Doing up the ZXR...

[placidfemme]

My mistake, I thought from your previous msg you could get one for $60.

oh... On the ZXR there is a small fairing (cowl) bit that fits in the middle of the two lower front fairings, it holds the two side fairings together and covers the radiator a little bit. Not an essential part of the bike, infact if you didn't know it was there you wouldn't miss it if it wasn't.

When I was taking my bike off the trailer after picking it up from the evil bike shop, the middle of the bike (the lower side) hit the trailer, therefore resulting in a nice big crack up either side of my side fairings, and a crack right up the middle of that cowl thingy. I've used Knead It to stick the cowl back together, but you can still notice the crack... so yeah, thats the cowl I was talking about lol.

Do you mean you'll need to get an old rear seat to butcher for the catch mechanism?

Yeah, I have three options in regards to the rear seat cowl.

1. Make a cowl that "slips" on, or partially on the normal rear seat.
2. Butcher my rear seat and have just a cowl (not practical when coming to re-sale of the bike)
3. Have a seperate rear seat and seperate cowl.

Affman said the "Slip On" idea would be the best, howeverm with the padding on the seat, it means chances are the cowl will stick out a little more than I want... I'd rather have two seperate ones

[imdying]

Another option, how about getting a piece race tail section (cowl and both sides in one) and modifying that to fit? Can always put the std parts on for resale later That's would be easiest, you don't even need to get a ZXR250 one... I imagine with the mount of ZXR400s that were/are racebikes, you should be able to get a ZXR400 one somewhere?

/edit: My RZ500 had a slip on one (factory), but not sure that it would like quite right on something with the shape of a ZXR250


Another suggestion, get your old rear seat recovered to match the body work. A lady on this site had her father make up quite a trick looking seat, he would defnitely have the talents to recover your rear seat to match so it looked great

[placidfemme]

Another option, how about getting a piece race tail section (cowl and both sides in one) and modifying that to fit? Can always put the std parts on for resale later That's would be easiest, you don't even need to get a ZXR250 one... I imagine with the mount of ZXR400s that were/are racebikes, you should be able to get a ZXR400 one somewhere?

/edit: My RZ500 had a slip on one (factory), but not sure that it would like quite right on something with the shape of a ZXR250

Thats a good idea, it's just a matter of finding someone with a tail section for a ZXR400 that would be willing to come over and see if it fits... the 400's are only slightly bigger (size wise) than the 250 so that might just work

Another suggestion, get your old rear seat recovered to match the body work. A lady on this site had her father make up quite a trick looking seat, he would defnitely have the talents to recover your rear seat to match so it looked great

Yeah I saw that, and I do have that in mind. but right now i'm not sure what the decals are going to be on the bike when it's painted. I thought of just black, with blue anodised nuts/bolts, rear sprocket, handlegrips, screen, footpegs e.t.c and only have a big "ZXR" in blue on the tank, and a little "ZXR" on the tail fairing. I don't want any "250" decals on the bike at all.

I may (or may not) get blue flame decals. In which case the seat would be black with blue flames that match the decals... but thats up in the air right now...

In a nut shell here is the work layout:

1. Get the bike road legal
2. Get the cowl designed and made
3. Get custom made crash bars/knobs for the ZXR (again they don't make these for 250's, so I would need to get it done professionally as they would have to cut through my fairings and weld the joints thingys to the frame... wouldn't wanna screw that up lol)
4. Get the bike painted (all the fairings, the cowl and the tank)
5. Finish off pretty bling bling bits

Then decide whether to keep it, or sell it, or give it to my partner...

I know I'm going to end up spending a shit load getting the ZXR done up, however, I got the bike back for free after crashing it, so I can spend up to $4500 on it without really making a loss...

[placidfemme]

I just found a pic of a ZXR250 with a cowl... yay, now to get mine sorted

[Karma]

You need one of these...

As far as I'm aware the 250 and 400 are almost identical on the rear. In the picture you can see that the entire rear fairing has been replaced.

I know you can get these from places in the UK, but wouldn't know how to get them from NZ

[imdying]

Oh, that's horn, that is

[placidfemme]

That looks pretty sweet... a little squarish at the back but still in the area of what I'm looking for...

*spends more time searching the net than actually working* lol

[imdying]

*spends more time searching the net than actually working* lol

Welcome to the club....

[Fisherman]

If you are still making your own mould (actualy a plug to make a mould ?) for your pillion seat then i though that i would warn you that if you are using polysterene ( the white expanded bead ) that bog, primer and fiberglass will eat that stuff. You really need to use urethane foam which is yellow. Its got tiny bubbles and is all even so is much, much easier to use. You can make a real rough sort of shape using cardboard and tape and fill it with the gorilla brand expanding foam for filling gaps in houses. You want to make it too big and cut it down with a hand saw then just sand it back with some 40 grit.

I have done some car bumpers and it is alot of work so be prepared but well worth it.

[placidfemme]

If you are still making your own mould (actualy a plug to make a mould ?) for your pillion seat then i though that i would warn you that if you are using polysterene ( the white expanded bead ) that bog, primer and fiberglass will eat that stuff. You really need to use urethane foam which is yellow. Its got tiny bubbles and is all even so is much, much easier to use. You can make a real rough sort of shape using cardboard and tape and fill it with the gorilla brand expanding foam for filling gaps in houses. You want to make it too big and cut it down with a hand saw then just sand it back with some 40 grit.

I have done some car bumpers and it is alot of work so be prepared but well worth it.

Thanks for the advise, I was thinking about it last night and decided that I'm going to try a slightley different method.

I'm going to buy (now what do you NZer's call it....) playdough... or putty, or whatever, and make the mould with the rear seat on the bike, so I can get the exact look I'm looking for, if I screw it up I can just mush the play dough back together and try again, nothing lost... Once the design is finalized and I've got it right, then I'll cover the playdough with something harder or more solid and use that as the mould... sounds like a lot less work and a lot cheaper, with the same result

Going into the bike shop this afternoon to get some more blue anodised bolts, book the bike in for the fork seal replacement, and check what aftermarket rear sets they have in stock and see if any will fit on the ZXR (I've got my mounting bracket with me so I can cheeck to see if they are the same distance apart... of course I won't be buying them today, but if i know what price range I'm looking at then I can make a plan towards it (and if i can't find any rear sets that fit the ZXR then I can always just get anodised footpegs)

Also looking at some anosided covers for the brake fluid containers, and possibly also the oil cap screw thing... however I've got an aftermarket overflow pipe coming out of my oil cap (I think that was installed for racing... I think my bike was raced in Japan... why else would it have so many mod's), so if I get a anodised oil cap then i'll have to remove my overflow pipe... which I actually like...

So I'll be at the bike shop for about 2 hours lol

[crashe]

Which bike shop?
What time?

Im in the city today, would be great to catch up...
Dependant upon our two schedules that is...

[placidfemme]

Which bike shop?
What time?

Im in the city today, would be great to catch up...
Dependant upon our two schedules that is...

Mt Eden. Not too sure of the time... Everyone at work is finishing at 1pm today (yay! ) and Sam wants me to go and meet the freaks at her work *sigh* so if I can get out of that (lol and watch me I will ) I should be up at the shop by about 2.30pm-ish

I'll proberly be standing by the counter sifting through a huge box of anodised blue bolts...

[crashe]

Txt me.... you got my number.....



Righto off to get ready to go to the movies (11am movie start...)
I know its such a hard life....

[aff-man]

hmmm I might pop in around that time if ya want??

Gotta go into colemans but can stop in at mt eden.

Swing me a text.

[placidfemme]

Kewl, but the situation has semi-changed... I was meant to finish early today because we usually hold seminars on Wednesday nights, but our seminar tonight has been cancelled so I won't be leaving work until about 3pm now. So I'll get to the bike shop at about 3.30pm