List of mods for my Ninja 250-R

I suppose this is the place to go into a bit more detail about the mods I've done on my bike:

2006 Kawasaki EX250. Red.

Part------Explaination------------Rating-----Result

Headlight: Upgraded to 80/100 Xenon-(4/5), Much better visability

Horn: Installed air horn (1/5), much heavier, not much louder.

12V socket: Installed marine socket, (4/5) now I have heated gloves.

Windscreen: ZG Double Bubble (3/5) Better looking, easier to see through, stronger, but expensive for such a smal upgrade.

Countershaft sprocket: Went from 14T to 15, then 16T. (3/5). Better mileage, more useable 1st gear, but not as much fun.

Air Intake: K&N pod Filters (2/5), Slight increase in power, but not worth rejetting it 9 or 10 times.

O2 Sensor: Installed Sensor and AFR monitor. (?/5). No point unless you are rejetting, then it's worth it's weight in gold.

Luggage side cases: JC Whitney cases (4/5). Having cases is excellent. Price is excellent. Quality of cases is mediocre.

Front Fork Springs: Progressives (5/5) love the progressives for rough riding, though I add a LOT of preload for the track. If not riding on dirt, get something else.

Rear Shock: Used Suzuki RF600 shock. (3/5) Huge improvement over stock, but I wish it was easier to adjust the preload.

Front Brake: Vesra Pads (4/5) Huge improvement, but probably should have spent the money for braided lines first.

Rear Turn Signals: Integrated into empty pod light sockets (2/5). Had to ditch the old ones for the side cases. Visibility is worse, but with 55w signals it's still pretty good, and looks cleaner.

Front Tire: Pirelli MT75. Amazing tire. (5/5) Lasts long, only $65.

Rear tire, Street/Unpaved: Pirelli Sport Demon. (5/5) Best 16" tire that fits.

Rear tire, track: Pirelli MT75 (5/5) Smaller, lighter, great grip, doesn't last as long.

That's all I can remember doing since I got it last year, though there might be some more minor stuff.

OK AMIGO, if you want us to beilive then show and teld, one picture = 1,000+ words!

Damasovi

Okay, here are a few pics.
You can see the socket in the first one, the O2/AFR monitor on the right clipon on the second one, as well as the turn signal pods, and the MT75 tire in the last one.

Muchas gracias!! Now I can see some of the stuff you have put and it looks great!!

Damasovi

Nice setup. I'd also like hard cases, it gives you some peace of mind when you leave the bike.
I had a top case on my st1100 from jc whitney, and that thing just broke by hiting potholes. How are yours holding up?

So far so good. The quality isn't great, but it seems to work so far.
These are top cases, I've just mounted them on the sides, and they do stay on. I've loaded them up quite heavily on one of the dirt rides, and they held up great them--I wasn't sure they would. My main complaint so far has been that with the position they are mounted in right now and no rubber seal, the contents will get wet when it rains. I could probably fix that easily enough, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Side cases on a 250 is not seen too often. Nice! You care to share how you mounted them?

How I mounted them:

My friend recently got a full set of GIVI sidecases for his bike for $800+. I really liked his cases, so I looked at getting some for mine.
I started looking around, and found universal mount Top Cases on JC Whiteney's website.
Top cases are the cases that sit behind the passenger, either with a bracket or attached to a luggage rack. I wanted to get side cases (like hard saddlebags), figuring that I can store more in two medium sized side cases than one large top case.
So, I ordered them for only $150 with free shipping. They came with a free "universal bracket" which to clamp them onto any luggage rack. That's a really cool feature, except that I don't have a luggage rack on the back of my bike, let alone one hanging down each side.
What I do have, however is 4 little hooks that flip up where you can attach a bungee cord. I have yet to figure out how to secure anything substantial to the passenger seat using a bungee cord, but I figured they might at least make some decent mounting points for whatever I had to build.
I was right. They're held in place by a single bolt, which goes straight through the frame, making it a very secure and sturdy place to attach something heavy.
Of course, I couldn't just bolt the mounting plate straight on, since the screw is pretty deeply set inside the fairing--I'd need to extend it out somehow, as well as making sure they would still be high enough so as to clear the cases of the exhaust pipes. And, of course, it needed to be strong, since the weight would now have a few inches of leverage on it.
My solution was to take a solid steel bar, cut it up into four pieces, and drill a hole through the middle where I could insert a bolt.
The first part was easy. It's the drilling through 7 inches of solid steel that's the hard part. I very quickly discovered that Titanium Nitrate plated drill bits just don't work on solid steel. Sheet metal, yes. Even 1/4-inch steel. But that's about it. So after a trip to the local shop to buy some cobalt drill bits (which last about 3 inches of steel each), I finally had steel rods to use as spacers, as well as some long bolts to go through them and into the frame. I decided to leave on the hooks, since hooks might always be useful, and they did a good job of holding the steel spacers a bit more securely.
Here's the picture, since that's a bit complicated to explain:

This hold the bracket firmly at the top, and works great. Here is the side view:

Of course, the brackets are angled out a bit to the sides to clear the fairing, so they'll need some support on the bottom.
My initial solution for this was to simply have a metal rod go through the bike above the tire, holding the two brackets together. This worked great, but on very large bumps, and when riding 2-up, I was suprised to find that the suspension actually dipped low enough for the tire to hit the bar. I couldn't notice it while riding, and wasn't able to replicate it in my garage, even with my friends all pulling down on the rear, but I later noticed tire marks on the steel bar.
So, rather than having the bar go all the way through, I insead decided to mount the brackets straight to the undertail/fender.
The fender is cheap, soft plastic, so trying to get anything to mount to it is not a great idea. I got 4 small rectangles of sheet metal, and cut them down to the shape of the fender. Then I bolted them to each side of the plastic, sandwiching the flimsy plastic between to bits of steel. Bolts are facing outward, because I really don't want the tire to catch only the sharp side, however unlikley it might be.
To connect the bracket to the fender, I cut a metal rod to the right size, and ground down the ends to match the beveled angle. I then glued in wooden dowels inside the steel rods so that I'd have something into which I could screw, and installed that between the steel plates and the bracket for the case.

The brackets are now very secure, and I can easily put pretty much anything in the side cases. They'll each fit a full face helmet, a few 2-liter bottles of soda, or a couple of gallon milk jugs. I would have gone for the larger size, but that unfortunately wasn't possible because then they'd melt on the exhaust. Still, I haven't yet run out of space.
Total cost was around $165 for everything.
I've since put some washers on the bolts for a bit of extra security.

Very helpful.

Thanks for taking the time to post.

Ned

Anybody the throws bags onto a 250 ninja is ok with me.

Thanks!



Edit:

Guess I should have done some checking first eh?

Installing side cases: Pics and description - http://forums.ninja250.org/viewtopic.php?t=63664

Nice dirty video (shows the cases at 2:15) - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7529124577801999491

I think I read about that ride before.

No problem. The copy and paste job was easy.

$7: Bungee Cargo Net



You can move thte hooks around depending on what your load is. Mine will hold of 12 pack of Heineken securely - is that a substantial load?

I think..." it's not heavy... it's my beer " might apply here.

I've always wondered if those topboxes wouold work if they were mounted on the sides. You don't think that they might bust off if they were weighed down and you hit a pothole? I like the Ninjette, but I was worried about being able to carry stuff.

Very nice work!

Hey skippi, i noticed you are in VA. Hit me up for a ride if you are riding this weekend.

I have one of those.
It's really not all that useful for anything I've wanted to carry.

I've ridden though potholes with a gallon of milk in each one and soem 2-liter bottles of soda, with no problem. I haven't gone heavier than that, but I can't really see why I'd need to, either.
I could probably borrow an anvil from my metalworking friend if I ever wanted to torture test it, but ...well, I don't want to.
I've had them loaded up pretty heavy to do dirt trails and they held up just fine.
I doubt they'd be okay if I ever went down at speed, but I've luckily never had to test that, and they probably wouldn't be too high on my priority list in that case anyway.

I have to work 6 straight graveyard shifts this weekend (covering for someone on vacation), so I won't be doing much riding this week. Maybe next week, though!

Hey Skippii,

Name is Mike and I live in Harrisonburg also. I recently purchased an 06' EX250 with 3400mi as my graduation present to myself (JMU 08 - Geography) and have since put on more than 500 in the last two weeks. I have been riding around the valley now for a few years on scooters and a CB200 and am pretty knowledgeable of the roads. I actually think I saw your ninja with the side brackets and removed lower fairing last Saturday on Port and Main. Anyways, If you are planning a ride later in June or July, I would definitely like to meet up. Prefereably on asphalt...

-Mike