What mods or Parts are the best ones for the Ninja 250R? Which should I do First?

… Seems to be the first question to pop into mind for every new boy and girl as they wait for Kawasanta to bring them their shiny new 2009 Ninja 250R? (Or wait for a 2008 to show up on a dealers lot)

Granted this topic is completely objective.. The best mods are the ones you’re happy with — But to help steer you in the right direction, I’ll throw my $.02 into the ring, and feel free to do so yourself in the comments.

#1: Good Riding Gear - There are lots of new riders on this bike, so I know many of you will be starting from scratch… Spend your money on gear! Good gear will last you a long time, and save your butt when you need it the most! DO NOT SKIMP ON GEAR TO SAVE MONEY FOR PARTS!

#2: Needle Shim / Jet Kit - These bikes tend to be a bit anemic. Adding a jet kit or shimming your needles will give you the most bang for your buck of any ‘performance’ mod. (Unless you’re one of those lucky Bastards in AU, UK, Indo, Japan, etc. that has fuel injection…)

#3: Stainless Braided Brake Lines - The stock lines are just Squishy and don’t give much feedback… This is a decent 100$ mod that will get you lots of bang for your buck… Just make sure if you don’t know what you’re doing you get some help… Brakes are well.. You know.. Kinda important.

#4: Fender Eliminator - Sorry to everyone that lives in an area where these are illegal.. But the rear fender is horrible.. Chop that crap off, or find an aftermarket part.

#5: Rear Seat Cowl - This is both for aesthetics and safety. Two up on the 250R is a bit shady to me. I think it brings a lot of people out of their comfort zone for riding, and also the additional weight brings the 250R close to the limits of safe riding. The Seat cowl looks great, and makes 2 up riding a non issue.

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Reader John sent in some great details for people looking to minify the height on their 250R without the use of Lowering Links.

Cool Trick John! Thanks for the submission!

Dr Mr. 2Fiddy,

I did the same mod on my GXSR 1000, as it helped me to touch the ground flat footed. I did this mod to the 250 for my wife who is only 5′1″ tall. She can now touch flat footed with her riding boots on. And the bike suspension hasn’t been disturbed so she can still carve up the corners with the best of them.

I gutted the seat down to the base, cleaned all the glue off and sanded it. Then I filled the voids in the seat base with 30 minute epoxy. If I was going to do this again, I would probably fill the voids with something easier to work with like Bondo. The void filling process should be done in two steps as the back of the seat pan is at an angle much different than the bottom….

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Reader Chris sent me in this picture of his Homemade Shortie exhaust, and I just had to put it up. This is such a great little example of how crafty the 250R Community is getting.

Even better — When I asked Chris, he was nice enough to throw us together a lil step by step — AND — Add in some videos… Woot! So, if you’ve been looking for a shortie exhaust on the cheap… Here’s your chance..

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Last week there was a post about painting your heatshield… This week, one of our readers Chris submitted some great step by step info on hwo to do this, but also doing the end cap on the exhaust as well… This adds a super rad touch…

[The following was Submitted by Chirs. Thanks!]

Picture 1- Finished product a few days after the paint has completely dried in the bright light.

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Reader DeerCelica sent me in a link to his latest Mod on his Ninja 250R. He broke out the ol’ rattle can and threw on a few quick coats of Krylon on his windscreen — and it came out really nice.

His Instructions are:

4 allen head bolts and the windscreen slides right out, the bolts on the bottom facing up don’t go to the windscreen, they go to the mirrors. Takes a whole 60 seconds to remove the screen. After that, lay some tape over the front to stop overspray onto the front of the screen. I used Krylon Satin Black (satin / flat spray paint lays allllot smoother than gloss). Gave it two light coats and re-installed (mist it on slowly).

Simple enough huh…

Also, if you don’t want to use a full black spay.. Also an old trick is to use model ‘tint’ spray. This Testors paint is available at any hobby store — and does a great job. (Not to mention it comes in ‘candy’ colors like blue, green, red, etc.)

Thanks for the tip DeerCelica!

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This is a real nice trick to spruce up your Black (Possibly red?) Ninja’s. Poster MurderedOut over at KawiForums posted up a few pics of his bike — and the first thing that caught my eye was the painted exhaust heat shield. To me, adding the paint really helps the blacks on the bike flow, instead of having this vomit of chrome brake side…

The How-To on this is pretty easy:

1. Remove 2 Bolts for heat shield.
2. Clean heat shield.
3. Lightly sand heat shield.
4. Shake Can.
5. Point and Spray.
6. Let Dry.
7. Re attach with 2 screws.

MurderedOut said he used a flat black.. And after thinking about it, I think I agree that the Flat black will look better than a high gloss black here. Either way — Make sure you get a high temp paint made for engine blocks, bbq grills, or other high temp applications. (Dupli-color makes a ceramic paint good up to 1200° which I highly recommend)

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Are you looking for a quick and easy solution to spruce up your seat without having to spend the money on the likes of a Corbin? Custom Seat Creations has released a plethora of options for seat covers for the 2008+ Ninja 250R. They have some nice designs solutions for all the current colors ( See the Scorpion Series ) and even have the options for some real exotic creations as well (Snake, Crocodile, Rhino, Ostrich, Dinosaur… Holy Crap? Dinosaur? )

Pretty much all installation is, is pulling out the staples around the stock seats. Spraying on some contact cement. And Re-Stapling the new seat pattern to the seat. Whats really nice, is that they also have matching overlays for the Seat Cowl ‘bumper’ — so no matter what your seating configuration is, they got you covered… Literally…

Color Options: Here
Price: ~$50 - $60
URL: Custom Seat Creations

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With summer rains on their way (Especially here in Florida, where you have to be high on glue to ride in one of our notorious afternoon thunder storms) here is a neat DIY for adding a wiper blade to your riding gloves to help shed off some of that precipitation.

Inspired by a feature on Snowboard Gloves, this is a pretty simple DIY for any rider that commonly finds themselves in rainy weather.

Source: Make
Link: Wiper Glove

There is a great conversation going over at Kawiforums about the use of Magnets to help trigger stop lights.

The issue is that Motorcycles, Scooters, Bicycles, and some small vehicles (Scion’s, Yaris’s, Fit’s) don’t contain enough metal to trigger the induction loops that tells the stoplights that there is a vehicle there waiting to turn. ( ‘Induction loop’ is just a fancy term for metal detector. ) This becomes a major issue if you do lots of night riding, or riding in low traffic areas. As there is typically no one else in the turn lane to assist with triggering the light.

So the solution? Simply Magnets. In fact there are a ton of products out there that are really no more than rare earth magnets with fancy cases or adhesives on them. But you can do this yourself for less than 10$ at your local big-box store (Home Depot, Lowes, or ugg — Walmart)

1. 3M Acrylic Automotive tape (Which every man should have a roll of in his garage)
2. 2 Neodymium rare earth Magnets.
3. Plasti-Dip (Something else every man should have in his garage..)

Just attach the Magnets with opposing poles to the bottom of your frame or swing arm, and enjoy. Remember though, magnets do rust. So, if you do ride in the occasionl inclement weather, dip the magnets in a thin coating of the Plasti-Dip to help protect them from the elements.

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As of now, there is still not a Ninja specific bolt on / snap in flush mount kit for the 250R. However, the motorcycle aftermarket is pretty damn vast and has lots of parts available — Just sometimes needs someone to take the plunge and try a few things out to see what works.. That’s why people like Malaquite over at KawiForums just freaking rock — because they are willing to be the guinea pig, and then post how they did it.

These flush mounts are manufactured by Lockhart Phillips (Part number #122-9737). They can be found Here for only $18.

These look really nice for < $20.. And only require some slight modifications to the light (Not the Bike) to work. Also, be aware that you do need to clip some wires to get this to work.. So Make sure you solder and shrink wrap like good little kiddies to keep these guys nice and weather proof.. [ Editor Note: Wire Crimps and electrical tape are the spawn of the Devil. Man up and do it right!! If you don’t know how to solder There are some really good resources out there to help you learn! This is a talent everyone should have.. ]

[Pictures/Information republished with permission from Malaquite — Orginal Post Link ]

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