Ninja Race Parts!

I was in the ordering mood when I placed the order for my V-Strom tires. I needed some extra safety related parts for the Ninja and Revzilla had almost all I wanted in one place. I also wanted to eliminate the key lock gas cap from the race bike to prevent possible damage to the lock which could cut my race session short if I need gas at the track.

What you see above is what landed in my shopping cart. From left to right we have a Woodcraft Shark/ Toe Guard, a Slingshot Racing Motorsports Screw-on Race Gas Cap and a Woodcraft Brake Lever Guard. The Shark Guard will keep me from sawing off my toes should I get my foot caught between the sprocket and chain in a get-off. The Brake lever Guard will prevent any inadvertent brake check when I'm battling it out with another racer. See below for the installation process.

I started with the gas cap as it was the most straight forward install. I first removed the seven Allen head bolts holding down the old cap. Once I did, I discovered a nice bit of grunge that will get cleaned up before the new cap goes on. With all of the gunk removal I'm doing to this bike I should be dropping a pound or so from the bike's weight by race day.

 

I removed the stock gasket as I need to reuse it. I cleaned it up along with all of the bolts in my ultrasonic cleaner. Install was as simple as lining up the gasket and bolting down the new cap. I had one bolt that just didn't want to get a bite so I made a hardware store run. It takes about a full turn and a half to get the new cap off and doesn't require any tools or keys. Nice!

The Woodcraft Lever Guard has an inside diameter of 22mm while the stock Ninja bar end weight has an outer diameter of 28mm. I had to get creative to find a solution to how to fit it up.

The solution was to turn my drill press into a makeshift lathe. I chucked the weight with a bolt and nut into the drill press chuck and used my angle grinder with a 36 grit flap disk to take off the extra 6mm I needed to make the lever guard fit.

After a good hour of slowly grinding away at the offending metal, I had the OD of the weight small enough that the lever guard would fit nicely.

Above is what the weight looks like on the bike without the guard. I also took the time to replace the stock bar end weight bolts with some stainless allen head ones.

Look at how pretty that is! I adjusted the angle and the length of the lever guard so that I have free movement of the brake lever. After I do some other work I'll check to make sure the guard doesn't interfere with the fairing.

Next was the Shark Guard. I first removed the Ninja's swing arm so that I could drill the two holes I need to mount the Shark Guard. The kit comes with two captive nuts for use in installing the guard in the hollow metal swing arm. The nuts are very much like a drywall picture hanger that goes through a hole and collapses onto the thin walled metal of the swing arm's box section tube.

I drilled out the first hole so that I could make sure the second hole was perfect. The supplied hardware worked though I had some issues getting the friction wrench (small metal tool just to the left of the swing arm) to hold the captive nut while I tightened it up snug to the inside of the swing arm.

I fit the swing arm to the rear wheel to check the placement. It is a bit farther forward than I'd like, but I think it will do the job just fine. The second whole drilled better than the first. I had to use my drill press with the 7/16" bit needed to make the hole for the captive nut as my hand drill wouldn't fit a bit of that size.

Unfortunately my good luck stopped there. I must have over torqued the captive nut. The threads got stripped and I couldn't get the final bolt to seat right. When I checked it out I found that I had mangled the threads quite gloriously. I pried the nut out and fished the remaining pieces out of the swing arm with a magnet. I'll have to get another one from the hardware store and try again.

That is a big enough post for today. I need to spend some time OUT of the garage before I get my shop privileges revoked. See you next time.

Blue

UPDATE: I made it to the hardware store today and found a well nut in the nut & bolt section. It is a rubber version of the captive nuts that came in the Woodcraft kit. I had to slightly enlarge the hole using my step bit (why didn't I remember that I had that before…) and it went in no problem. It holds better than the captive nut. I may change out the other one. The Shark guard bolted right up and looks like it will do the trick. I'm just about ready to button the whole bike up and do a thorough once over before trying to schedule some kind of track day to test the bike out. There are a ton of logistical preps to getting out on the track that I need to plan for as well as the baby to think about. Soon, very soon.

Blue