Kawasaki 650 Thinja notes; parts bin build

I have missed 5 months of riding due to an injury. Unable to work for a while, I sold a couple of my woods bikes to stay afloat. I have doing this build along with rebuilding a wr426 and an xr200 to keep my foot in the door. It has been a pain being unable to test ride the fruits of my labor.

This morning my daughter wanted to deliver some girlscout cookies up the road on her electric oset bike. My wife was kind of milling around the barn so I jumped on the xr200, all non-chalant-like. Up the road and back we went, no problemo. cool little bike

Why not shake the thinja down as well?



Throw a plate on it and off to the safeway we go, taking the back way on dirt. I'm surprised at how agile it actually feels, not like a turd at all. I went very slow but I can tell that this might be a fun scooter. Middleburg was full of bikes but I didn't see anything like the thinja there. Awesome day!

Colorado sure is beautiful this time of year .

Didn't realize you had an injury - hope you're healing up alright.

Nice

But the peg feelers have to go

healing up well, thanks! you must have eagle eyes to bust me on the plate

This thing wouldn't have happened without you blazing the trail. thanks. Peg feelers gone and so are the knobbies for today:




This bike can now go four ways. Sportbike mode, naked, beast and now motard. The bike is pretty much ready to ride but I need to decide on things like protection, accessories and cargo

Good job getting it out on the street. That is a big step forward!

Do you have 2 sets of wheels? Are they both from a KTM?

Yes, it seems I now have a wheel collection but my goal was to able to share wheels between the various bikes I tinker with. That's why the KTM swaps appealed to me.

Motor cycle schizophrenia; make your dirtbike more streetworthy then make a streetbike more dirtworthy.

I think I can now use any KTM wheels, front or rear, from 1993 to 2011.

Also, I forgot to mention the seat height with the 17s installed is 33 inches and the sidestand lengthened by 3 inches is perfect.

That looks fantastic.

Thanks, man.

I decided to mount a tire to my new rear wheel and change back over to knobbies. It should have been a fifteen minute job but NOOOO. The tire turned out to be too tall for the swingarm so I had to break the chain and add a link. The tire was also too wide and hit the muffler. Luckily the 2 Bros can can be swiveled at 2 joints so i ended up spinning the can 90 degrees for clearance.

Then the spokes were rubbing the brake caliper so out comes the grinder for some action.

Finally, note the SWM tail rack installed so the bike is officially an ADV bike. (once i get a bag or case for it)

I have an offroad jaunt planned for next weekend so i'll be back with a report/helmetcam footage.

This is great work. We need some sort of Medals or other ADV awards and ceremonies.

I'm hoping several of you smart Ninjenstein Builders could collaborate on an Authorized Version Build Bible. Give us the canonical partslist and instructions!

The rack looks good on the bike. Anxious to read about your ride.

I got the Thinja muddy at least. I took it along to a camp and ride where I knew there would be at least a fire road loop for it and thought I'd get to do some gentle trail work. It was my first offroad run in six months after an injury so i was apprehensive about riding this or even my trail bike offroad.

Rain, cold, sleet, snow, mud, oops. The Thinja was parked amongst 30 proper offroad machines and many of the guys thought it was cool, or at least that's what they said. Better get it dirty...



The motor is really good; lugs down really well and snorts and wails if provoked. sorry about hitting neutral like that.









The handling was ok in that it was very greasy and it wasn't a wrestling match keeping the thing straight. there were some good holes in the road and the suspension felt ok. I'm pleased that the bike can actually be ridden in an offroad style; standing position, throttle blipping, front wheel lofting, lugging etc. I really had no idea of what to expect.:eek1

I found the seat to be a problem when i sat down to see if i could "rail" a corner or two. Too low for me and the sit/stand transition was weird.

I can definitely feel the weight in comparison to a trailbike. Top heavy and slow to shift balance from peg to peg. That said, I am pleasantly surprised with this bike and would expect it to do ok on most fire road, two track, and some atv type routes. Just have to avoid dropping it a bunch or getting it stuck. Probably good enough for most offroad rides where people take dualsport thumpers.

Still no idea on road manners, long range comfort, high speed ability etc. This was just a quick "let's see if this is just a turd with knobbies" outing. SO far I like it and don't regret the time and effort spent. I need to try some other beasts out for comparison. I initiall was thinking "poor man's f800" when i started this. It's not really fair to compare the Thinja to a trailbike.

oscars, grammies, razzies, espys, now "Baldys"

"Tonight the Baldy for the most blatant theft of some one else's build ideas goes to...................................................................dentvet"

thanks zapp, riding the bike around is the reward. I was thinking of doing a list of steps for the conversion to give to somebody buying the bike. I still like the fact that this can be changed back to the stock configuration without too much trouble.

Hey thanks for offroad review. It's good to hear no major turn offs. I am not surprized by the seat issue. Mine feels way too low in the shop, plan on raising it a few inches.

Great video, I thought you were going to blow by those guys on the small bikes!

Passed the deep sand test at cape hatteras with flying colors. This motor is really really good. The bike is starting to grow on me.

Very Cool Build....Cool bike....Nice Pics Too...

I can't get over the silver rear end and the silver seat.. can't help thinking that
the black 2007's 650r color scheme would work better (black seat and silver frame), especially the color of the seat which looks like it's from a supersport
because of the silver rear section.

thanks for that, its a pretty easy build in hindsight and the bike actually works

i'd have to agree that the red frame isnt my favorite, nor is the seat. i think the bike would look good blacked out. There are other cleaner builds for sure, mine is pretty ratty but I'm quite pleased with the performance, I can't believe that the motor is so tractable.

Today W wizard and I did a proper dualsport ride. He on his brand new H570, me on thinja. thinja isn't quite a woods weapon but its surprisingly capable.

Please don't laugh too heartily, it might just work out in the end.....

Send that seat to Spencers's, I can attest to his recipe for the ninja seat. Long distance option recommended.

Thanks for the link, SJ. Ii'm going to give this bastard a little time. I shoved the wheelbarrow inner tube into a nylon satchel and attached some squeeze clips to the front to hold it on. I then put a folded rain jacket in the donut hole area of the tube. It raises the seat position a few inches and it feels good so far, (seating ergos, sit/stand transition).

It is very ugly to look at but i don't shiv a git. how much does an air hawk cost? How about the spencer mod?