New Bike! (custom build)

[Kevin]

Finished my winter project - a custom build of a 2001 Kawi Ninja ZX6R - turned it into a cafe racer thing. Thought I'd share!

I paid $350 for this bike.
Before pics - looks like it rolled right out of a junkyard - parts of it were literally held together with duct tape. It didn't run, and had been that way for the last several years:

http://i54.tinypic.com/24gulbd.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/166ahsk.jpg


EDIT: Here's the original thread I posted about this bike: http://www.cosportbikeclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36824

After:

http://i52.tinypic.com/2a8gc9g.jpg

http://i52.tinypic.com/3029v5v.jpg

http://i53.tinypic.com/mkeweo.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/2ef2gi1.jpg


Almost everything on this bike needed fixing, and there isn't much left stock! Took about 3 months working in my spare time. I sold all the parts I took off of it, and all in all, I spent about $600 net including the purchase price.

The tail is still a work in progress, (the LED strip is temporary) I'll be fiberglassing the plug tomorrow and I hope to have it done sometime this week.

Gawd, it feels good to be back on two wheels! Say hey if you see me around town. 8)

[cbrjohnny]

cool...

[WolFeYeZ]

That is amazingly awesome for just 600. Wish I had that kind of skill and that sweet bike :P

[spdu4ia]

beautiful build. would love to check it out sometime.

[Matty]

Looks good...

[extremepaint]

DDDAAAAYYYYYUUUUMMMMMMMM!!!!!!

im in love and for 600 bucks i'll pay you 601 right now!! haha J/K i love your taste and style the exhaust wrap looks awsome!

[FZRguy]

Very nice. Post some pics when you get her tail done.

[cptschlongenheimer]

Nice. Quite the transformation.

[Tylar]

Very nice!

[oh10raven]

Very cool, nice work!

[Toner]

Nice build! Was it difficult to smooth the frame in front of the airbox intake?

[Kevin]

Thanks all! Can't wait to get some miles on it and get rid of those chicken strips!


Nice build! Was it difficult to smooth the frame in front of the airbox intake?

Naw, just some careful grinding, sanding and then filling scratches with JBweld.


Very nice. Post some pics when you get her tail done.

Will do

[LordLosh]

Nice i usually dont like the look of "street" but i think that looks good. One thing i would like to see is some kind of muffler not sure what would fit or look good with this build but i dont like the pipes.

[Kevin]

If anyone's interested, here's a complete list of the work I've done:

Fabricated / modified / relocated:
• Aluminum headlight brackets made from aluminum stock and factory clip-ons
• Ignition lock cylinder mount removed, upper triple shaved smooth
• Guage bracket
• Unused mount points on lower triple removed
• Forks lowered internally 1.5", externally 1"
• Extra mount lugs removed from fork tubes
• Aluminum bracket to relocate ignition lock cylinder
• Aluminum brackets for coolant reservior
• Coolant reservior made out of a camping stove fuel bottle - cap modified for overflow, inlet mounted in bottom
• Seat pan shaved and seat shaped from combining factory front and rear seat foam, then shaved to shape. Latching pin mounted in seat pan
• Custom leather seat cover
• Subframe cut, lowered, welded, crossbar for seat latch added
• Battery box custom made
• Rear brake reservior mount
• Front brake reservior mount
• Lower radiator mount bar
• Under-seat storage compartment
• Seat latch / lock cylinder
• Battery / relays / fusebox / CDI / fuel pump relocated
• Wiring harness - shortened, all connectors relocated
• Frame / subframe / swingarm - ram air tubes gound flat, mount lug for factory headlight removed, holes drilled for mounting new brackets / clips / equipment - scratches, scrapes and dings filled
• Side stand shortened
• Clamps / guides for clutch cable
• Mount brackets for tail
• Fiberglass tail (not yet finished)
• Fuel lines
• Radiator fins straightened (my neck still hurts from that one...)

Bolt-ons:
• Vortec race clip-ons
• Ducati Monster headlight
• Pazzo short/long race levers
• Handlegrips
• Braided steel brake lines
• Supertrapp exhaust
• Heaader wrap
• License plate mount
• LED license plate lights
• Oberon foot pegs (ordered from England even!)
• Bar end mirrors
• Solid state flasher relay
• Rear lowering links
• Radiantz stop / turn / tail LED strip (not yet finished)

Parts replaced / new
• Rearset bolts
• Rear axle nut
• Several other rounded-off bolts around the bike
• All various factory bolts replaced with new allen bolts / cap screws, nuts replaced with nylocks the rest are media blasted & polished to be silver
• Upper steering head seal
• Fork seals
• Stator cover gasket
• Chain
• Lower radiator hose
• PCV hose
• Coolant expansion tank hose
• Throttle cables
• Brake reservior hoses
• Radiator bushings
• Tank bushings
• Clutch cable
• All zerk grease fittings
• Tires
• Chrome valve stems
• CDI
• Fuse / relay box

Painted / refinished
• Powder coated: Frame, swingarm, subframe.
• Black w/clear: Tank, wheels, fork tubes, brake rotors, headlight bucket, upper & lower triples, rearsets, heel guards, engine covers, misc brackets, lower radiator mount, coolant expansion tank.
• Wheels pinstriped
• Flat black: Engine, radiator, rear sprocket, storage tray, seat pan, timing cover, headlight ring, side stand, rear brake reservoir
• Every single other part and sub-assembly on this bike, not listed here, down to individual screws, springs and clips, was disassembled, cleaned, repaired and/or rebuilt then polished or painted.

I can't even tell you how screwed up this bike was. EVERY. SINGLE. PART. on this bike was broken, bent, leaking, cracked, put together wrong or just messed up somehow. I even found fix-a-flat in the rear tire! The front tire was on backwards - you think I'm exaggerating, even the bulb filaments were shorted in all the bulbs! Somehow, the headlight bulbs were the reason the high and low beams were reversed! it was endless, even down to re-assembly and a hairline crack in the crankcase causing an oil leak! When I say I disassembled every single assembly on this thing, I mean I even disassembled the brake masters, calipers, key lock cylinders (each one had a different problem) - at some point in the build, everything on this entire bike has been torn down completely into it's individual component parts (except the motor itself) until there was nothing left to disassemble - then fixed and re-assembled. It's fair to say that I'm intimately familiar with every inch of this bike. :loop:

Bike was purchased beginning of November for $350.
• According to ebay reciepts, I made about $1300 selling unused parts off the bike.
• Adding up reciepts for money spent shows I put about $1540 into the bike.
• With the purchase price, I spent a net total of $590 on this bike, not including tax, title and license fees.

Still to do:
• Re-wrap the tailpipe and ditch that clamp in the process. I ran out of header wrap 6" short of the end of the pipe, and would have wrapped it the other way to avoid a band at the rear, but I was out of metal bands, so that big ugly clamp had to suffice for now.
• Finish the tail piece / put a proper tail light on it.
• Wet sand the tank to take care of orange peel and a couple runs, and one of the engine covers that ended up with some odd air bubbles in the clearcoat. (Waiting to finish the tail so I can do it all at once)
• White gauge faces or aftermarket gauges.
• Some minor touch-up paint here and there.

[Kevin]

Nice i usually dont like the look of "street" but i think that looks good. One thing i would like to see is some kind of muffler not sure what would fit or look good with this build but i dont like the pipes.

Well, the pipes don't like you either! :p

[Cap'n Crunch]

That looks great Kevin! I'll keep an eye out for that thing around town - I'd like to see in person.

[Kevin]

That looks great Kevin! I'll keep an eye out for that thing around town - I'd like to see in person.

Chase me down if you see me

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

Might want to throw some more disks in tha Supertrapp end cap......

[Kevin]

Might want to throw some more disks in tha Supertrapp end cap......

I actually removed two because it was too loud - obnoxiously loud! Supertrapp - the only muffler where you add parts to make it louder...

[OUTLAWD]

nice!

but not much travel on the forks though, what'd ya do internally?

[MetaLord 9]

Well done! My streetfighter is headed somewhere down a similar path, but right now I'm just happy to have the damned thing running!

[Finklestein87]

WoW, the before and after is really spectacular!! Great job, it looks awesome!!

[Kevin]

Thanks all for the compliments!


nice!

but not much travel on the forks though, what'd ya do internally?

I replaced the internal spring preload spacer with PVC pipe. The new top spacer (PVC pipe) is 1.5" shorter than the factory spacer, and whatever you take out above the spring/damper assembly, you have to add in underneath it (between the lower stop and inner fork tube), so another 1.5" spacer between the lower spring and inner fork tube. This effectively moves the inner fork tube down in relation to the outer tube, spring and damping assembly without changing the spring rate or dampening.

I wanted to get it as low as I could, so before I lowered it, I needed to calculate how much travel the suspension required. I figured out that the stock spring was the correct rate for my weight, took a lot of careful measurements, tried to do a lot of complex math, gave up and put wire ties around the forks and did some stoppies to see how much travel was necessary. Then lowered accordingly, leaving a little bit of a margin for error. :)

[Mother Goose]

Looks way better than the original, even the brand new original. ;)

[Dr. Joe Siphek]

nice work Kevin...i really what you did with it. Only thing i don't agree with...the exhaust looks a little too long for my tastes! love it tho!

[Kevin]

The thread disappeared?

[Kevin]

weird, now it's back.

[bornwildnfree]

Um...wow...*drool* I think I just came a little in my chair.

[Kevin]

Um...wow...*drool* I think I just came a little in my chair.

TMI, dude, TMI.

[PhL0aTeR]

pretty damn sick dude... no matter what anyone thinks of how it looks, respect to the work that wet into it, taking a junker and making something out of it is awesome.