August 21st, 2016, 04:37 PM | #1 |
ninjette.org member
Name: Craig
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
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Planning a streetfighter build; making a list of parts
So I'm planning to convert to a streetfighter and just need a few main things. I've looked at the Ninja250 wiki and a lot of links are either dead or don't lead to a specific product.
So basically I just mainly need a headlight, front turn signals, taillight, rear turn signals, and a new instrument cluster. I'll likely get the Trailtech Vapor with the idiot light add-on as far as the instrument cluster is concerned--they seem pretty tried and true from what I've read. Although they're more expensive than I'd like--might just do a bicycle computer, but I'd hate not having the oil pressure light and other vital indicators. As far as lights go, can anyone suggest a 6"-7" round headlight? Preferably one that comes with turn signals already mounted to the sides and comes with mounting hardware overall. And the same for a taillight/turn signal combo? Also, depending on the lights I get, how difficult are they to wire up to the existing wiring? Are there any that are plug-and-play? Last question. Most of the streetfighters I've seen have kept a portion of the side fairing on to protect the fusebox. Is this a must? Thanks for your help! |
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August 21st, 2016, 05:14 PM | #2 |
Guy Who Enjoys Riding
Name: Jim
Location: North Carolina
Join Date: Jul 2016 Motorcycle(s): Ninja 250 Posts: A lot.
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I'm assuming this is a pre-gen 250. I just did something similar to mine earlier this year, although I like to think of it as a "standard" rather than a streetfighter. I made a bracket for front turn signals that bolts across the lower triple tree triangle, and the signals are small Cateye LED type. I used a standard 7" round Emgo headlight bucket, and Emgo black cast aluminum ears that are really nice. They come with adapters for 35mm fork tubes, so I had to machine them a little for the 36mm tubes.
I mounted the same type turn signals on the rear frame tabs that originally mounted the rear of the peg mounts/handles that I cut the handles off of, and added LEDs inside the unused left and right sections of the tail light as additional brake lights. I remounted the stock tail light close to the rear handle on a bracket that's also the tag bracket. For now, I mounted the stock instruments close to the handlebars, but if I have any trouble with them I'm going to go to this Danmoto combination unit that has all the functions of the original Ninja dash: https://www.dan-moto.com/DM_US/danmo...5d7990ca0273a8 I don't care for the look of no rear plastic and exposed frame tubes, so I trimmed mine and painted things to sort of imitate the side panels of "standard" motorcycles from past decades. I've posted this photo of my daughter riding it before, but it shows most of the things I did pretty well. If you want any closeups or other details, let me know. It gets comments like "Kawasaki should offer something like this from the factory", which I completely agree with. |
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August 21st, 2016, 06:30 PM | #3 | |
ninjette.org member
Name: Craig
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
Join Date: Jul 2016 Motorcycle(s): 2014 Ninja 300 ABS, 2007 Yamaha FZ6 Posts: 210
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Quote:
Ok, so I was able to find a headlight with mounts and two sets of turn signals. Now just need a taillight. I want to stay away from LED just so I don't have to change anything with the wiring. Hopefully I can find something that's close to plug-in-play.. |
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August 21st, 2016, 06:40 PM | #4 |
Guy Who Enjoys Riding
Name: Jim
Location: North Carolina
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LED tail lights don't require any change to the wiring. Maybe you're thinking of LED turn signals that require a flasher made for LEDs, or CAN bus systems that get errors if you make major changes.
I kept the stock tail light because it's big and visible, and might keep a half-asleep distracted driver from rear ending my daughter, but there are a lot of choices for good aftermarket tail lights, that's for sure. Thanks, by the way. I built it with my daughter in mind, but it turns out that I ride it as much as she does. |
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August 21st, 2016, 06:49 PM | #5 | |
ninjette.org member
Name: Craig
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
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Quote:
I definitely want something a bit smaller for the taillight, but if it's LED I'd assume it'd get plenty bright to distract anyone behind me. |
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August 21st, 2016, 07:33 PM | #6 |
Guy Who Enjoys Riding
Name: Jim
Location: North Carolina
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There are all kinds of aftermarket LED tail lights. Some are excellent and very visible, and some are more decorative than functional.
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August 24th, 2016, 08:40 AM | #7 |
ninjette.org member
Name: Craig
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So I'm curious as to how to relocate all of the stuff that's toward the back. Looks like it's mostly electronics. I've seen some streetfighters that have a mostly bare tail section that I really like the look of (a la ChicagoBob's streetfighter).
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August 24th, 2016, 08:52 AM | #8 |
Guy Who Enjoys Riding
Name: Jim
Location: North Carolina
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You have to find a new mounting location that you're happy with, make brackets if necessary, and then extend the wiring as required.
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August 24th, 2016, 10:34 AM | #9 | |
ninjette.org certified postwhore
Name: Tom
Location: Northern Virginia
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Quote:
I have one café racer that I used the Trail-Tech on. I'm building a 2nd one to more of a Scrambler and would like to keep it cheaper and use the stock instruments. |
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August 24th, 2016, 10:46 AM | #10 |
#squid
Name: nickypoo
Location: Five Guys
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hi - former street fighter rider
ask me any questions and i'll answer. i still have my old headlight that is pictured btw
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August 24th, 2016, 11:21 AM | #11 |
Guy Who Enjoys Riding
Name: Jim
Location: North Carolina
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I'll be glad to take a few for you, but I'm pretty swamped today, so it may be tomorrow when I can post them.
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August 24th, 2016, 11:23 AM | #12 |
ninjette.org certified postwhore
Name: Tom
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FWIW on my café racer I used these brackets and head light.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 No turn signals, they aren't required. |
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August 24th, 2016, 01:36 PM | #13 |
ninjette.org member
Name: Craig
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
Join Date: Jul 2016 Motorcycle(s): 2014 Ninja 300 ABS, 2007 Yamaha FZ6 Posts: 210
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Side note: Is the front fender required? I ended up taking it off because I hate the look of it, but I heard somewhere that it affects the stability of the fork. Any truth to this?
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August 24th, 2016, 03:09 PM | #14 |
Guy Who Enjoys Riding
Name: Jim
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The metal front fender bracket will certainly have a fork brace effect, so yes, I wouldn't leave it off, or if I did I'd install a fork brace of some sort. Front fenders are nice if you ever ride in the rain, but I trimmed mine down a lot for looks (photo above).
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August 24th, 2016, 05:20 PM | #15 |
ninjette.org member
Name: Craig
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
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Alright so I started ripping apart my bike today (pics below). The red rag is simply covering up the exposed top end since I also need to check the valves and replace the gasket. Also going to install an aftermarket fuel filter, probably replace the clutch lever since it's bent, clean the air filter, and a couple of other smaller things.
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August 25th, 2016, 05:20 AM | #16 |
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August 25th, 2016, 08:47 AM | #17 |
Guy Who Enjoys Riding
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The idea was to use the stock instruments for now, both to keep the cost down, and to find out if I liked them or wanted to eventually go to something more compact. The headlight in the photos is a Peterson LED sealed beam, which I think is identical to the Truck-Lite one. It puts out excellent light for night riding, but is poor for being seen in the daytime unless you're directly in the beam. To other drivers that are off to the side, it looks like the light is not turned on. I came up with a solution, but that's for a different thread.
Here are a couple overall shots. I trimmed the plastic housing a little to remove parts of the edge that aren't needed. The next two show the bracket I made that mounts the bottom of the plastic housing. Machine screws go through the housing, and have washers and self-locking nuts on the inside. I made four spacers to go in the four recesses in the handlebar brackets under the new gauge mount, so that when I tightened the new longer bolts, the bars tightened properly. They're just pieces of bar stock with bolt holes through them, and they sit on the surfaces that the original bolt heads sat on. I stabilized things with two aluminum struts that connect to the original gauge mounts at the top, and two of the headlight ear bolts at the bottom. |
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August 27th, 2016, 12:05 PM | #18 |
ninjette.org member
Name: Craig
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
Join Date: Jul 2016 Motorcycle(s): 2014 Ninja 300 ABS, 2007 Yamaha FZ6 Posts: 210
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So I got the 7" H4 headlight in, as well as the taillight and turn signals. The turn signals will be straightforward to wire up (although the bullet connectors are too big for the female connectors on the bike, so not sure what I'm gonna do there).
The biggest thing I need help with is how to wire up the headlight and taillight, since it's definitely not PnP. Here's the wiring for the headlight. The lone brown wire goes to a smaller, separate bulb inside the bucket (any idea what that bulb's for? The headlight wiring on the bike also has three wires, but they're obviously different colors and I'm not sure which wire does what and which one goes to which. Here's the taillight wiring: Same deal with the headlight--just need to know which wire goes to which and then I can figure out how to wire them up. May just have to splice them even though that's probably not the best option.. |
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August 27th, 2016, 07:46 PM | #19 |
ninjette.org member
Name: Craig
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
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Ok so I did a little digging to try and at least figure some of this out. On the aftermarket headlight, I'm pretty sure green is ground, blue is low beam, and white is high beam.
Also from Google searching, I'm told that on the Ninja's wiring, black/yellow is ground, red/yellow is low beam, and red/black is high beam. Does all this sound accurate? Also, it looks like that smaller bulb I was talking about is a running light, which seems kind of pointless for a headlight that will be on the whole time anyway. Maybe I could just try wiring it into the low beam.. As for the aftermarket taillight, I have yet to find any solid info, but I'm guessing the green is ground, brown is running light, and yellow is brake light. Totally not positive though. As for the Ninja's taillight wiring, I'd guess that black/yellow is ground, red is running light, and blue is brake light? |
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August 27th, 2016, 07:51 PM | #20 |
Guy Who Enjoys Riding
Name: Jim
Location: North Carolina
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The small lamp may be a parking light. Some countries require a white light in front and a red light in the rear when parking on a street at night.
You can check the harness wires with a meter or 12v test lamp to see which ones have power with the switch in its positions. Black/yellow is ground, and you can try the others without worrying about damage. If the wrong thing lights, swap them. Japanese bullet connectors are available inexpensively if you need to change the connectors that don't mate properly. |
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August 28th, 2016, 09:48 AM | #21 |
ninjette.org member
Name: Craig
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
Join Date: Jul 2016 Motorcycle(s): 2014 Ninja 300 ABS, 2007 Yamaha FZ6 Posts: 210
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Alright, so I mounted all of the lights except for the rear turn signals. The width of the thread portion is nearly 10mm so they're too large for any mounting hole near the rear of the bike.
I went to the hardware store to look for some brackets with bolt holes large enough for the turn signals, but didn't find anything big enough without it being way too big for the bike. I might end up just drilling a larger hole in some of the mounting holes to make the signals fit. Any ideas? |
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August 28th, 2016, 10:19 AM | #22 |
Guy Who Enjoys Riding
Name: Jim
Location: North Carolina
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I trimmed off the handle part of the rear peg mounts. That left two tabs in the frame that work well for mounting turn signals. I don't remember the hole size, but if they're too small, there's plenty of metal to allow for drilling them bigger.
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August 29th, 2016, 01:28 PM | #23 |
ninjette.org member
Name: Craig
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
Join Date: Jul 2016 Motorcycle(s): 2014 Ninja 300 ABS, 2007 Yamaha FZ6 Posts: 210
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All of the lights mounted now, and I just got the Trail Tech Vapor in the mail. Damn, there's a lot of stuff to install with it. I'm really just interested in the speed and tach and then I'll put the four idiot lights into the Vapor dashboard and call it a day. Are all the sensor installations necessary?
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September 1st, 2016, 03:47 PM | #24 |
ninjette.org member
Name: Craig
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
Join Date: Jul 2016 Motorcycle(s): 2014 Ninja 300 ABS, 2007 Yamaha FZ6 Posts: 210
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So I have the taillight and all turn signals wired up and working, but can't get the headlight to work at all..
On the aftermarket headlight, there's a green, blue, white, and brown wire. I'm pretty sure green is ground, blue is low beam, and white is high beam. Brown goes off to a second smaller bulb, which is the parking light I've learned. The Ninja's headlight wiring is black/yellow, red/yellow, and red/black. I wired up green to black/yellow, and since I wasn't sure which ones were high beam and low beam, I just tried one combination and if it didn't work I'd switch them. The brown wire remained unplugged since I don't really need it. However, I can't get the headlight to turn on at all, no matter what I do. Anyone have any insight on what I could do? Maybe the headlight just isn't compatible at all? It's an H4 headlight, so it should work, but who knows.. |
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September 1st, 2016, 03:55 PM | #25 |
Vintage Screwball
Name: B
Location: Washington
Join Date: Feb 2016 Motorcycle(s): 2011 Ninja 250, 2008 Ninja 250, 2019 KTM 1290SDR, 2017 FZ10 Posts: A lot.
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You're assuming the green is the ground. Most likely, it is not if it's made in China. Any way to remove the the light to check pin continuity through the light itself?
Continuity between two pins will at least tell you how to complete the circuit. It probable won't be 0 ohms but it should read something other than infinite. Then you can match the pin to the socket and test wiring that way to find a ground and positive.
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September 1st, 2016, 04:14 PM | #26 | |
ninjette.org member
Name: Craig
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
Join Date: Jul 2016 Motorcycle(s): 2014 Ninja 300 ABS, 2007 Yamaha FZ6 Posts: 210
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Quote:
Of course, it could easily be a power wire to both bulbs, but the parking bulb only has a green and a brown wire, and I'm guessing that the brown is the parking bulb's power wire. |
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September 1st, 2016, 04:23 PM | #27 |
Vintage Screwball
Name: B
Location: Washington
Join Date: Feb 2016 Motorcycle(s): 2011 Ninja 250, 2008 Ninja 250, 2019 KTM 1290SDR, 2017 FZ10 Posts: A lot.
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Have you checked your headlight fuse? Randomly hooking up wires to test them is kind of a bad thing.
I'd be testing for power on the wires coming off the bike before I assumed much of anything else. Then test the headlight itself to know what wires are what. Then connect.
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September 1st, 2016, 05:33 PM | #28 |
ninjette.org member
Name: Craig
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
Join Date: Jul 2016 Motorcycle(s): 2014 Ninja 300 ABS, 2007 Yamaha FZ6 Posts: 210
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Is it true that pregens have to be running in order for the headlight to turn on? I never noticed that, but I'm reading that this is the case.
If that is the case, then I'll have to wait to put the engine back together before I mess with the headlight (waiting on parts to get here). |
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September 1st, 2016, 05:53 PM | #29 | |
Guy Who Enjoys Riding
Name: Jim
Location: North Carolina
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Quote:
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1 out of 1 members found this post helpful. |
September 1st, 2016, 10:14 PM | #30 | |
Vintage Screwball
Name: B
Location: Washington
Join Date: Feb 2016 Motorcycle(s): 2011 Ninja 250, 2008 Ninja 250, 2019 KTM 1290SDR, 2017 FZ10 Posts: A lot.
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Quote:
Didn't even think of that.
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