Road to WERA: Gauges

To the best of my knowledge, I'm the third owner of my Ninjette. The first owner put the bike through some front end damage - bent-up the fairing stay, cracked the upper bodywork, etc. The second owner received it in this state, and cleverly turned the bike into a streetfighter. He chopped the bodywork, made some brackets out of aluminum, and even did some clever electrical work with the speedometer and idiot lights.



I focused my attention one night on what's left of the front end bodywork - the headlight, windscreen, turn signals, and speedometer. I don't need any of these items, but I would like some gauges. I know some racers dump all the gauges claiming that all they need to see is the tarmac ahead of them. While I agree with this, I've only ridden this Ninja once, and I'd like what little diagnostic information I don't have to pay for, even if it's only while I'm in the paddock. I say "don't have to pay for" because the guy I bought the 250 from gave me the stock gauge cluster. Since I don't have a stock fairing stay (or the inner body work for the gauge cluster), I fabbed-up some crude bracketry for the cluster.



It took me an hour and 45 minutes to bend up my fresh strip of aluminum bar stock to mount the cluster. The pictures are pretty bad, but the brake side bracket is bolted to 2 of the gauge cluster's mount points - the clutch side bracket bolted to one mount point. Mine was a bit of a cantilever approach, but it's not all that bouncy, and it seems pretty sturdy.



Have you ever counted the number of key changes in "You Don't Own Me"? I'm young, and I love to be young...

Where's the love?

Machine:
1995 Kawasaki Ninja 250

...1st in line at a red light - left-hand lane waiting for the green arrow. Cars are passing by us as their light says 'go.'

-"Nice scooter!"

Some punk yells this at us. Car full of high school/college kids with all the windows down and the sunroof open. Wow, that one hurt.

Obviously he knows something about motorcycles if he can recognize our unmarked Ninja 250. Is this the impression motorcyclists have about the Ninjette? That it's some kind of "scooter" (read with a negative connotation)? I guess some do. It's a shame when something as serious as riding becomes a pissing contest...