1984 Ninja 900 - Resurrection of the Assassin!

[RideDualSport.com]

Thanks Sniper and brucifer! I am glad your enjoing the work! I can't believe this bike is 26 years old! Time is really flying by fast. My memories of the 1980's are still so fresh in my mind that it does not seem so long ago that we were racing Ninjas at our local track.
We found some nice body work on eBAY from a 1986 model, we purchased everthing except the front fairing.
Here is an example of a cherry 1986, the bodywork we just purchased is not as nice as this bike, but despite some minor cracks an flaws, the original paint is quite nice and we are happy. We will have to paint our front fairing to match the new bodywork.





Cheers!

[RideDualSport.com]

I sanded the scratches out of the clutch cover, painted it with high temp engine paint and applied the new emblem.


Got the ignition cover painted and the new emblem on it too.


Installed the chain and chain guard, and torqued the axle bolts... the rear is ready to go!

[RideDualSport.com]

More bling! We bought all the bodywork, except the fairing from a low-mileage bike that was being parted out on ebay. We are going to paint our fairing with the same stock colors as the tank.

[fyr]

Great thread
I had one of these for 6 yrs back in the early 90's. It brings back some great memories

[fyr]

Originally Posted by RideDualSport.com

Here are a couple of very nice stock and original bikes.... I love it when a bike has never been touched or modified, especially high performance bikes or Adventure bikes that were a milestone in motorcycling history. Younger riders these days, who are not aware of what they are destroying, and have an overwhelming compulsion to express their personality, find cool old bikes on the cheap, then send many bikes to a "cafe racer grave". The cafe racer trend is becoming as permanent and ugly as a bad tattoo. However it is ok to improve on a stock motorcycle so long as nothing has been hacked on by a butcher, so it can be returned to original if desired.
All the little factory details are intact on these:

+1 on that!

[nachtflug]

Originally Posted by RideDualSport.com

Ok, I installed new needle bearings in the swing arm and shock linkages.
All the parts painted nicely with Duplicolor brake caliper paint - very durable!
Next up, assembling the rear suspension!



Fox Twin-Clicker in all its totally rad rock and roll colors!


I polished the wheels and clear coated them with Eastwoods wheel paint.
New Pirelli Sport Demons round out the package.


No cush-drive, the sprocket bolts directly to the hub. This bike is gonna kick butt.

great work. great job. and great thread. it's scary to think 80's bikes are starting to qualify as old but on the bright side it appears to be a veritable buyers market.

keep it going. awesome effort.

[RideDualSport.com]

Thank you Natchflug and FYR, glad you are enjoying it! I think the big appeal to rejuvenating the 900 Ninja, is that my brother and I are approaching it from a more mature and experienced viewpoint now that we are 50 years old. There is also a lot of nostalgia and perhaps second childhood involved too.
We raced Ninjas in the 1980s and back then you pretty much threw the bike away after it was beat to death on the track. Now, we are pampering this 84 Ninja, and fixing various details that we did not care about, and trying to make it an even better bike than it used to be.
Cheers!

[fishkens]

Great thread. Thanks for sharing a nice change of pace in Old's Cool.

If you still worked at Seattle Cycle Center in 1990 we may have met. I primarily bought tires and bits there so maybe, maybe not. I left Seattle in late '92 and returned in '99 and visit the shop a couple of times of year now. It's nice to see that they've managed to keep the shop running for so long.

I do recall watching a guy there who raced - I believe it was a CBR600, it was 20 years ago so what do I know - ride his bike into a Ford Ranger (?) pick-up on a 2x6 ramp. The front of the bed was repeatedly dented from him riding the bike into it so many times. At the time it seemed so ridiculous to me because of the choice of the plain old 2x6 (why not a 2x8 or 10, was a 2x6 the only thing handy at the time?) but he was obviously proud of his accomplishment. He cracked me up because he seemed as surprised as I was after he loaded the bike w/out tipping over or having the ramp disengage from the tailgate. Just another goofy guy waiting for his goofy loading method to backfire on him but loving every time he did it w/out incident.

Regardless, keep up the good work.

[L.B.S.]

Originally Posted by fishkens

Great thread. Thanks for sharing a nice change of pace in Old's Cool.

I do recall watching a guy there who raced - I believe it was a CBR600, it was 20 years ago so what do I know - ride his bike into a Ford Ranger (?) pick-up on a 2x6 ramp. The front of the bed was repeatedly dented from him riding the bike into it so many times. At the time it seemed so ridiculous to me because of the choice of the plain old 2x6 (why not a 2x8 or 10, was a 2x6 the only thing handy at the time?) but he was obviously proud of his accomplishment. He cracked me up because he seemed as surprised as I was after he loaded the bike w/out tipping over or having the ramp disengage from the tailgate. Just another goofy guy waiting for his goofy loading method to backfire on him but loving every time he did it w/out incident.


Regardless, keep up the good work.

Wow, this is bringing back great memories for me too, a little window into a time and place that usually feels like another lifetime ago, but can flash forward into "why, that was just yesterday"...

I raced in BOTT as well, up at Westwood in the mid 80's. (which I'm sure Seattle racers will at least know about)

My main rival was a dude on an EX 500.

I too, used a 2x6 hunk of lumber to ride my bike up into a Ford Ranger, a work truck that I er...sort of borrowed from the parking compound on the sly, for race day transportation. Of course the fact that I didn't have a car driver's licence at the time (4 wheels are for wimps! It's bikes only for me, mate! lol) didn't distract me from my Freddy Spencer aspirations

I once gave it a bit too much throttle loading her up, and in the horror of imagining crashing my bike through the back window of an AWOL work truck and trying to explain that one to my boss, I nailed the brake in utter panic and promptly did a near vertical stoppie which amazed all and sundry looking on, not the least my buddy standing in the bed of the truck, waiting to help me tie the bike down

Super fond spot in my heart for the 900 Ninja Kwaks, They were (and still are) so beautiful, and menacing looking back then, real badass bikes.

Sigh, those were the days.

[RideDualSport.com]

Fishkens and LBS, yes those club racing days were pretty exciting. Thankfully I survived a couple of accidents and managed to leave the sport with only a steel plate in my arm.... could have been much worse! We had reached the point of riding stupid fast on the roads, and enrolled in the first ever WMRRA road racing class. I also managed a couple of races at Westwood in Canada.

I did one season on this hopped up SR 500

[bk brkr baker]

I could appreciate the "new" 80s bikes as better in many ways but, as the owner of a '75 900 Z-1, only grudgingly.
I love the air-cooled superbikes that were booted out of the way by the next generation.
Anyway your refurbish looks great. A question about the front wheel, is it a 17" ? I can read the lettering on the rear to see that it's an 18", just wondering about the front.

[RideDualSport.com]

Baker, I agree the air-cooled superbikes have an appeal that is undeniable!
Yes, my brother decided to use a 17" front wheel - I believe in the interest of better tire choice and to improve the handling. Progress has slowed a bit on the refurbishing, since we are now waiting for some lower fork legs to arrive.
The original fork legs are totally worn out - the teflon was completely gone on the lower fork bushing, causing some bad wear!
Cheers!

[L.B.S.]

Originally Posted by RideDualSport.com

Fishkens and LBS, yes those club racing days were pretty exciting. Thankfully I survived a couple of accidents and managed to leave the sport with only a steel plate in my arm.... could have been much worse! We had reached the point of riding stupid fast on the roads, and enrolled in the first ever WMRRA road racing class. I also managed a couple of races at Westwood in Canada.

I did one season on this hopped up SR 500

Sweet!

Is that a Weigl Telefix fork brace I spy on the SR? I think I had one of the first ones in Canada.

[Tbone]

Great job man! I rode several 900's over the years. Great bikes, just hated the anti-dive front end and the crappy intake valves.

[bikerfish]

very cool!!!