$640 of red raging high performance asian anger...
 

Or...

A Ninjette for ONSSP.

We've been talking about getting her a lil' Ninja for a while and after riding on the back of the Shadow, she's gotten really into it... So yesterday, I was doing my daily Statewidelist.com search (searches craigslists for the entire state) and came across a 1997 with a leaky radiator, 11.5k on the clock, otherwise working... for $700.

Called and emailed the guy all day, and finally heard back from him around 6pm... Waiting for ONSSP to get home, hit the bank, and drove 1.25 hours to go look at it.

The kid seemed nice enough, honest, and it was obvious that this thing had a history of neglect... So I derf'ed him down to $640 and rode it home.

The good:
Runs like a clock
Fairings in great shape (no cracks)
All lights/gauges/switches/etc work
Clean tank
Good rubber
$640

The bad:
Pretty sure the maintenance schedule on this thing was - add one gallon of chain lube every 11,499 miles, store uncovered outside, and beat the everliving fuck out of it as often as possible...

Brakes are incredibly stiff and are pretty much on/off switches, suspension is ridiculously soft... like I can push down on it with one hand and bottom out the rear soft... looking through the sight glass, the oil resembles a mixture of semen, molasses, and rancid elephant piss... leaky radiator (though, I'm not entirely sure at this point - MAY be the the overflow or a hose)... a couple small tears in the seat... Bars were loose, probably not the original bolts (or just halfassed tightened)... chain might be salvagable, but I'm probably just going to replace it anyway...

I certainly didn't need another project, but the price was right so I struck while the iron was hot... took a pic last night, but forgot the fucking camera at home, so pics will be up tonight...

My goal is to get the thing torn down, all fluids flushed/replaced over the weekend... Next week - chain, rebuild the brakes, and sort out the radiator issue... then apparently we (I) are painting this thing pink...

Good find

Nice.

250 or 500?

What year?

250... 1997... looks just like this:
http://images1.americanlisted.com/nl...ow_9379327.jpg

And here's a picture of me riding it home...
http://iphonetoolbox.com/wp-content/...cus-bear-f.jpg

check out www.searchtempest.com searches all the C/L if you want it to.

:lol

Fuck that. Statewidelist is way better for me... Florida is fucking enormous and SWL breaks it down by which CL it searched from... So I can just look at Daytona, CFL, Orlando, Spacecoast, and Tampa without having to plug in 100 zips and shit...

So... I remember shit from the late 80's or early 90's... late night informercial shit... it restored plastic/vinyl/etc... you remember the informercial - guy pulls a 50 year old car out of the junkyard, wipes the shit across the dash and the plastic is as good as new...

Anything like that really exist? I wouldn't expect a miracle, but all the plastic surrouding the controls on this thing are bleached from the sun and look like absolute dogshit. Something to clean them up a bit would be nice... I've found a few options online, but wonder if anyone has any first hand experience with anything...

Yeah, but the problem with that is that you lose the markings for what all the shit does... I mean, it doesn't take a 100k mile motorcycle veteran to figure them out, but for ONSSP just starting out I'd like everything to be as obvious as possible.