OK so I crashed my Baby now that I am on the mend, It is time to pimp my bike.

[TFKninja]

I crashed my Bike Back in Early august, I have been told 3months to mend. A brocken heal takes a long time to heal. I hired myself a wheelchair to get around in so my hands are free to tinker. So I started to strip my bike, and shop for parts, I used to like my bike being stock but after going down to the dealers and finding out that the repair is gonna cost as much as buying a zx6 new I told them jam sand up there bums, and I have taken my business to the net. And also using my own crafty skills aswell. I have ordered to start with a new upper fairing bracket from a Dealer in the States, for half the price of what they wanted here. I have found that Danmoto do clip-ons really cheap, they will replace my bent handle bar, for less than a quater of the dealer price, Some other parts I'll just have to go to a wrecker for secondhand parts. They wanted $200 for a new pillion seat, so I went and bought a sheet of leather for $70 I can recover both seats with, no more vinyl. I have my Eye on a new fairing kit. It is black with Kawasaki green flames on it. as My bike was black. It goes with the black tank. It has givin me a good excuse to go alll out and put all the fancy stuff on it now with out the missus(bosses) permission. Hey she gets a nice ne wleather seat to put her bum on now. It is a step by step process as funds a slightly restricted but this thread will be a good spot for me to thread my before and after shots. I dont have any of the bike in its crashed condition as its too graphic for the faint hearted. I do however have photo's of her nekked for the beginning of the rebuild.... photo's coming soon..

[Mocha Man]

Sounds like it will turn out nice! Pics when it's all put together and heal up completely soon!

[TFKninja]

Ok, some Photo's finally so far. More parts are on the way, for the pillion seat I have a new grab strap getting made at a boot makers, I was pleasantly surprised how nice the leather looked on completion, I will send photo's in with them on the bike when I get the new fairings on but it looks great so far. And the job was very easy to do myself which makes this rebuild more enjoyable.

[Mocha Man]

Nice! Glad to hear it's slowly coming together! Wheel on, man

[HKr1]

Seats look pretty good!

[key3thermal]

How will the dan-moto clip ons fit the 250? Doesn't the 250 require 37mm? the smallest on their website is 41mm i think. I don't know anything about it, just curious.

And the seats look great.

[Nemesis]

Wow! Me like.

Please give me the details (leather material, how-to, etc.). Post up a DIY plz.

[cliff0529]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

Wow! Me like.

Please give me the details (leather material, how-to, etc.). Post up a DIY plz.

It's pretty simple. I've redone several seats, but used marine grade vinyl instead of leather, it's cheaper and a little easier to take care of.

All you need is:
Hand held staple gun (Like this one)
Some short 1/4" staples (Like these
1yd of Marine grade vinyl (Like this)
a Flat Blade screwdriver
a pair of needle nose pliers
A pair of scissors

Then you remove your seats, and use the screwdriver and needlenose pliers to remove the stock covers. Slide the screwdriver under the factory staples and twist it, that'll "tent" the staple, use the needlenose pliers to pull it out.

Once you get the covers off, lay the seat upside down on top of your vinyl. You'll want the finished side of the material facing down. Now draw an outline of your seat on the vinyl. Use your scissors and follow the outline, but leave about 2-3 inches of material outside of your pattern. You'll get the shape, but want it bigger than the seat.

Now, load the staples into your gun and start at either the front or rear of the seat. Place a few (3-4 staples) there and then pull the material tight at the other end of the seat and staple those in. Slowly work your way around the seat in symmetric fashion, i.e. don't go all the way around one way or the other, work back a few inches on each side at a time. Be sure to pull the material tight before stapling it, remember it's got some stretch to it and you don't want to look loose on the seat. If you mess it up, just pull the staples and try it again. Once you've got it all stapled down, trim your excess material and you're good to go. Also, some of the staples won't go all the way in, just take a hammer and tap them into place when your finished.

It takes some patience, but it's not hard. The rear is harder than the front on the New Gens because of it's shape, but some stretching and bunching (folding the material over itself on the bottom of the seat) will get you a fairly good fit with very minimal wrinkles at the edges.

I'm actually trying to get someone to teach me and my wife to sew, as I think it'd be neat to be able to make "custom" seat covers for friends and stuff. My wife has a machine that let's me do some basic embroidery, nothing too fancy, simply because I don't really know how to use it yet.

Anyways, this is what the end result should look like.


Also, the yard of material will be enough to do several bikes as you'll have 36" X 54" swath of material, I think I did my dirtbike seat, my wife's ninjette and my friend used some to redo the seat on his FJR all on one yard, I had to buy some more to do my bike, but I've still got about half of that left over. Even if you didn't have the stapler, you could buy everything you needed and do it for less than $35-40.

[TFKninja]

The danmoto slip ons I have sent an email and no reply, so will probably just go back to OEM, woodcrafts are reasonable until you add the freight to Australia. The chinese ship here frequently so shipping is cheap, It's just getting what you want though, The seats are nice, If the leather doesn't work out I will go for the vinyl next but I'm not too concerned, Has to be the easiest thing I've had to do so far, Went to put my slip on can on yesterday and it wouldnt fit, scratchin my head thinkin, "it did last time" to find the back end of the bike twisted, so me and My father got the big bars out and straightened it up, Was a bit of a mission but is back to normal now. I am expecting my upper fairing bracket, Led indicators, and adjustable brake and clutch levers, this week, I will be ordering the fairing kit, after that, I will have to bite the bullet and go to the dealer for the handle bar and throttle cable, no wreckers have any available, Ive given up on the clip on idea, there are so many good cheap parts online but shipping to australia is what makes it too expensive. The number plates on my bike say WA, which is for Western Australia not Washington. lol. They are unusual for our area, they are country plates, because the bike was originally my M8's who used to live in Albany Western Australia, That's what the A at the start means. Albany is a small country town in the south west.

[TFKninja]

*clip ons

[key3thermal]

how loud is that dan-moto carbon gp? Did you get the baffle?

[TFKninja]

Yep the Dan moto is tooo loud, Baffle is on the way, hope it makes a difference, I bought this before I had the crash, I put it on , Took it for a ride, Got home and took it off, The stock exhaust is over $800aud so I am back to this, I should get the baffle this week, Will tell u if it makes it sound better, I also found it robbed performance and popped alot so I have the shimming of the carbs to do and kleen air system removal on the things to do list.

[key3thermal]

Originally Posted by TFKninja

Yep the Dan moto is tooo loud, Baffle is on the way, hope it makes a difference, I bought this before I had the crash, I put it on , Took it for a ride, Got home and took it off, The stock exhaust is over $800aud so I am back to this, I should get the baffle this week, Will tell u if it makes it sound better, I also found it robbed performance and popped alot so I have the shimming of the carbs to do and kleen air system removal on the things to do list.

That sucks. I ordered my dan-moto carbon gp last week with the baffle. Fingers crossed. If you get it before i post my result here please let me know about the sound with the baffle.

[TFKninja]

Ok so next tick off on my my mods list is I have now got LED turning signals on the rear. they look sharp, dunno why Kawasaki didn't think of them. I have more stuff on order from modmy250.com and ebay. I have got relay,diode, flushmounts, from modmy250, I went and took the gamble with the chinese fairing kits, I am pretty handy and have a garage with enough tools to open a hire shop, the cost of genuine ones are out of my price range. 2500 difference I also have a mate with a panel shop. If it works I will recommend him and if I find issues I may just have to do a DIY on it. The kit is black with Kawasaki green flames, I received my baffle today from Danmoto, It doesn't seem to make much difference but it is hard to tell, I'm getting used to it now, I really don't care if it is too loud anymore, after my crash I will do anything to make myself a noticeable presence on the road. I am getting more illumination as well. I am hoping the fairings are a bit more noticeable too I am still a bit freaked out by the whole think. I struggle to watch motogp, I had a guy in my ward who had the same bike as me, he got T-boned by a 4x4 with a big bullbar. He now has a titanium hip and numerous broken bones down his right side of his body, he lost 3 toes. He has had to promise his wife and kids to never ride again. After ten years. I have only started riding, my wife and kids are fine with me getting back on a bike again, It will be a challenge,but it is me, I love a good challenge, My pins in my foot get taken out on Wednesday. so another step closer to recovery. Still wont be walking for a while but at least the way my bike is going it should be ready on time. This is the second time I've written this so it may be different but for some reason it vanished and I had to start again, so it is probably different but just in case it does appear I hope you enjoy 2 different versions of it. I shall keep posting as all the new stuff arrives. Now to wheel myself down to the letterbox to wait for all the new mods to arrive. Wish me luck with those fairings.

[TFKninja]

Ok nearly everything is ordered and on the way, will be posting some more pics soon, put the baffle in and shimmed the carbs, sounds alot better, looking forward to getting her back on the road again soon.

[TFKninja]

Chinese fairings were a bit of a PIA but they are on and they look good and it saved me alot of $$$$, I have been looked after well by the supplier and they are apparently gonna compensate me for my inconvenience.It is recommended if you are handy and patient and also don't expect too much for what you pay for, after all it is very cheap. heymanspeed is the supplier they have the best variety of graphics. They asked me for advice and I'm thinking of replying to make them out of a rubber compound so you can stretch them to make them fit better.lol

[Squalo]

Looks pretty slick...The green adds a nice flare to the bike.

[Jiggles]

Damn that is sick, I would definitely get that in blue

[WhiteRice]

Originally Posted by TFKninja

Chinese fairings were a bit of a PIA but they are on and they look good and it saved me alot of $$$$, I have been looked after well by the supplier and they are apparently gonna compensate me for my inconvenience.It is recommended if you are handy and patient and also don't expect too much for what you pay for, after all it is very cheap. heymanspeed is the supplier they have the best variety of graphics. They asked me for advice and I'm thinking of replying to make them out of a rubber compound so you can stretch them to make them fit better.lol

Looks good dude! How much extra work did it take to get the fairings to fit right?

I would imagine this manufacture took casts of the stock fairings to create molds. The thing about abs plastic is that it shrinks as it cools.

[Lil_Green_Demon]

@TFKninja, do you have that supplier's site address? I might be interested in seeing what they've got.
Do the Kawi green flames actually look like they're the exact neon green Kawi uses on the Ninja 250R?

[play2pwn]

how hard is the installation
and the fitment?

[TFKninja]

Ok you will end up with some screws left over. Lol when it comes to the light and the speedometer, the light requires new screws. The speedo I have told them about, but the brackets aren't thick enough for the grommets so I shimmed them with some rubber o- rings. Some holes needed to be bored out to correct size and even ovel shaped. I really had to stretch the side fairing to fit the last screws. ABS shrinking when cold makes sense. Maybe do it in the middle of summer and leave them in the sun for a while before fitting them. Lol. I have a couple of spots that need to be trimmed and repainted. But like I said I have a mate with a panel shop. They are sending me paint. The green does look genuine Kawasaki. I love it. I prefer black but now I've the best of both worlds. I am still having issues with my throttle cables. But all I am waiting for now is my new handle bar and ct thunder has also sent me flush mounts indicators and relay and diodes etc. I now have indicators on the mirrors. My ankle is still a little knackered from the crash but I'm sure I can give it go and ride as soon as it's ready. Yeeeeehar. Got the loud dan moto and the hot look, hope I'm seen now.

[Liist]

I have the same LED arrowhead lights for the front two when my bike went down on the side. It looks much nicer than the stock rear lights, and I might as well get some since I already have the LED relay in the bike.

I was thinking about getting Chinese fairings, but I'm not too good installing stuff that don't fit. I just wish I could just get the fairings I damaged replaced with aftermarkets, but that doesn't seem to be an option.

[Lil_Green_Demon]

I was considering the Chinese fairings, but the hassle doesn't seem worth it to me. I'm not very mechanically inclined, so eh...

The bike is looking good, though, OP.

[TFKninja]

I've been out on her for the first time since the crash, feels great, still have problems with slack throttle cables but can still ride. I need a holder for my crutches, and a good spot for my handicap permit, I can ride but cant walk very far, still.

[Mocha Man]

Glad to hear that it's going good

[THE BIG SITT]

[TFKninja]

you have pics, my throttle cable issue is resolved, the new cables I received were close but no cigar, I have no Idea what they are for but not this ninja, The cables were slightly longer but the main problem was the outer was shorter, I also noticed the cable was thinner, I just put my old ones back in even thought the adjuster on the opening cable is broken , It still works. I'm starting to use the crutches less now but I will get pics up when the weather sorts it self out and lets me ride a bit more, it is late spring here now and we are still getting rain, which is unusual for our climate.