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[SANGER_A2]

This is mainly for me as a convenient list/webpage of all the mods I've done to my GPZ500S (EX500). Feel free to ignore it or have a look. You never know, it might give you an idea!

EDIT: I decided that linking directly to all my full-size images was a bit wasteful of everyone's Internet bandwidth so I've now changed it so that all my photos are stored in photobucket and that there are just the thumbnails on this page to make it easier to view. If you want to see a larger image then click on the thumbnail.

[SANGER_A2]

First mod, moving my Oxford heated grips from my old bike onto this. I ride it pretty much in any weather and even though I have some decent waterproof winter gloves my hands can still get chilly. These work really well but I'm going to rig up a box to contain all the connections and maybe have a switch on it cos then it can't get turned on accidentally and run my battery down (connected directly to the battery).

I've since wired these into the fuse box rather than straight into the battery so they only work when the ignition is on (after I managed to run down my battery by turning them on accidentally and them being left on all day).


Left grip and controller:-


Right grip:-

[SANGER_A2]

My second mod was to fit a loobman chain oiler that I ordered a while ago and have been itching to put on. I hate using wax or spray on my chain but this is a nice solution that uses lovely goopy 90w oil and doesn't spray as long as I don't use it more than every other journey.

I originally mounted the bottle near my fuel switch for easy access but it was too far from the wheel and the oil didn't make it:-


So as you can see, I moved it next to the passenger foot peg:-


As you can see when I first started using it I squeezed too much and too often and it went on the wheel too. I never lean that far over but it still scared me so I use it less often now and there is barely any spray on the wheel (and I wash the whole bike weekly anyway):-



The funky dual sided delivery system (good old cable ties!). It actually used to leak out of the tube where it met the delivery system device thingy so I covered the thing in no more nails sealant:-


EDIT: I've removed this oiler now. I've decided that although chain lube may cost more it's better. It sticks around long than oil and there is waaaay less spray on my wheels and the underside of the bike. I was fed up with haveing to clean oil from everywhere on the bike with paraffin every week. Plus where I mounted it, the wheel wore away a hole and I didn't see the point in buying another.

[SANGER_A2]

I don't know if the US bikes have this, but the reflector hanging off the back of the fender looks frankly totally gay. I moved it up onto the number-plate light. There will be a fender eliminator to get rid of the bit with the holes later. I just took off the cover, drilled two holes and got two nuts and two counter-sunk bolts to join it together (i had to chop off the ends of the bolts with a hacksaw as they were too long). I'll probably put a bit of black paint or something on the bolt heads later to make them stand out less.

The original:-


Moved:-


And from the side

[SANGER_A2]

I needed something to dump the shopping in when I went on the bike but didn't wanna fork out £100 on a rack and another £50+ on a top-box. Presenting ... the ghetto top box:-

I had a plastic box in the house that i used to keep bits and pieces in. I drilled a couple of holes in the back. Bought two u-bolts off ebay, wrapped some plastic tubing around them and wrapped that in electricians tape for padding and used that to fix the box to the passenger hand-rail. It was damn strong. Then I used my bungee net (stretch waaay to much) to stop it bouncing up and down. Total cost: about £3 considering I already had everything except the U-bolts.

[SANGER_A2]

The ghetto top box looked ugly as sin as wasn't exactly aerodynamic so I decided to improve it. I had bought a nice little top box on sale at a local bike shop for about £15 (if anyone is interested it's made by Polisport) and thought I'd attach this to the handrail instead (still being to poor and cheap to buy a rack).

I upgraded from nuts on the U-bolts to wingnuts to make them easy to turn and bought a bit of bungee rope and hooks to attach it instead of my abused bungee net. I also have some covers I have made from several layers of duct tape that cover the wing nuts and bolt ends inside the box to stop them damaging anything i put in it.

There she is. The two bits of electricians tape are covering two holes I made when I didn't measure properly and filled in with sealant. The whole bottom area has now been covered by reflective tape and you can't see it now:-


From the side you can see how better it is against the wind. The bungee hooks onto the forward hooks and stops it lifting up (not that it could lift more than an inch anyway):-


My highly finished U-bolts!


The bungee just goes through two holes drilled in the corners:-


The wing nuts taking most of the load.

[SANGER_A2]

My clock, not really a mod but really really useful all the same. It shows the temperature as well and has a backlight that you can just about press with a glove when not moving. It just sticks on with velcro tape so I can take it off easily (not that I ever do as it doesn't really stand out):-


EDIT: I have since realised that this clock is totally crap! Don't buy one! It stopped working shortly after I started using it. I bought an Oxford one to replace it that cost twice as much and I realised it was exactly the same clock with a different cover. This also stopped working about a week later.

I have now bought a cheap car dashboard clock on ebay for about £3 that I have velcro'd to the inside of the clear map pocket on the top of my tank bag. It works great and is easier to see than the other clock. No Backlioght though, but I didn't used the backlight on the other one anyway.

[SANGER_A2]

I decided I wanted to be easier to see at night plus I think reflective rim tape looks really nice. I got it on ebay really cheap and it was definitely worthwhile.

Just in normal light:-


With the camera flash on (doesn't really do it justice):-

[SANGER_A2]

I did both these mods together as it was easier with the fender off anyway. This was my first non-permanent mod and I think it make a big diffference.

I've got a bit of a guide here http://www.ex-500.com/index.php/topic,4159.0.html

The new indicators from the front:-


And again:-


And from the rear:-


Here you can see a nice view of the indicators and the fender reduction:-


And more of the fender here:-

[SANGER_A2]

I got fed up with the standard screen and I ordered this http://www.intobikes.co.uk/products?detail=product&id=001735&bk=004374 after about a week of waiting and I love it! I ordered the dark tint to cancel out the slight extra geekiness of having a massive screen! They even included screen trim (which is a pain as I'd already bought some to use).

On the way home I could instantly tell the difference. There seemed to be more windnoise but there was no wind hitting me below the helmet even when sat up straight (I'm 5'8" for a point of reference). When crouched normally it pretty much all goes over me but I can still see over the windscreen so the tinting isn't likely to be a problem. I found myself riding at higher speeds as I wasn't being hit in the chest at 60mph!

Overall I'm very pleased with it and would recommend it. Build quality is good and I love the curviness from the side. Only negative is it doesn't fit perfectly at the top but this may be because the top two screen bolts I'm using are different to the rest (no idea why).

There's a bit more about it here http://www.ex-500.com/index.php/topic,4712.0.html that also shows it compared to the original screen.

My other option was an Airblade double bubble screen which looked like it would look better but not do such a good job of keeping the wind off my chest. It's here http://www.inter-bike.co.uk/inter-bikeshop/default.asp?numperpage=1&images=on&display=full&categoryid=81&searchstr=SCRK074&itemname=Kawasaki%20EX500%20Ninja/Ninja%20500R%20(Year%2094-06)%20Airblade%20Light%20Smoked%20Double%20Bubble%20Screen

The lovely curviness from the side:-


From the front head-on:-


From the front again:-


And from the back:-

[SANGER_A2]

Basically the standard horns totally suck so I ordered and fitted a pair of Motrax hootaz. COMPLETELY different league to the orginals - it's like a car horn rather than a parpy bike horn. I was able to turn the original mounting bracket sideways and use that to mount it. The original cables weren't long enough to reach however, so I extended them both by a few inches.

[SANGER_A2]

I wired this into the power cable running to my Oxford grips so it only has power when the ignition is on. it's great for charging my GPS or other devices whenever I want and only cost a couple of quid to build. It just tucks down in amongst the wiring when not in use and when I'm using it, I run it to my tank bag.

[SANGER_A2]

I ordered a light tint lens shield the help the windscreen match in with the bike a bit. It doesn't really make the headlight any darker and makes it look a bit nicer when it's off. Not a big difference but they wouldn't let me return it! Also it will protect my headlight array from stone chips etc which can't be a bad thing!

The factory method way of fitting it uses strange tab things that worked like solid velcro mud made it stick out half a cm from the actual light.

You can see what it looks like with and without below:-





EDIT:  I have since removed the lens shield. It was a waste of money. I decided that having it stick out miles from the actual healight looked stupid from above/the side. I tried double-sided tape but I found that it wasn't see-through enough and also left residue. Then I tried these "permanent" blue dot things made by pritt-stick and they were okay but I found that they were only able to stick it at the top of the light because the product is badly made and isn't actually the same shape as the lens.

You can see a picture of it ALMOST fitting below:-

[Brit_Biker]

Great mods there m8, I'm thinking of getting that new windscreen as well, looks nice!

[SANGER_A2]

My original levers took the brunt of a couple of drops when I forgot to take off the disk lock. One was bent at an interesting angle and the other had the end snapped off. I ordered some nice shiny silver ones as I think the bike needs new shiny bits on it. The adjuster came with the brake lever but the clutch lever uses the original adjuster.

From the front:-


From the seat:-


Each one showing how they fit:-

[SANGER_A2]

My new mirrors arrived today! I got them cheap on ebay item number 250209544727. I think they look really cool and I can't see many people in the UK having them. I used a couple of chocolate blocks to wire them in and a file and a knife to trim the ends down so they'd fit into the stronger stock mounts. I originally fitted them in the lower position and had brilliant visibility (I could see things directly behind me in both mirrors). I hope it's as good with them in the higher position. I've also noticed a bit more vibration than with the stock mirrors but they're still very usable.

There are a couple of threads started by other people that have info on these mirrors and the ex650 ones as replacements. They are here http://www.ex-500.com/index.php/topic,5467.0.html and here http://www.ex-500.com/index.php/topic,4950.0.html.


From the front:-


Showing how bright they are:-


A closeup from the front:-


A closeup from the side:-



The fittings from the stock bracket (I didn't use the washers):-


The fitting with the stock mirror removed:-


The new mirror ALMOST fitting in:-


This picture shows how to plug in both the original indicators and the indicators in the mirrors into the single original connection (you need to shop off all the plug and sockets on them and strip back some of the wire insulation first):-


And here is a nice little pic showing how the terminal block is used (this will be done twice - once for the left and once for the right set):-

[SANGER_A2]

I shoved loads of blue LEDs inside the guages to get rid of that horrible red glow coming from them. There's more info here that shows how I did it http://www.ex-500.com/index.php/topic,5584.0.html but I've got a couple of pics below anyway.

Showing the LED layout:-


The finished product in the dark:-


I LOVE the difference this mod has made and it was soooo cheap! Next I may replace the black dials with white ones although that may be too bright.

[mugwump]

You've been busy! I've done a couple things that are similiar. I originally had my loobman mounted as you originally did and it worked fine. I decieded that a weekly cleaning and DuPont Mulitpurpose Lube was a better option for me though. I really like you mirrors. I've seen them on this site before, but your pict's look great. Here's a problem though, I cover my bike with a cover at night. It's an outside bike except during the winter. The cover that I've got is awful tight across the mirrors now, as much as I like those mirrors I think it might prevent the use of my cover.

Nice bike! Later this year I hope to post a pic of mine with hard bags! Hepco and Becker.

[SANGER_A2]

I took off the 500S stickers pretty much as soon as I got the bike as I didn't wanna make it obvious it was a smaller engine. It's been a while, but I finally got around to filling the gap in a nice slogan that kinda summarises my riding style! "Ride it like you stole it" nicked from KTM.

This was a REALLY cheap mod as it cost me about £2.50 from a really good guy on ebay. I got filver vinyl to match the current stickers and it's been on a couple of weeks now with no peeling or other problems.

The right side:-


The left side:-

[Dubcity]

Lots of questions...     


like all the ideas , except the windscreen but who am i to talk , you did this all , but mine still has some work to do. I bet your chain is so smooth that your ride is very nice. why do you have two sets of front signals ,( on your mirrors and front signals on at the same time) . the windscreen problem: the one i got is a special one by zero gravity you cant see through mine , but it is a cool mod . what type of signals are those

[redkow97]

rather than premise your statement with "lots of questions," you could just use a question mark at the end of each sentence.

Understand? (see, look I even gave you an example)

[SANGER_A2]

redkow97: Lol. 

Dubcity:-

why do you have two sets of front signals??? - Because the signals came with the aftermarket mirrors and it seemed silly to not use them. I like the fact that I'm easier to see my oncoming cagers now when turning. I got the mirrors because my old ones were a bit knackered and look crap.

what type of signals are those??? - If you click on the link here http://www.ex-500.com/index.php/topic,4159.0.html for the guide I referenced when talking about the indicators above, I tell you what the indicators are. They rock. Not LED though.

Also I really LOVE my windscreen. Best mod I've done to the bike. It completely transformed it and the extremeness level at which I felt comfortable riding.

[ERAU944]

punctuation is always good.  also, i'm not sure i'd not define 2 as 'lots'.


good work on the bike sanger, my 500 hasn't recieved much in the way of mods.  it only has a tinted aftermarket screen and the rear fender cut, both by previous owner.  i'm going to be swapping out the wheels and much of the suspension with Ninja 250R components.  i'll also be doing a bit of paint, and getting some vinyl decal material to finish things off.  i just gotta remember to take some pictures of it through the process.

once again, great job on making it your own!

[SANGER_A2]

punctuation is always good.  also, i'm not sure i'd not define 2 as 'lots'.


good work on the bike sanger, my 500 hasn't recieved much in the way of mods.  it only has a tinted aftermarket screen and the rear fender cut, both by previous owner.  i'm going to be swapping out the wheels and much of the suspension with Ninja 250R components.  i'll also be doing a bit of paint, and getting some vinyl decal material to finish things off.  i just gotta remember to take some pictures of it through the process.

once again, great job on making it your own!

Cheers. Yup remember to take lots of pictures! I'm always interested in new ideas to nick! 

[t0msmith]

I notice you have the shiny chrome look levers. I've added these to my GPZ500 as well:
http://www.hvmp.com/kawasaki.htm

They cut out a lot of vibration and go well with the silver levers. Also protect the bike a bit if it gets knocked over