Reassembled the Ninja with all the fairings today. She looks pretty swish, too…aside from needing a good clean. She’s still missing a brake disc on the far side, and the battery is only a temporary one, so she still needs a jumpstart from Big Boy.
But, at least it’s progress.
Because four motorcycles in the garage isn’t enough, the flatmate and I picked up another one. This little beast belonged to a friend of a friend, who had let it fall into a bit of a state, but couldn’t bear to see it go to a wrecker.
The flatmate, being the sensitive soul that he is, couldn’t bear that either, so adopted the poor thing.
Introducing, the 1989 Kawasaki Ninja.
Like I said, a bit of a state. Look close enough and you’ll see the layers of rust, dust, and grime. But that’s nothing a good polish won’t fix, right? Well, yes, but requiring slightly more enthusiasm than that were the unattached boots on the carburettor, the missing front brake disc, the after market brake line (that goes nowhere), the missing battery, and a number of other tubes and wires that seem to have been pulled out for absolutely no reason…
But at least it’s got its fairings.
Ah well, we’ll get there.
Welcome to the family, Ninja.
This weekend was time to take out the Big Boy and give him a bit of a buff. The job turned out to be bigger than first anticipated, so we really only got as far as removing the front wheel for cleaning.
Removing the brake discs took much enthusiasm. Thankfully, getting them back on was easy after they had been introduced to the bench grinder. We decided to give the centres a spray with black paint too, since this is what the rest of the bike will (eventually) be painted.
The difference when we refitted the wheel was…dramatic. Just look how shiny it is! Now…to get the rest of it looking that good.
I decided I wanted to draw a motorcycle; a new thing for me. Typically my drawings are of people or animals. Machines always seemed…complex. But I decided to give it a go anyway. What what do you know? I was right. They’re friggin difficult. I thought the fins would kill me. That was until I got to the tread on the tyres. It doesn’t look complicated, but you try recreating that pattern on a curved shape.
Anyway, here you go: my first motorcycle drawing.
Brought the Unicorn out for a photoshoot.
It stands for Flying Unicorn.
Satin grey tank with unicorn in gloss. The image is invisible most of the time, until the light catches it. There is a very good reason why this bike has a flying unicorn painted on it (and it’s not what you think), but I’m not going to explain the story. Suffice to say for now, it is a brave man indeed who will ride through town on a flying unicorn.
To the left, Honda CB650, aka the Unicorn. To the right, our newest addition, a Suzuki GS750E, for the moment known as Big Boy. Once certified, this will be the next one to go under the angle grinder.
Wish him luck.
Grease and Glamour 
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