For fork’s sake!

Bearings came in for the steering today! So begins the mounting and shortening of the forks.

Well that was easy!…really, it was. I just tapped the races into the neck, greased the bearings and tightened it all together.

Something looks weird…right? Yup! Those forks are way to long! So lets do something about that.

Is this a sub-machine gun with suppressor attached? Or a B**A** electric impact with a huge socket!? You be the judge…

The poor end caps were so beat up from some previous owner trying to pull these apart clearly using vice grips…If you’re going to DIY a project…have the right tools! Or else pay someone else who does. Don’t ruin your bike trying to tear it apart…sheeeeesh #rantover

above are the guts of this particular, outdated inverted fork. I say outdated only because it is from a 90-95 RM125 so it is some of the first inverted forks made. They’re still great forks, just not so much to work on! Below are just some of the annoying things I had to be sure to put back properly. Of course this was only necessary because I am shortening them, I wouldn’t have to do so much if I were just replacing the seals.

So I got some 1/2″ PVC and cut it down, pulled the spring and cartridge apart and popped the PVC spacer onto the main rod inside the cartridge. Essentially I made the forks unable to fully extend. So they’re now utilizing the last 5″ of their original travel instead of the full 11″ or so. As long as this virago doesn’t do any hard core trail riding the travel I left will be MORE than enough. Reassembly was painless. Fresh oil in them, and mounted up with the new length!

This picture can be deceiving. The front wheel is sitting about 8″ off the concrete, being supported by a 2×4 and a stacked motorcycle ramp. The rear wheel is hovering just over an inch off the ground. So the bike looks tall and with an odd stance in the pic. I just ordered a set of matching fat enduro tires which should help complete the look, once I mount the front tire, I can roll it around and see how it will really look/ feel. But for now…starting to look like a motorbike again!

Just about ready for paint

I got the battery box (hidden under the tank nicely) and little perforated trim pieces welded on the Ninja finally. I am going to take some thin steel round stock and finish up the trim, then I can paint the frame back to black. I’ve decided to paint the tank and swing arm a very dark purple or blue. So my next job is to prep the tank…which is going to take a lot of work.

 

The final touch

So turns out this poor thing has been running stupid rich which has lead to gas in my oil, and some smoking! The culprit was a way-too-thin needle. Here is the new (thicker) and old side-by-side.

That may not look like much but for needle taper that is HUGE! The fact that you can even see a difference in the picture shows how significant it is. So here she is finally tuned up properly and ready to hit the road as my new companion.

Photo shoot!

Borrowed some equipment to take some much needed pictures of my latest builds.