’d like to think she will have lasting good memories from it, the process of planning/designing/creating was also personally rewarding.
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Old August 26th, 2016, 01:13 PM   #8
VaFish
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I hope you didn't throw out the old motor. That bottom end knock is usually just the clutch basket, a $164 part. Kawasaki chose to use a 2 piece basket with a plastic spacer. As the plastic degrades the two pieces bang together and make noise.


Anyhow beautiful project.
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Old August 26th, 2016, 01:23 PM   #9
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Great work!!!
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Old August 26th, 2016, 07:00 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LTCTPU View Post
All in all
The Girl was happy with how out the project came out and now has the coolest bike at school.
Fixed for you.
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Old August 26th, 2016, 08:10 PM   #11
RacinNinja
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Looks good! Covering up the sides is a must.
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Old August 26th, 2016, 09:37 PM   #12
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Nice! I think every child should know a few things about motors and how to deal with them. It sounds like a really cool parent/kid project and she ends up with a bike at the end!
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Old August 26th, 2016, 10:32 PM   #13
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Looks nice, I like it!
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Old August 26th, 2016, 11:59 PM   #14
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Sweet ride, great build thread, you maybe ninjette father o the year
It's really clean and well done!
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Old August 28th, 2016, 08:53 AM   #15
LTCTPU
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Just another Ninja Cafe

Thanks to all for the kind comments!!
It really was a fun project.

On the motor I was really hoping it was the clutch basket, but the large pieces of metal removed from the oil screen indicated something more serious. Haven't had the chance to tear into the motor yet...hopefully there is some good eBay part on it.
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