My second project - "Nix" the Ninja

Nix Loses Some Shine And Looks Better For It

On Friday I was heading through Sydney as part of a long weekend road trip (by car, so not otherwise relevant) and picked up a set of damaged fairings for Nix, that just happened to have a mostly intact right side panel.



So tonight I decided it was time for Nix’ low-hanging right fairing to go.



Front cowl and right fairing pieces – I was considering whether to swap the lot but the front cowl will need some repairs first!



The prior fairing removed. Most of the mounting points had broken off. Note the lack of mounting tabs at the top! You can see the ones on the replacement panel at the right of the photo.



Most of the attached parts I re-used.



The replacement fairing panel with right indicator.The hot melt glue had all but let go of the indicator lens, so I helped it a little once I realised it would make mounting the indicator on the fairing easier.



I cheated a bit with putting the indicator back together! The Canberra climate meant that the softened glue held together reasonably well after being pressed together for about a minute.



I realised that I wasn’t going to get the indicator lens to sit flush with the faring while it was attached, so I screwed the back of the indicator onto the fairing and mounted the fairing clips and rubber grommets.



After a fair bit of wrestling, repositioning grommets and clips, swearing and some judicious use of the hairdryer to soften the hot melt glue again, the replacement panel is on!



I quite like the contrast of the matte black against the glossy black on the duck tail and tank, so I’m thinking of repairing the other panels and fitting them later.

(copied from my blog post of the same name)

 

Final Touches Before Nix’ Inspection

Over the last few days I’d been repairing the tear in Nix’ seat with a vinyl repair kit between working on the Hondas. Here’s how it looked when I started.

First I tore a suitably-sized clean piece of cotton rag and placed it behind the tear.

I applied the glue to the back and sides of the torn area and pressed it together as well as I could.

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After waiting the required four hours for the glue to set, I filled it in with a first coat of black filler.



The filler needed to be heat-cured and the directions suggested using a home iron turned up to maximum and holding the heat transfer tool to it until it heated up. This proved completely ineffective as my iron has a safety cut-out and is in fact completely useless for ironing, let alone this type of use! I ended up using my trusty hairdryer for about an hour on a cold Canberra winter evening. This was the result.

Not too bad but still quite a bit of cloth visible beneath the repair. So I filled in the gaps with the rest of the pot of black filler and set to work for another 15-30 minutes with the hairdryer.



In the light of day, I noticed there were still a few gaps. Fortunately I had another vinyl repair kit I’d used on my car seat as a test run that had an unused pot of black filler. I filled in the gaps again and set to it with the hairdryer yet again.

Almost there - it now looks cracked and repaired rather than torn and repaired!

On Tuesday I organised an Unregistered Vehicle Permit for today. so I could get Nix inspected. I put a final coat of vinyl filler in the cracks and broke out the hairdryer again.



While the end result wasn’t by any means a new seat, it looked pretty good compared to the tear.



I decided to take Nix for a quick spin around the block, then topped up the oil while the engine was still warm and managed to spill a bit of it.

I then discovered I’d lost the lens for the right front indicator somewhere along the road. Rather than risk something else going wrong with Nix, I took Rosie (my KLR650) out to look for it, as I hadn’t ridden her in a while. Unfortunately by the time I found it, it had been run over! I collected the bits I could find. Unfortunately, there were nowhere near enough to even glue back together.



At this stage I was struck by the bright idea that I could use some translucent orange plastic boxes and 5-minute epoxy glue that I had to jury-rig a passable indicator lens together just to get to work without incident and maybe pick up a replacement indicator from the local motorcycle wreckers. As I was tired and it was extremely cold, the end result wasn’t great. I was also using my phone for light to work by, so forgot about taking photos.

I put masking tape over it this morning to make sure it wouldn’t fall off on the way to work and called the local bike wreckers – they said they had a new replacement one for $59.95. Despite this being a bit more than I wanted to spend, I organised an extra-long lunch break to pick up and fit it and get the rego inspection done.

After finally riding Nix for a an extended period this morning I discovered 2 things:

1) The rear suspension is terrible and will probably at least need adjusting.

2) Either the 20W-50 oil I spilt last night while topping her up has thinned when the engine has heated up or I have a major oil leak. If the latter, hopefully it’s only something simple like a loose sump plug!

After heading out during lunch in increasingly heavy rain, I found that the local bike wreckers didn’t have a new one after all (for which they apologised) but they did find me a second-hand one. They also helpfully pointed out that the left one was faded and let em know they had those as well if I needed one.

The second-hand indicator was only $15 so I asked if they’d have the tank mounting bolts I was missing as well. Got the lot for $20, went for the Rego Inspection and passed with only an advisory on the left indicator!

So far, so good. Little did I know what was in store on the ride home…

(copied from my blog post of the same name)

 

Slippery When Wet

Having had a successful day with the replacement indicator and passing the Rego Inspection, I rode home from work in heavy rain. After a slight hiccup with needing to switch the fuel tap to Reserve I thought I would get home without incident.

WRONG!

I was crossing the second-last set of traffic lights before home when a ute in front of me braked suddenly on the opposite side of the intersection. I braked too suddenly and too hard on the rear brake. Nix and and I then had a disagreement about the way a motorcycle should stop when braking suddenly in the wet. I thought Nix should be vertical, but she apparently wanted to be horizontal.

Yep, I crashed her. I got up and hit the kill switch after I stopped sliding, then picked Nix up and parked her on the median strip. I did a quick damage assessment of myself and the bike. The first things I noticed were that the right mirror was completely gone but the holder was still there and that a chunk of vinyl was missing from the rear of the seat

To their credit, several motorists stopped to ask me if I was ok – one had even parked as soon as they saw me go down and walked over to ask me if I was alright. I assured them all that I would be fine except for a couple for bruises and thanked them for their concern.

Once the traffic had cleared, I got back on Nix, started her, and went to the local servo to fill the tank.

Once I got home, I checked the damage to Nix, myself and my riding gear more thoroughly.

Thankfully, the bike is still rideable.



The rear of the seat is torn – interestingly the part I repaired seems fine! This might be testament to my determination to fix it as well as I could.



The right mirror is trashed and the right mid-fairing I had just replaced suffered a fair bit.



Somewhat ironically the replacement indicator is fine apart from a couple of minor scratches!







My rain pants got shredded at the right knee and hip – they were relatively cheap, however.





The right elbow of my jacket got a bit grazed, as did the toe of my right steelcap.



The physical damage to myself was fairly minor – slightly grazed knee, slightly bruised hip and right elbow. The bruised ego might take a little longer to heal!



I’m glad I was wearing steelcaps, leathers and wet weather gear, as this could have been a lot worse.

Oh well, at least I walked away from it and was still able to ride her home with nothing more than a couple of bruises and I already have the roadworthy certificate!

A replacement mirror, seat or seat cover and fixing the original right fairing are now top of the list after checking for any obvious oil or fuel leaks and finding the problem with the rear suspension..

After my experinces with Nix so far I’m wondering if she actually hates me or just didn’t like the idea of being sold again so soon…

(Copied from my blog post of the same name)

 

I'm not really a shorts person. Thanks for the heads-up though!

 

There's a whole seat on eBay for $90 in Sydney I've got my eye on. I'd have to pick it up though.

 

Ahh but that doesn't give me an excuse to visit Sydney!

 

I know! Just when I was thinking we could be friends she turned on me!

A lesson I learnt many years ago

Using Jack as my primary weekday transport, I don't always have a choice about it.

I tend to take it easier in the rain, however.
I will definitely be taking more care in the wet now, especially if I'm riding Nix.

Nothing wrong with a bit of rain if you have the right gear.

If I said I didn't feel like riding in the wet, my ex used to say, "What are you, made of sugar?"
I think my reply was "No, but I don't bounce as much as I used to!"

Definitely worth considering

If I indulged in more of those I'd have to ask my girlfriend for permission first. She might not be overly impressed with that!

 

Nix’ Numberplate And Repairing Fairings

After Wednesday night’s excitement, I decided to take it easy on Thursday.

I got up early and took Nix’ Inspection Report to the Motor Vehicle Registry to get her registered. I left with a shiny new number plate and 3 months’ rego and still managed to get to work on time.

Once I got home that evening, I moved Nix back into the gazebo and put her number plate on to remind me she’s registered now and I need to keep working on her.

After doing some work on the CB250RSs, I took a break for dinner, got the spare fairings for Nix out of the shed and found my brand new tubes of J-B Weld.



The directions advised wearing gloves, so back on they went!



According to the tubes, the black stuff is the steel resin and the white stuff is the hardener.



I used a small piece of the orange box I’d used for jury-rigging Nix’ indicator to mix it with.

Wow, if you mix black and white you get grey – who knew?

I applied it liberally to the broken corner piece of the front cowl and the cowl itself.



I held them together for a few moments, then rested the cowl on a bottle of high-quality oil to keep it relatively steady while the J-B Weld set.



Since there was still plenty of resin left, I moved on to Nix’ original right mid-fairing, starting with the crack above the indicator.



Since it seemed to be going pretty well so far, I decided to try re-attaching the two mounting tabs that had been broken off before I bought her.



I remember these pieces were attached to the mid-fairing at some stage but they also used to be attached to each other.



I figured I should fix that first and reattach the whole piece later.





I moved on to the left mid-fairing from the spare set.



The combination of the crack above the indicator on this one and the single reamining mounting tab had prevented me from considering mounting it on Nix when I replace dthe right mid-fairing. It looks like it might be useable as a spare once the resin sets now.



These turned out well enough that I’ll give this stuff a go on the fairing I just broke!

(copied with minor edits from part of a recent blog post of mine)

 

Nix’ Noticeably Nicer Nature

On Friday lunchtime, I visited the local bike wreckers again and left with a set of replacement mirrors, a spare left indicator and a seat in a reasonable state of repair.

I fitted the seat and right mirror immediately and noticed a considerable improvement in how she rode. If she has a personality, it seems to have improved dramatically since she has been registered and got some attention.

On Saturday I removed her damaged and mismatched right fairing.





the damage wasn’t that major,so I’ll give it the same repair treatment I gave the other fairing panels when I have time.



The replacement right mirror mount needs a good clean to remove the writing the wrecker left on it and possibly a bit of a touch-up on the paint.



The mirror itself is fine, although also in need of a good clean.



The left mirror mount is in much better condition than the old one.



The mirror housing is a bit more scratched, so I may end up putting the original one back on.



Although it looks repaired, the original right mid-fairing is definitely in better condition than the matte black one!



While it has a few small tears in the pillion section, the replacement seat is also a definite improvement! I’ll probably re-use the strap from the original one once I can get the screws out that are holding it on. I broke one screwdriver bit attempting to remove it before I realised the threads on the screws holding it on seem to have been deliberately crushed at a certain point – possibly at the factory to prevent them from unscrewing from vibration.



All up, she seems to look a bit happier.



The left indicator is still yet to be replaced, I ran out of weekend so it can wait!

Not a bad weekend’s work - Nix now only has one major and one minor issue - she still appears to be slowly leaking either fuel or oil (relatively minor) and the rear shock needs adjusting or replacing (fairly major in terms of comfort).

(copied with minor edits from part of a recent blog post of mine)

 

Filtered Air, Luggage Hooks And A Frame Bolt

I finally managed to track down the plastic frames to hold the air filter in, along with the filter itself and the sealing screws I didn’t know were missing in the form of a rather battered airbox from the local bike wrecker.



I also managed to get hold of a set of mounting screws for the luggage hooks I bought for her a while ago.



I finally got the chance to install them on the Saturday before the gazebo disaster struck.

Firstly, the seat and rear grab handle needed to come off.



Next were the rear “duck tail” fairings





I tried installing the luggage hooks first to test out the screws.





After realising that the rear fairings weren’t going to go back on over the luggage hooks, I took them off. I already suspected that the air filter frames weren’t getting in the airbox without disassembly, so I started to dismantle the rear sub-frame in order to remove the airbox.

Standard first step is to disconnect the battery.

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Next I unbolted the coolant overflow bottle, noting that it was pretty much empty.



After removing the battery, the rear sub-frame needed to be unbolted to get the airbox out.



At this point I noticed something fairly important was already missing!
There should be a hex-drive or “Allen” bolt where that hole is. It seems the previous one had fallen out after I put the airbox in last time.



I dismantled the rear sub-frame in much the same way as previously shown, pulled out the airbox, put the frames and air filter from the battered one in and put everything back together. Unfortunately I was in too much of a hurry to take photos of the process, as I was losing the light by this stage!

After screwing the luggage hooks in I realised I hadn’t taken many pictures and got a couple of the final result.



Then I got a picture of Nix from her “good” side.



After a short week week last week due to shoulder pain putting me out of action for two days, I was keen to get the missing bolt replaced.

On my way home from work on Tuesday, I discovered the left side indicators weren’t working at all! As it was cold, wet and dark, I rode her home extremely carefully and checked the wiring yesterday morning before leaving for work. While I was looking at indicators, I replaced the left front one as I’d been given an advisory to replace it when she had her rego inspection. As I was getting ready for work, I once again forgot to take photos!

A hectic work schedule prevented me from managing to pick up a replacement frame bolt until today, so I installed it tonight.



Finally, I got a shot of Nix from her “less good” side.



The last few things Nix needs will be adjusting the rear monoshock, replacing the missing “glove compartment” cover along with any missing bolts and finally giving her a good clean and polish!

(Copied from my blog post of the same name)