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...

Road to WERA

RaceBikeCanvas, a photo by inajamaica on Flickr.

A friend woke me up to WERA's E Super Stock - 250cc bikes in competition. I recently got hungry to participate and began hunting for a race bike candidiate.

I found one :). Now to get it ready for the track!

Woodcraft rearsets

After the wind recently wrapped its gusty claw around my ZX6R and mercilessly slammed it to the ground, I was short one intact, brake-side rearset. I did some research, and determined that the best value for the dollar was a Woodcraft rearset kit. Goodbye brittle, candy-cane OEM rearset, hello billet 6061--T6 (what?) aluminum rearsets!

If you are willing to reuse your stock foot pedals (and if Enemy Wind didn't bustify them), you can bag the rearset kit for a bit over $200. That's not chump change, but good luck finding equivalent quality for the price. Also, I opted to buy a 2007 ZX6R kit for my 2006 because the 2007s are black (and go quite well with my ZX's black frame).

Cue dramatic image:



My two-ride review:

Pros

1. Amazing price (if you re-use your stock pedals)
2. Strong as hell
3. Do not fold up like OEM pegs; so they double as frame sliders
4. Gnarled peg has crazy grip
5. Simple

Cons

1. You can't try a different peg position without unbolting the rearset entirely
2. Minimally adjustable
3. Pegs are higher and more rear-set; Less comfortable
4. No hookup for the brake light switch