My Bike and its many changes to date

This is the condition of my Ex500 when I bought it. I bought the bike from someone whos wife laid the bike down at a stop light and destroyed the water pump case, the impeller and the impeller shaft. I bought this bike for a whopping $500. Due to the fact that the fairing where a little worse for wear I knew that I was going to turn the bike into some type of street fighter styled bike. After replacing the parts the bike started up and ran great!

This is the condition the bike was in as I rode it for a couple of years. Around this time of first ownership I was in my beginning years of college and the desire to start changing my bike came about. From this point on, my main goal with my bike was to use it as a platform to learn new things and to have real world applications of engineering techniques. This will become very important later on

The first step I took was just cleaning up the rear end of the bike. I made an electronics tray to house the regulator and the ICU. This try is nothing fancy it is just a piece of clear polycarbonate that was heat molded into a box. Holes were drilled in the box to allow airflow over the regulator. This change did eliminate the rear mud guard. However I have never had an issue with change. Along with the these changes I cut down the tail section and welded in two new pieces of metal to replace the large flat plate I had cut off. This eliminated the seat release and instead I drilled two holes in part of the seat's white plastic guides and used bolts to hold the seat down. This does remove the security of the seat lock as well as removing the helmet lock but the seat felt far more secure to the frame since it was now bolted on. If you do not have side fairings and can access these new bolts easily (aka no mud guard) I highly recommend this change. Something I forgot to mention in a previous post was the fact that I also removed the maintenance stand. I personally don't see the need for these as they are hard to get the bike onto but also if I need the bike off the ground Ill just put a jack under it. Additionally I forgot to mention that when I bought the bike the right handle bar was bent so I replaced them with aluminum clip on handle bars from amazon. They used to be black but the sun bleached them to this gold color which in person matches the tank a little which was a nice coincidence haha

At this point I was tired of my OEM gauge cluster because of the stripped down front end It just didn't look good and the support bracket was heavy. I had a cheap universal gauge from amazon just laying around from a previously failed project. At this point in time I was feeling pretty confident in my wiring skills as I had previously made two custom wiring harnesses from scratch for a couple friends. As I took on this project It was a lot harder than expected and required several work arounds. Im happy to say that after a year of daily riding in all weather and it being stored outside and the unit hasn't failed me yet.

My next Big project involve the exhaust. I really wanted to save alot of weight with this as well as improve the look of the bike. With the stock cans and all the fairings gone and a cleaned up front end they stuck out like a sore thumb, literally. So I ordered a 2 into 1 Y piece from an exhaust manufacture as well as a new muffler and the pipe needed to connect it all together. Me and my friend cut up the stock headers and lengthened one of them so they could both swing over to meet the Y connecter and welded it all up. The whole project was a lot easier then expected and with a decibel killer installed its honestly not a ton louder than stock or it is at the very least it isn't obnoxious and doesn't wake up the neighbors. After running the bike with the new exhaust for a few weeks I checked the spark plugs (they were removed and cleaned on the day of the new exhaust) and they looked great I no signs of running too lean or to rich. I should say I have not changed the air box nor the carburetors in any way. Just previous to the custom exhaust I did a mod I found on a forum here which was to remove the stock coils and switch to a coil on plug style from, I believe, a Honda cbr 600. They have also worked great and I haven't had any issues with this mod either. Both these mods shed a hefty amount of weight and stream lined the look of the bike quite nicely

Nothing much to mention on this picture besides the fact that I finally recovered my seat with new vinyl. This was an easier task then I thought and there are many great write ups of how to do this yourself on this site

This is how the bike looks as of today

Ok to list all the changes Ive done to the bike to date
-Removed all stock fairings
-Removed maintenance stand
-switched to new universal gauge cluster
-removed old gauge cluster mounting bracket
-removed mechanical speedo wire and hub assembly
-aluminum aftermarket clip-on handle bars
-One bar end mirror (only one is required in my state and this one has worked great)
-ignition switch relocation to left side under gas tank
-removed the handle bar locking system and ground off the tab on the frame
-Honda CBR 600 coil on plug conversion
-ground off the old coil mounting brackets
-Custom 2into1 exhaust with a shorty slip on muffler with DB killer installed
-LED front and rear turn signals
-LED front head light (ended up drilling into the cooling fins and mounting it like that instead of the headlight bucket)
-Lithium Battery to replace lead acid battery (this alone save ten pounds and only cost $84)
-Every single unneeded mounting tab was cut off and ground smooth (including the brackets for the maintenance stand)
-Custom electronics tray
-removed a section of the rear of the frame
-rear turn signals were mounted directly into the brake light
-brake light mounting bracket shaved down to bare essentials
-rear passenger pegs and frame pieces removed (next year I will be welding tabs back on to allow me to bolt up a trimmed down pair from a ninja 250)
-main rider pegs replace for a much lighter pair of aluminum ones
-428 chain conversion
-124 link 428 non-O-ring chain
-428 sized 41t custom aluminum rear sprocket
-428 sized 17t custom front sprocket
-Top triple tree cleaned up after relocating the ignition switch and removing the lock
-super light license plate mounting bracket
-customized wiring harness to accommodate new electronics and allow for better routing (shaved off a surprising half a pound)
-kick stand kill switch eliminated
-Front plastic fairing removed, structural metal bracket kept (next year I plan to make a new fiberglass or carbon fairing, my old one had a huge crack in it and was falling apart)
-Sprocket cover revived a drillium aesthetic (just for looks, no rear structuring was removed)
-seat locking system and helmet lock removed and replaced with two bolts
-horn bracket removed and replaced with much simpler single bolt L bracket
-front tank support trimmed back to the rubber mounts
-emissions system removed including reeds and block off plates installed
-small fairing brackets on gas tank removed

I don't think I missed anything feel free to ask any questions about the mods and for pictures of any specific parts or changes you would like to see
Tomorrow I will be posting the current weight of the bike with all fluids topped off as well as some future plans for making the bike lighter and getting the sprung to unsprung weight ratios to a better zone. Also to come soon will be 0-60 times probably no top speed runs though hahaha

Ok, I haven't been able to road test much do to needing to button a few things up and haven't had the time, mainly brakes need bleeding from sitting on a shelf for several months. However I did weigh the bike today!
from everything I've found the stock bike with a full tank weighs between 430-440lbs
When I weighed my bike the tank was between 80-90% full so give or take a couple lbs (gas weighs 6lb/gallon)

stock weight:430-440lbs
my weight:360lbs

so between 70-80lbs of weight savings, as a side note the weight was surprisingly a near perfect 50/50 split between front and rear only 2-3 pounds of difference between the two
I'm curious what stock balance is, I though I remember someone saying it is 60/40 front heavy

So to conclude this stage I haven't reached my goal yet of 100lbs off stock weight but I've come very close so I'm happy with the progress

In the next and last part of my write up will be posted later today detailing the future plans for my bike and well as some stretch goals of things that would be amazing to try to build
Also I will be appending 0-60mph times when I get the bike buttoned up. Those should come in about a week

Each year going forward I plan on taking the winter months when it gets to cold for me to personally ride to continue to try out new processes and design ideas for my bike. The following list are all the different ideas I have come up with to date on further ways to not only shave weight but to bring the bike more inline with performance design perimeters.
I should preface this list with the fact it will likely take several years to get through not only due to cost but also due to the personal skills I will need to build up when it comes to designing and machining custom parts. I plan on using my colleges machine shop with its mills, cnc machines, lathes and 3d printers to do most of this work but must receive training first.
-Carbon Fiber Composite dog bones
-Titanium or Aluminum sleeves in the suspension components, this would include custom titanium nuts and bolts
-Many braking improvements including, lighters calipers and caliper brackets, lighter brake disc, stepping down the power of the rear break caliper to avoid excessive lockups
-rear shock improvements, specifically a fiberglass spring that will be better tuned to the lower weight of the bike. How ever if anyone can recommend a lightweight high-quality shock of similar dimensions (just the dampener unit) I'm all ears
-machining Aluminum wheel spacers to replace the steel ones
-making a custom titanium slip on exhaust. I like one look of the one I have but it is fairly heavy at around 4lbs and shouldn't be a hard shape to replicate
-removal of the "cooling fins" on each side of the head. After doing some math on their cooling capacity it seemed they optimistically came out to 40ish watts of cooling at 45mph which is absolute pittance when it comes to what the radiator actually produces. As it has been talked about before on the site the fins were put there as a purely stylistic choice. (I'm removing them because they are useless and I personally don't like the look)
-coolant overflow relocation to tidy up looks
-aluminum kickstand and kickstand bracket. Stock one is hecka heavy
-I would like to relocate the choke cable to under the tank and near the petcock and this will allow me to install simpler lighter control switches and would help eliminate the routing of such a long cable. I have seen several older bikes that have this as there set up and I like the concept
-gas tank cap replaced with a simpler nonlocking aluminum type. Not sure how smart this is considering gas prices nowadays hahaha but I'm tired of fighting with the lock whenever I have to gas up. the lock always seems to be dry and is very hard to open
-There are some small changes to the headlight bracket that I would like to make so it appear more professional and less jank
-I would like to switch to steel braided brake lines for the step up in braking feel and safety
-the left side coolant tube (if sitting on the bike), I would like to replace it with one that doesn't stick out as far, due to the coil delete it could hug the frame a lot better
-the last things I have on my agenda include trying to make some carbon fiber parts, I would like to take on some simple pieces such as, Levers, basic brackets, front fender, and handle bar tubes
-titanium wheel bolts (front and rear)

those are my current ideas to further save weight that I can see myself actually achieving
below would be ideas I have had but due to either cost or complexity I cant commit to them at this point but would like to list them to put the ideas out there for discussion

-single seat conversion with fiberglass or carbon fiber tail fairing
-lighten bolt on rear subframe (to replace the current steel one welded on)
-custom aluminum swing arm (keep stock design with slight improvements), though the ninja 250 swap might work if it is aluminum
-custom milled aluminum triple tree, the lower and stem of the stock tree are a cast steel lower and heavy steel stem, even if still made in steel there is a lot of weight to save through better design
-custom 3d printed air box starting from the filter and going back. this an idea due to how much room has been saved in that area through other mods the biggest being a lithium battery swap that not only saved 10lbs but also takes up 1/3 of the stock battery's space.
-carbon fiber tank bracket and support
-a new gas tank made out of a mixture of carbon fiber and Kevlar reinforced composites (Kevlar to avoid catastrophic fracturing and leakage in case of a crash)
-the last idea is a weird one, the right side of the frame that unbolts could be replaced with an Aluminum unit and if the left side is modified to receive the same treatment not only would the tank be easier to drop but the bike would be more symmetrical and there could be large amounts of weight to save here as well

I believe with enough of these changes the last 20-30lbs of my 100lb goal should easily fall away. This leads me to wonder if the further ideas were incorporated if the whole bike with gas could be pushed below 300lbs. Of course that is just speculation and many aspects would need balancing to keep the bike both preforming well and safe but its food for thought.

Lastly I would like to ask for help. Many of my next year plans will be focused around saving unsprung weight. If you have an idea (hopefully one that doesnt cost thousands of dollars) Id love to hear your proposal and discuss it. Bonus points if you do math haha cheers

hi, it's great having goals and boundless enthusiasm you just have to make sure you keep a view of the whole picture and avoid falling into the trap of it becoming an obsession. keep sight of the goals but also remember what has to be given up in order to achieve them. for example.
a government decides to go all green and totally commits to it, to do so they have remove all none renewables and obtain renewables instead. ok fine, but getting rid of one type before having a replacement that will in the end have greater capacity than they started with would be a disaster. it has to be done slowly increasing the preferred method first then cutting back on the none preferred method or it doesn't work.

So to begin the process you need a baseline, what you have before you start what you will have when finished, and how you go about getting from one point to the other without creating issues.
IMHO you missed the first goal, that is what is your start point you don't really know, it's only an estimate not a true measurement you cannot assume weight loss without measurement I believe you have over estimated the beginning weigh by quite a bit given that you determine the start weight at 430-440lbs (199kg) preferring the greater weight.
the best weight I could find on the Kawasaki site for the US model (gen 2) was 388-395lbs (176kg) a difference of 45lbs min, but without doing a whole bike weight (on a weighbridge) before starting it's impossible to say. also if your bike came to you without fairings it already weighed less than stock.
in order to accurately measure the total weight loss you need weigh every part removed and new weight of the replacement that seems missing. some items you are lucky if it saves a few ounces or even grams. don't get preoccupied with very small amounts that will make zero difference in the end.

the other word of caution comes on a different front to make it quicker or (faster) through weight loss is due to the formula BHP per ton, what was your starting HP do you know. was it measured. this is important for the overall effect or end game, the published figure of 60bhp is in general bogus some bikes (properly setup and tuned) may produce high 50's many well used or (poorly maintained ones) will only produce low 50's I think the last time the gen 1 was tested, (about 2 years ago) it was at best 54.5bhp (@89.000miles) so to be expected. but still 6bhp down on the published figure. or put it another way how much weight is 6bhp worth.

don't forget this part of the equation it matters, so might how you arrange the gearing, less weight more HP may pull higher gearing that sort of thing. on this topic I know a guy who had a Honda CB500 the engine gave out so he thought it was a win pulling it out and fitting a 550engine 20hp more what not to like, but he forgot the new engine weighed 50% more plus the extra bits he needed to fit, the overall BHP per ton remained the same so all that work resulted in very little gain.
don't lose sight of the end game consider everything not just losing a few pounds you will get better results, overall
improvements in other areas can be just as effective, believe me I've been there many times.

yorkie said:

hi, it's great having goals and boundless enthusiasm you just have to make sure you keep a view of the whole picture and avoid falling into the trap of it becoming an obsession. keep sight of the goals but also remember what has to be given up in order to achieve them. for example.
note for @bpe (this is an analogy not a political statement) a government decides to go all green and totally commits to it, to do so they have remove all none renewables and obtain renewables instead. ok fine, but getting rid of one type before having a replacement that will in the end have greater capacity than they started with would be a disaster. it has to be done slowly increasing the preferred method first then cutting back on the none preferred method or it doesn't work.

So to begin the process you need a baseline, what you have before you start what you will have when finished, and how you go about getting from one point to the other without creating issues.
IMHO you missed the first goal, that is what is your start point you don't really know, it's only an estimate not a true measurement you cannot assume weight loss without measurement I believe you have over estimated the beginning weigh by quite a bit given that you determine the start weight at 430-440lbs (199kg) preferring the greater weight.
the best weight I could find on the Kawasaki site for the US model (gen 2) was 388-395lbs (176kg) a difference of 45lbs min, but without doing a whole bike weight (on a weighbridge) before starting it's impossible to say. also if your bike came to you without fairings it already weighed less than stock.
in order to accurately measure the total weight loss you need weigh every part removed and new weight of the replacement that seems missing. some items you are lucky if it saves a few ounces or even grams. don't get preoccupied with very small amounts that will make zero difference in the end.

the other word of caution comes on a different front to make it quicker or (faster) through weight loss is due to the formula BHP per ton, what was your starting HP do you know. was it measured. this is important for the overall effect or end game, the published figure of 60bhp is in general bogus some bikes (properly setup and tuned) may produce high 50's many well used or (poorly maintained ones) will only produce low 50's I think the last time the gen 1 was tested, (about 2 years ago) it was at best 54.5bhp (@89.000miles) so to be expected. but still 6bhp down on the published figure. or put it another way how much weight is 6bhp worth.

don't forget this part of the equation it matters, so might how you arrange the gearing, less weight more HP may pull higher gearing that sort of thing. on this topic I know a guy who had a Honda CB500 the engine gave out so he thought it was a win pulling it out and fitting a 550engine 20hp more what not to like, but he forgot the new engine weighed 50% more plus the extra bits he needed to fit, the overall BHP per ton remained the same so all that work resulted in very little gain.
don't lose sight of the end game consider everything not just losing a few pounds you will get better results, overall
improvements in other areas can be just as effective, believe me I've been there many times.

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Yorkie thank you for your reply, though it seems well intentioned I find I lacking in research and understanding of the goal. I would like to address each point you made as I feel like you didn't read through my posts and want each point to receive clarity in case anyone else is confused.

-obsession and what is required to achieve goals
I don't understand where this is coming from I have clearly stated a reasonable goal for my timeline. It will take several years to implement the changes I have proposed and it has taken several years to implement the changes that I have done. The point of me posting all at once was that I had finally achieved a point that I felt was worth sharing for this community to hopefully get excited about and to collaborate on new ideas. Also without and understanding of all the other projects I work on I could understand your misgivings as to this being an obsession. The fact it My ninja is only one of a handful of different projects and due to a proper life balance has taken several years to even get to this point. I should think you would be excited about someone who has put in the work and not just call them obsessed.

-missing my first goal by not knowing where I started
If you looked at even the first post you would notice that I got the bike with all the fairings. So I did in fact start with a stock bike, but that is besides the point. I am comparing my bike to stock Ex500 everywhere that is why I used the stock weight which is between 430-440lbs depending on the gas tank. I pulled that number from cross referencing as many people as I could who have stated the stock weight of the bike with the gas tank mostly full. Many of those references I pulled from this very site. The lower weight you state of 388-395lbs is the dry weight from Kawasaki and again this number can be cross referenced all over. It is important to understand the difference between dry weight and curb weight 388 is a dry weight, meaning it does not include consumables. This is not standardized and varies from company to company. Some only take this as no gas, oil, and coolant. However some companies have stretched this into including tires and the battery. This is why I tried to go with a more consistent standard which is curb weight. This weight is defined as the weight of the bike ready to ride with a half tank of gas. When I pulled my sources I tried to use ones where the amount of gas in the tank was known. It is also the standard to which I weighed my bike. As I stated my gas tank was around 80-90% full at the time I weighed it. This means that compared to a stock bike that is ready to ride I really have saved between 70-80lbs. This being said I have been thinking about finding someone in my area who has a stock bike to do some "official" comparisons. That being said the fact that I haven't doesn't negate what I have done because I know my starting point by researching other bikes as thoroughly as possible.
(side note I didn't favor any numbers, I specifically gave ranges as to be unbiased)

-Lucky if some items save a few ounces or grams
I do not understand why this is brought up so often, for as soon as you look at the bigger picture those ounces add up to pounds rather quickly. It only by being scrupulous in every single part that you can arrive at the end goal. This only has to be countered with a cost to weight ratio. That is the only argument that sticks. Some people may comment that getting a set of carbon fiber wheels would not only sheds pounds off the base weight but the weight shed would also be both unsprung mass and rotating mass making it a seemingly obvious choice to save weight. Which I would have to agree with, the only problem is that a set of CFC wheels would cost anywhere from $1500-3000 depending on the company and the quality of build. This is a bridge I have started to come to, where all of my changes thus far has not cost much. My custom exhaust system which could have been source through suppliers for $200-400 dollars was instead achieved by building it myself for around $80. My future plans will start incurring cost because things like Ti and CF aren't exactly dirt cheap but by doing the work myself I can bring down that price point to where I can afford to save nearly every ounce of weight possible. BECAUSE every ounce does count

-BHP
Ill be honest as to this point I do not care a ton but have made points to address it. My engine is in good condition. It could use some fine tuning in terms of the carb but as I stated I have checked spark plug coloring and have seen that I am within the correct range of a healthy engine. My oil changes are done in correct intervals and there are not metal flakes to be found in it, and my carbs have been thoroughly cleaned each time they come off the bike for a mod to keep them in good working condition. Part of this whole exercise that I personally found cool is that any performance gains I have/will see are essentially free of engine risk. This is because I haven't touched the engine and so I have sacrificed no longevity from my changes. The general rule of thumb for motorsports is that 20lbs of weight savings is roughly equivalent to a gain in 1 horsepower so by saving, we will go with the lower number, 70lbs I have effectively gained 3.5 horsepower. And that is without doing anything to the engine so 6 horsepower is worth 120lbs to answer your question. to conclude this point horsepower gains is not really the goal here. Am I hoping for an increase in performance yes, does an increase in performance always come down to more horsepower, ask a profession race engineer and they will flat out tell you no. My main goal is to put into practice the things I am learning about in the field of engineering. To get real hands on experience

-friend who did an engine swap
isn't that story literally proving my point that I don't need a bigger badder engine or to even touch the engine to gain performance? I'm not just losing pounds and forgoing performance that is why I'm taking into account that valid points that have been given to me, including your point about traction and fog's point about sprung vs unsprung ratios. I am diving into those topics and making sure the changes I make both improve performance and save weight. I also try to take into account things like safety, reliability, rotating mass, and structural support. It is by not losing sight of my goal that I have dove deeper into these topics

To conclude I'm not making this post to bash on yorkie. Though the blatant disregard for the things I've clearly stated bugs the heck out of me. I simply wanted to make sure people understand that I understand the changes I'm making and inviting other people with interesting and novel ideas to chime in. Yorkie you have a fairly large influence on the community and I didn't want people to see your post and not read through the rest of the posts I've made because your post makes me out to be a short sited ninny. I hope you understand that I do not intend to offend, though I understand that I could be considered rude at several points throughout this post

Ok so, I think there is some misunderstanding of intention and talking at cross purposes here. I will try to make this as simple and as short as possible (not going to be easy) but here goes.

Barnesjaca said:

yorkie thank you for your reply, though it seems well intentioned I find I lacking in research and understanding of the goal.

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I fully understand your goal and intention all too well do you think someone with 60years experience with bikes has not been down this very road before (more than once) and I can tell you from experience weight is not everything.

Barnesjaca said:

I should think you would be excited about someone who has put in the work and not just call them obsessed.

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I never said you were obsessed I said you have to see the big overall picture and make sure it doesn't become an obsession focusing only on one aspect of the design can lead down that very path.

Barnesjaca said:

-missing my first goal by not knowing where I started
If you looked at even the first post you would notice that I got the bike with all the fairings. So I did in fact start with a stock bike, but that is besides the point. I am comparing my bike to stock Ex500 everywhere that is why I used the stock weight which is between 430-440lbs depending on the gas tank.

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this is completely missing my point I have read all your posts and yes I did see the first "this is how I got my bike photo" with most the front fairing missing. my point was having a verified start and finish point no matter how long it takes to get there, taking the average bike as baseline is not the same as weighing the actual bike as they are not all the same.
a weight ticket of the bike before starting and a weight ticket after finishing is the only way to determine the actual weight lost.

Barnesjaca said:

-Lucky if some items save a few ounces or gramsI do not understand why this is brought up so often,

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because it's rather obvious. think of all the small things needed to be changed to save say 1lb then think of the weight saving just by running the bike with half a tank of fuel instead of full.
why do you think racers run there kit with virtually no fuel in during qualifying, ending the session running on fresh air.

Barnesjaca said:

-BHP
Ill be honest as to this point I do not care a ton but have made points to address it. My engine is in good condition. It could use some fine tuning in terms of the carb

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again where is your base line, what HP is it producing you don't know, just because it is in good condition doesn't mean it's producing max power far from it only a dyno run could tell you that. then getting it set and tuned to perfection for max HP then retesting is the way to go.

Barnesjaca said:

The general rule of thumb for motorsports is that 20lbs of weight savings is roughly equivalent to a gain in 1 horsepower so by saving, we will go with the lower number, 70lbs I have effectively gained 3.5 horsepower. And that is without doing anything to the engine so 6 horsepower is worth 120lbs to answer your question. to conclude this point

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so what if. your bike (you don't know the figure) is producing say 54bhp (you would never know just riding it) and you lose 120lbs to make it equivalent to 60bhp. it is only the same as a new stock one producing 60bhp without weight loss. can you not see the two things go together. ignoring one in preference over the other is in my view a mistake.

Barnesjaca said:

To conclude I'm not making this post to bash on yorkie.

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feel free to go ahead us old grumpy guys are used to it, only new inventive ideas are not always new.

Barnesjaca said:

though the blatant disregard for the things I've clearly stated bugs the heck out of me.

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sorry no idea why, you asked for comments, observations, suggestions, and feedback. it's what you got, not everyone would agree one way is always the right way. as I always say opinions differ it's no more than that comments and advise are only ever given, whether taken or not is subjective to the one receiving it.

that as good a place as any to draw a close on my contribution on this subject. you have a long road ahead I wish you well and the success your looking for with this project.