Bike 1 - The Cafe Ninja

Let me first begin by saying I never thought I would be a motorcycle guy.  I always liked cars, but motorcycles never appealed to me.  In 2012, I had the sudden urge to go to riding school to get certified and maybe get a little bike to ride to work.

After taking the class, I was hooked.  I scoured the internet for pictures of bikes and blogs to figure out what style I liked and what might fit in my price range.

I loved the cafe style of custom CBs and Triumphs, but didn't want to dedicate myself to too much customization on my first bike.  I settled on a Ninja 250.  Very common bike that's easy to work on with many parts available.

I found one on craigslist that was beat up and ended up getting it for a pretty good deal.

The fairings were held on by zip ties, the front shocks were leaking oil all over the place (including the brakes!), the tire valve stems were cracking and about to fall off, and half of the lights didn't work.

I quickly took the bike into a local shop to get the front suspension rebuilt, valve stems replaced, and brake pads done.  They helped me out with some of my LED lighting issues and I had a rideable bike.

Then came the customization part:

First I took off all of the plastics to see what I was working with.

I ended up breaking whatever wasn't already broken (oops) so all the plastic went straight to the garbage.  Bar-end mirrors went on immediately.

It was already an improvement.

The next two steps would be removing the headlight assembly and monstrous tail section.

 I cut the plastic fender and tucked in the lights.  I had to remount the whole assembly in an awkward position, but it was a step forward.

 I wanted a black bike, so next came building a little paint booth to put on our apartment deck

I sanded the tank down, primed and painted, rinse, repeat...

It was already coming together nicely.

 The headlight had to go.  I bought the light and mounting brackets on Amazon and wired it up in an hour or so.  I then bought a bike speedo for like $20 and rigged it up.  Bam, I had an odometer and speedometer and a nice-looking front end.  I added in LED turn signals front and rear.

I thought it was a pretty slick ride.

But, something had to be done about the back end and the seat.

 Like any sensible person, I tore everything off the back of the bike and stared at it for several minutes.

I ended up finding some red LED strips at Harbor Freight and some industrial glue.  The sissy bar made for a perfect outline and the bike's frame provided a nice anchor for the running light.  Boom! Lights.

 With some help from a neighbor who had upholstered several bike seats, I got $5 worth of vinyl and re-covered the seat.  Night and day.

Before

After.

















At that point, I cleaned up some of the metals with some steel wool, changed up the oil and spark plugs and rode it off into the sunset.  The whole process was incredible.  I learned so much about the mechanics of the bike from working on the engine and rebuilding the carbs, that it gave me so much more confidence to move on to a bigger bike and work on another project.