Kawasaki 650 Thinja notes; parts bin build

[dentvet]

Here are some notes regarding the rebuild of the ubiquitous Ninja 650R bike. Sanjoh and Jdrocks and others have great builds going on and i'm trying to emulate those efforts. I have posted a lot in their threads, probably creating confusion for those following along. I guess its time for me to move my clutter into its own space. Maybe this will get me to be more organized.

My bike came through the insurance auctions, apparently somebody did a 3 o'clock wheelie on it. Mostly cosmetic damage. I had no need for a sportbike but thought a dirt ninja might be interesting.

Here it is after i picked it up from woodswizard:



I stripped all the damaged plastic off, weighed it at just under 400 #. Purrs like a cat but the 2 bros is too loud.



Cleaned away the fairing stay and mounted the headlight and clocks onto the forks.




I rode it around in this configuration a bit and found it to be a pleasant bike overall. I probably should have left it like this but I have a bunch of bike parts that might work to make the bike more dirt-road capable. Maybe I could take it on fire roads, etc.

Things that make the bike not dirt-roadable:

weighs 400 pounds
has a bulbous fuel tank
bars are low and the pegs are too far back
street suspension and tires
low ground clearance

I'll try to work on some of those issues before springtime.

Front end. Street forks and 17 inch tires need an upgrade. Sanjoh used a front end off a ktm 640 so I thought i'd just do the same. I have a 400sx bike donor.



I am trying to use a YZ triple clamp wth shims to hold the 43mm WP forks. The KTM clamps are too short and sanjoh found that the top clamp hits the fuel tank at full turn. The YZ clamp solves both of these issues and has steering offset of 22.5 mm compared to the 20mm KTM figure. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

The steering stem is going to require a shim for the upper bearing to take it to 35mm from 28. The Ninja bearings are 35/55mm units, the YZ stem takes 30 and 28mm bearings. Honda streetbike bearings are 30/55 so I will run one of those along with the shimmed upper from Kawasaki streetbikes.





Today's issue, the rear wheel:

I'm fitting a KTM cush wheel onto said thinja. Centering the wheel necessitates shimming the sprocket 15mm to the left for sprocket alignment. Here is a rough draft sprocket spacer. Is it possible to buy sprocket spacers? (I have seen rotor spacers)



A couple FYI items learned in the other threads:
KTM and Thinja share 520 chains, 20mm rear axles and 220mm rear rotors
Yamaha rear sprockets fit KTM but not vice versa

[jdrocks]

a THINJA, sounds cool.

by the looks of the old tank, i hope it wasn't certain body parts that did that.

[Kawidad]

I'm in. I love these Ninja builds. I may give it a go in about a year from now.

[Cortez]

[istbenz]

Subscribed! I've been following these adventure ninja threads taking notes- maybe I'll get around to making one of these too

BA

[sanjoh]

Hey nice color scheme



Not sure where you are on the build, I would recommend tackling one area/project at a time just to keep your sanity

[dentvet]

yes I have parts strewn all over the place.

Here is the triple clamp detail.

Kawasaki streetbike steering stems are 35mm diameter and the steering head is 55mm diameter. I had an extra triple from a 06 yz250 on hand. Bottom stem is 30mm and top is 28mm. I decided to keep the stock kawasaki bearings so i made sleeves for the yz stem; 30/35mm for the bottom and 28/35 for the top. First job for the old lathe i just bought.



KTM forks from 99-02 were 43 USD WP units. They were 2mm smaller in diameter than YZ forks on both the top and bottom triple clamps. I found some .025" aluminum sheet (Pretty close to 1mm) and cut and rolled some fork tube shims for the clamps to bite onto.

I could have easily just got a yamaha dirt front end but now I'll be able to share a KTM sumo setup I have if for some reason it makes sense to do so.

The ninja clamp sure looks like a turd:

[sanjoh]

Originally Posted by dentvet

The ninja clamp sure looks like a turd

Yep

FYI the stock 650r wheels share axle diameter with ktm front and rear. A few spacers and a caliper bracket for the front and sumo you go.

What size brake disk are you running on the front?

[dentvet]

I only have the standard dirt rotors; 260mm. I think I have a 300mm caliper adapter. Do you think the 260 is too wimpy?

I need some longer sprocket bolts because of my home-made spacer. DO these look appropriate or does anybody have a source? I need about 45mm length with the countersunk type head.

http://www.boltdepot.com/product.asp...&cm=71&cd=1324

I'm going to run a yamaha sprocket, I guess i'll go 46 teeth so I can use the ninja chain.

[sanjoh]

Originally Posted by dentvet

I only have the standard dirt rotors; 260mm. I think I have a 300mm caliper adapter. Do you think the 260 is too wimpy?

Try it and see The 300 on mine works great unless I'm thrashing on the Cherhola so I just slow down.

Originally Posted by dentvet

I need some longer sprocket bolts because of my home-made spacer. DO these look appropriate or does anybody have a source? I need about 45mm length with the countersunk type head.

http://www.boltdepot.com/product.asp...&cm=71&cd=1324

High Tensile, should be fine.

Originally Posted by dentvet

I'm going to run a yamaha sprocket, I guess i'll go 46 teeth so I can use the ninja chain.

I'd recommend a 48 with a 18" rear rim. Puts the speedo right on, 5800@80, econo cruise 5500@75 (51mpg) and still a low enough 1st gear for single track. I highly recommend the ironman sprockets, unconditional 1 yr warranty, hardened steel, lighter than aluminum.

[ktmklx]

Originally Posted by dentvet

yes I have parts strewn all over the place.

Here is the triple clamp detail.

Kawasaki streetbike steering stems are 35mm diameter and the steering head is 55mm diameter. I had an extra triple from a 06 yz250 on hand. Bottom stem is 30mm and top is 28mm. I decided to keep the stock kawasaki bearings so i made sleeves for the yz stem; 30/35mm for the bottom and 28/35 for the top. First job for the old lathe i just bought.

Great score on the lathe! Boy I wish that was in my shop!

[ktmklx]

Originally Posted by dentvet

I only have the standard dirt rotors; 260mm. I think I have a 300mm caliper adapter. Do you think the 260 is too wimpy?

I need some longer sprocket bolts because of my home-made spacer. DO these look appropriate or does anybody have a source? I need about 45mm length with the countersunk type head.

http://www.boltdepot.com/product.asp...&cm=71&cd=1324

I'm going to run a yamaha sprocket, I guess i'll go 46 teeth so I can use the ninja chain.

Do you have a picture of your sproket spacer? I need to build a spacer for the DR650 cush drive to work on the ninja.

[dentvet]

Originally Posted by ktmklx

Do you have a picture of your sproket spacer? I need to build a spacer for the DR650 cush drive to work on the ninja.

parts bin build, right? I had a broken rear hub in the recycling pile. I trimmed up the rough edges on the lathe and sandwiched it to the cush hub with the remnants of a spent sprocket in the middle. If you look at it in the picture you will see the spoke holes and you will recognize what you are looking at. Shade tree engineering for sure and i'm open to any better solutions.

I could have used multiple sprockets piled up one eachother. a sprocket is 6 mm thick and i needed 15 mm offset. the old hub seems a bit more stable to me for some reason and it gave me the right thickness.

i got to use the DUalsaw (as sold on TV) to chop the teeth off the old sprocket. i am impressed at how the dualsaw slices through aluminum!

The caliper carrier was pulled away from the swingarm a bit so I copied sanjoh's solution of tapping a bolt into the tenon there as a safety measure.

[ktmklx]

Originally Posted by dentvet

parts bin build, right? I had a broken rear hub in the recycling pile. I trimmed up the rough edges on the lathe and sandwiched it to the cush hub with the remnants of a spent sprocket in the middle. If you look at it in the picture you will see the spoke holes and you will recognize what you are looking at. Shade tree engineering for sure and i'm open to any better solutions.

Ok, I see what you did. That darn lathe is coming in handy again.

[Fat Toney]