Project Dorris - 1993 EX500 Ninja Thingymabob

[GM1216]

Well following on from my parts hoard post, I have thinned some of the herd but also gained a couple more in the process, but i digress.
I will probably have 3 unfinished projects posted up here by christmas not including the Z1000 that I've been working on for nearly 2 years. What can I say I have an addicts brain and i'm easily sidetracked.

So I did a USD front end conversion on my Speed Triple and then swapped the original complete front end for this shitty non running 1993 EX500.



A short while I ended up with a second EX500 because I have a motorcycle problem lol. And it was cheap. In my excitement I ripped into it before i took a before pic so here she is getting nakid

At this point I decided because they are horrible looking bikes and haven't seen many tastefully built EX's I would throw some of my newly acquired parts hoard at it and see if we can't polish a turd.
So with that in mind I promptly cut it pieces with my angle grinder.

I think I may have got a little carried away

 

[Psychopasta]

Re: Project Dorris - EX500 Ninja Thingymabob

I think you might. But ripping them apart really is the fun part

 

[GM1216]

Re: Project Dorris - EX500 Ninja Thingymabob

With one EX murdered it was time to turn my attention to the original titled EX, switched out the starter solenoid and one of the coils and managed to get her running on starter fluid, t's nice having a donor bike to rob parts from.

Next up I needed to address the running gear because......Well because it was all shit, I don't like stock, I have a mountain of parts and I just can't help it.
Because I am trying to keep this project a budget build i went with the ZX600 front end I got with the rolling chassis a while back.

So now the little EX500 Ninja has a front end upgrade ala ZX6R all I needed was a new set of head bearings and it was good to go.and now has some beefier front forks and a feckin great big twin disc brake set up to haul her to a stop from not very fast at all......lol.

It's more for the look than any discernible performance gains. Handle bars will probably be switched out once final stance is decided.

Next is the arse end. Got the matching backend from same rolling chassis but highly unlikely I will squeeze the swingarm in there without major surgery.
So I have a cunning plan that I hope will work because I have done bigger all research as normal.

 

[GM1216]

Re: Project Dorris - EX500 Ninja Thingymabob

It was at this point I decided to call the bike Dorris for no other reason than it's a feckin ridiculous name for a motorcycle

 

[GM1216]

Re: Project Dorris - EX500 Ninja Thingymabob

So Dorris's arse fell out lol. Horrible crusty and rusty arse end is no more. I mean really drum brakes WTF is this the flintstones. I think not.

While I was at it I noticed there was plenty more fun to be had with mr grinder.

Well I had to breakdown and Buy parts, I have a 220mm to shove a swinrm and the ZX8 unit is 234mm there is not enough material to shave the swingarm pivot so the plan is now ZX600 wheel in Bandit swing arm and figure the rest as I go.

First job is to drill out swingarm pivot on frame from 14mm to 20mm before i can go any further. fortunately there is plenty of meat on there so it won't compromise rigidity of mount.

EDIT: when I did this I had forgotten I was going to start a build thread, If I had done this already maybe one of you nice people would have said " why don't you sleeve down the bandit arm"

It occured to me after the fact this may have been a better way to go but oh well it's all good and i'm happy with the result.

Not pics to show of this because I forgot I wanted to do a build thread Sorry

 

[GM1216]

Re: Project Dorris - EX500 Ninja Thingymabob

Upon dry fitting swingarm a couple of things came to light.

First. I need to plan better because the fact the ZX6 wheel has a 17mm axle and the Bandit uses a 20mm ale didn't even register until I tried to install said wheel and had my fer fucks sake moment lol.
Once again time to order new bearings

Secondly. I didn't like the fact that because the Bandit arm had the linkage mount on top I would need ridiculously long dog bones to maintain the stock geometry, I considered flipping the arm but that would have caused fouling issues when shock got upgraded.
I also thought about welding mounts for a twin shock set up ala cafe style but i'm still undecided on the direction this build will take.

So the grinder game out again this time i used it to cut of the linkage mount on a second Bandit arm I had (got 2 because they were dirt cheap and 1 had some parts I needed other had the rest and it worked out cheaper than buying all parts seperate to build 1)

I kept original mount on swingarm and usd it as a jig to get correct placement of new mount on underside then tacked it in place before cutting off and cleaning original mount

Then I glued on the new mount including some extra bracing

Next up was dry fitting it the bike and one again more issues because i didn't think everything through.
Got wheel bearings but when i went to install i had completely forgotten the sleeve in side the wheel, Solved this by taking the spare swingarm pivot sleeve and cutting it down to fit the wheel, then all pleased with myself I found out The sprocket carrier spacer hadn't even been on my radar, fortunately it had enough meat inside I could drill it out to 20mm and that bring this thread upto date.

Still to do in this phase, make or modify rear brake caliper bracket, Source or turn down some wheel spacers to true up wheel in the arm and set chain alignment, Switch out shock to beefier and less crusty unit, sort dogbone length to maintain near stock geometry.

Overall It's been a while since I have undertook a proper build and I'm clearly not 100% back on my game yet but it's coming along and more importantly I have some great ideas forming in my twisted brain and I honestly think this bikes gonna be a bit fookin good when it's done.