My dual sport Ninja yep another one

Thanks Troy .... but you was always faster in the woods. Them trees slowed me down.

Buis4evr.. I had to make sure its not a dirt bike. haha my old butt will be slowing down now.

Thanks shakakaan

Its been so hot in tennessee not much riding going on. I now have around 2100 miles on the big blocks and the back tire might make 3000 but it will be shot. The front tire (really a back tire) is doing ok but starting to cup. I'm thinking i will turn the wheel around and put the rotor on the other side and run the tire backward for a bit and see if that will take some of the cupping out . Any thoughts on this redneck tire saving idea? haha

heat stroke?

Close. 109 here last week.

I noticed my front Big Block cupping also at 3000 miles. Too bad I was going to buy another BB rear to run with the used front, after seeing the cupping decided to give up on the BB. Bought some TKCs, did not enjoy shelling out that kinda cash for tires, but what are u going do?

I'm running 17" wheels with a 130 back tire on the front. I'm going to turn the wheel around and run the tire backwards for a bit and see how that goes.

Well i found time to get away for a weekend but first i put a new back tire on and turned the front wheel around to try and get some of the cupping out.





Ready to go!!




First stop Waffle house.



Heading to a place in Illinois called Garden of the gods. Had to take a little boat ride.




I don't remember the name of the Forest but it had some good off road trails. Troy checking out the crossing.

Matt and Chuck checking out the trail.



Here is some of the Garden of the gods.











We left the garden and headed to Land between the lakes to camp. I forgot to take any pics of LBL but we had a good time and put about 400 miles on the bikes. Oh... NO more cupping on the front tire.
The Ninja did fine on its first (short) trip and planning on Barbers vintage days in October.

I'm probably opening my mouth and proving I'm an idiot here but... I thought conventional wisdom says you are SUPPOSED to run a rear tire backwards when mounted on the front. I don't know if the Kenda BB are directional or not but when braking, a front tire is exposed to similar forces on the rear when accelerating, only the opposite direction, hence the front mounted backward.

By the way. This thing is looking wicked. I don't suppose you could mount a close picture of how you mounted your lights and gauges?

D

You could be right but the big blocks are directional and the way the knobbies are cut to clean itself i think you would mount it as if it was on the back. Didn't seem to matter on the road.

I used the stock Ninja headlight mount and modified it to fit the Ruckus headlight. Pretty easy fit.

LBL had there annual two day 250 mile dual sport ride. I was able to ride the first day which was 160 miles and 90 of that was single track. It rained a lot the night before and was very muddy, My friend was on a DRZ400 and was riding with some other dirt bikes in front of me . He would text me after he was thru a section and tell me how bad it was. I skipped the worst ones but still had a hard time in spots. One section i pretty much dog peddle the Ninja the whole 12 miles. Later in the day the terrain became rocky and the Ninja did ok. I ended up riding 110 miles of it and i think i could have ridden it all if it had not rained. Had a blast and can't wait till next year. OH i was the only Ninja there.

Oh i weighed the bike at a deer check in scale and with some mud and a full tank of gas it was 446 lbs.

Crap dude! hard to believe that thing is heavier than the KLR!

She be heavy. It had around 10 to 20 lb of mud on it but in that deep mud it felt like 700 lbs.

Well got around to working on the Ninja. Wanted to change the rear sub frame. I made the first one out of round stock thinking if i crashed it would bend and i could bend it back with my hands, but i could not tote much ,so i set out to make a new one.




Round stock



I think that will work for a sub frame.





New sub







Put a pelican box on with some heavy duty hinges.






extra fuel






With it flipped up my bag fits snug as a bug in a rug.

Went for a ride this weekend to a local off road area Turkey bay. It was fun and it put the Ninja thru a few test. My box worked out fine but the pegs on this bike are killing my legs. If you ride some real off road on this bike and have to stand and sit a bunch its like your doing squats. Just not made for anyone that is tall. Going to try and raise the seat a inch and lower the pegs a inch.


Did some more welding. Not worried about over loading now.











Here it is with my waterproof luggage or wal- mart cooler that holds a case of beer.

Good reaction, you can't teach people to gas it when they're in trouble

Happened to notice something very similar on craigslist the other day. You selling it?

That's it! My bud doesn't have a very long attention span.