The $100 Ninja | Page 7 | GTAMotorcycle.com

The $100 Ninja

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Gas station compressor couldn't pop the bead. Brought the rim to Cycle Source in Brampton where a semi-friendly guy helped me out after ribbing me for not lining up the red dot with the valve stem (I did, tire just moved on me during my hopeless attempts at setting the bead.) Anyhoo, he managed to do it after a couple minutes. I offered to pay but he wouldn't take my money. Thanks brah. *fistbump*

I zip-tied the speedo sensor to the fork as a proof-of-concept and, drat, I can't just drop the magnets inside the bolt heads, the sensor needs them to be facing the other way so I can get a reading. Now I understand why people epoxy the magnets in place. I think I'm going to order a magnetic rotor bolt instead, it's 10 bucks or so.
 
About that tail section - while it might look decent when photographed from a flattering angle:

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...it's actually an unsightly mess:

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Plan is to delete the overhanging part of the rear fender and mount a custom bracket to the subframe:

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Actually, I just realized that the rear part of my fender is just bolted on. Woot. Looks like I won't need to pull out the hacksaw just yet.
 
That's a little more presentable, methinks:

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(Someone who isn't me may or may not have gone on a little joyride around the hood with the FJ's plate on. That same someone who isn't me thought he would fly under the radar while riding a nondescript black bike - not so. That Kerker is stupid loud, borderline obnoxious. Someone who isn't me turned heads along the way.)
 
Ha! Found the source of the oil weep, in the most unexpected of locations.

Started removing the bolts to the badly scratched stator cover so I could inspect/clean/potentially repaint it. At some point oil started dripping out of there! I did not know that an oil-cooled stator was a thing.

Anyhoo, the cover gasket is broken at the bottom. Boom! Pretty happy about it actually, that's an easy and cheap fix.

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I have a question re: front fenders. It looks like my forks have a somewhat common setup i.e. mounting holes that are laid out horizontally, 60mm apart.

I wanna get a fender from another Kawi that comes standard with a 120/70 front tire so I'm not forever stuck mounting 120/60 tires.

So how likely is it that something like this, a fender from a 2000 ZR-7S, would simply bolt on without modification?

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/282026389495
 
*crickets*

Fine then, be like that. I'm headed to Ontario Cycle Salvage with my measuring tape.
 
*crickets*

Fine then, be like that. I'm headed to Ontario Cycle Salvage with my measuring tape.

Oh wait. My "project" ZX-11D has a 120/70 front, apparently. You don't want that fender, as it's a bit space-shippy on its own. However, there was a popular fender swap... think it was a later model ZX6/ZX9 fender?
 
Looks like Ontario Cycle Salvage is closed for good. Big pile of yellowed papers sitting at the front door. Thanks for updating your opening hours on Google, ********.

TO Cycle Salvage mostly had older stuff for 18 inch wheels. Quirky & friendly owner.

I'll look into possible swaps, thx TK.
 
Finding a universal sort of front fender for a standard 17-inch wheel is surprisingly hard. Very easy for 18/19/21in cruisers, just not for regular old sporty bikes.

Anyway, I believe I've found one, along with the best solution to mount it. This guy has the right dimensions and I can epoxy it on top of the old fender brace. Just need to pop/grind the rivets off of the remnants of the front fender to recycle the brace.

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In the end, I bought an OEM fender and I pulled out my French curve set and a coping saw.

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I had a couple cans of black Plasti Dip left over from another project, so I unclogged them and went to town:

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I may buy a can of Glossifier depending on how matte it looks after curing.

Should look half-decent once it's on the bike.
 
While waiting for the Plasti Dip to fully cure, why not tear into the carb rack to see what kind of horror we're dealing with.

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Everything is surprisingly clean! I still gave the metal bits a quick Pine-Sol bath for good luck, but the pilot jets aren't clogged and the float bowls only had a trace amount of rusty grime.

I'm clearly not the first guy to have been inside these carbs - mixture screws are exposed and the main jets are way bigger than stock (144 vs. 135). Needles were lowered to the very bottom/leanest setting, which is probably what's causing the hesitation at 1/4 throttle. I put the clips back in the middle, hopefully that solves it.

I have a Stage 1 Dynonet kit on the way (US$20 on eBay!) The main jets are 140s and the kit includes different needles. I'm debating whether I should use the kit or simply experiment with the current jets and needles. Seems likely that a PO matched the jetting to the Kerker exhaust? Just don't understand why they set the needle at the very leanest setting.
 
Seems likely that a PO matched the jetting to the Kerker exhaust? Just don't understand why they set the needle at the very leanest setting.

Maybe he didn't know carb theory, did it look like he gave a f? Are you going to hog out the airbox?
 
Hog out? Speak to me like I don't speak English.

Should I do anything to the airbox? I installed a new Uni foam filter and that had a positive effect on throttle response. Old filter was gross.

The carbs have fairly long rubber velocity stacks inside the airbox. Not sure why I'm mentioning this. It's clearly a stock feature.
 
Typically when using performance exhaust one opens up the intake side either by removing the snorkel and/or drilling additional holes and jetting to suit. That actually makes a fair bit of power difference as well as intake honk. I would expect to see talk of specific size holes on the owners forums.

"did it look like he gave a f" comment was in reference to the PO name Dilligaf
 

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