Lowering the Ninja 400

There is an internet forum for owners of the Kawasaki Ninja 400 that I have been lurking on since the bike came out, and it just so happened that there was a recent thread on mods for short riders.  One of the posters referenced a lowering link kit sold by a company called "Roaring Toys".  I looked them up and saw that the kit consisted of a couple of multi-adjustable pieces that replace the "dog bones" in the rear shock linkage plus an adjustable side stand to make up for the loss of lean in the bike when significantly lowered.  The problem was, this kit cost $273!  I figured I could make the dog bones myself and, if I lowered the bike only an inch, I could maybe still use the stock side stand.  I had two problems I had to solve; one was to find out how to safely remove the dog bones, and the other was to determine the length of the ones I was going to make that would result in the desired one inch of lowering.  I found a video on YouTube that showed how to remove the dog bones, and it had some really helpful information.  Then, while searching Ebay for possible cheaper options, I found a guy who was selling some that he made.  He still wanted too much money, but he made the mistake of giving the dimensions for lowering the bike an inch.  I had what I needed. 

It used to be that one of the first purchases I made whenever I bought a new car or motorcycle was to buy the service manual for the vehicle.  I quit doing that for cars quite a few years ago when the service manual became a couple of inch-thick volumes that became so technical and required so much specialized equipment, plus cost close to $100.  I did buy a service manual for my cbr500, but I'm not buying one for the Kawasaki.  I think you can find out just about all you need to know from YouTube videos.  Some are not so good, but some are excellent. 

So the first step was to support the bike in a way that took all load off the rear shock, like this:

And here is where the dog bones are located:

And this is why they are called dog bones:

I went to the local Ace hardware and bought a piece of 3/16 X 1.25 inch steel and made my own, which don't have the dog bone shape, but do the job.  It turns out that to lower the bike an inch, the links need to be a half inch longer than stock......I had sort of assumed they would be shorter, but it's due to the geometry of the shock linkage.  Here are the new ones, painted and installed:

It's not enough to just lower the rear suspension as that changes the steering geometry.  You need to also lower the front of the bike.  This is done by sliding the fork tubes up in the triple clamps.  This was the stock setting:

And this is after:

I only lowered the front 5/8 of an inch.  It seems like plenty, and I was getting concerned about the side stand being too long.  I will have to do some riding to see if more adjustment is needed and how well the side stand works.  It's fine on my level garage floor, but in the real world it may be a problem.  If it is, I can cut the foot off and then cut some out of the side stand and re-weld the foot back on. 

After all was done I measured the seat height and it went from a measured 30.5 inches to 29.5, so it is exactly one inch lower.  It is very noticeable when sitting on the bike and I think Jenny will love it.  For myself, maybe I can finally drag the foot peg feelers when cornering. 

I had texted Jenny before I did this and said I thought I could lower the bike.  She said it sounded like a lot of work, but this is just the kind of stuff I like to do. 

New Horse in the Stable

I've been interested in this bike since it first came out as a 2018 model.  It's a Kawasaki Ninja 400.  I've been keeping an eye on Craigslist for at least the past year, looking for a used one, but since it is a new model it took awhile for them to start showing up on the used market.  What I find most intriguing about it is its light weight.......ready to ride it is 60 pounds lighter than my Honda, but it has almost the same horsepower.  In race track contests the Ninja spanks the Honda by a large margin.  I'm not interested in racing, but it means to me that it does not lack power.  There is even a bigger difference in weight between this bike and my Honda because I have added a center stand and some other bits, plus probably 10 pounds of tools.

From the beginning I thought this would be the perfect bike for Jenny.  She has had some problems with tipovers on her CBR due to the weight of it combined with a seat height that prevents her from flat footing when stopped.   The specified seat heights of both bikes are the same at 30.9 inches, but the Kawasaki's seat feels lower to me.......perhaps the seat is narrower.  Nevertheless, after looking at how the rear suspension linkage works, I think I can lower the Ninja by an inch by fabricating some new "dog bones" and sliding the forks up in the triple clamps.   The bike also has ABS, which was a $400 option when new.  I don't consider it essential for a bike of my own, but it will be an extra margin of safety for Jenny. 

I've had the bike for a week now and today I rode about 200 miles with my riding buddies, so I have had a chance to adjust the controls to my liking and get used to how the bike handles.  The light weight is noticeable somewhat when riding, but most noticeable when pushing the bike around the shop or putting it up on my hoist.  The engine characteristics are quite different.  The Ninja is a real rever, with a redline almost 12,000 rpm versus 8,500 for the Honda, and the bike seems to accelerate like a demon if you rev it.

Although I think it's the perfect bike for Jenny, for me, the Honda is better because it is more comfortable, and because I have put a center stand on it.  It is more comfortable mainly because the foot pegs on the Honda are lower so my old bum knees are not bent so much.  I don't think this will bother Jenny since she is young and flexible, and has shorter legs than me.  The lack of a center stand means that simple maintenance like lubing the chain requires that you have a way to lift the rear wheel off the ground.  All bikes used to come with a center stand, but now only a few do.  So one of the first aftermarket purchases I made was some swing arm bobbins and a stand:

So the plan is to get this bike down to Jenny and bring her Honda up here for me to refurbish and sell.  We have been through this drill before when I traded her current bike for the proceeds from the sale of her first bike, the Ninja 250.  Since emission requirements are different in California than anywhere else in the world, you can not import and register an out of state compliant bike in California unless it has over 7500 miles on it.  Since the new bike only had 4,400 miles on it when I bought it, I figured I would be "forced" to ride it during the summer to get the required miles on it.  However, when I noticed a sticker that mentioned an evap canister, I started looking more closely and discovered the bike is a California compliant bike.  I don't know how it ended up in Portland where I bought it, but it means I could make the swap any time.  The problem is that nobody wants to go anywhere right now due to the Corona virus pandemic.  We will just have to see how it all plays out.