This week I got a ton done! I started work on my wheel bearings, cleaned my sprocket, and cleaned/lubed my entire rear suspension. I also upgraded my shock to a ZX600 shock in the rear.

I also attended the Progressive International Motorcycle Show. That was tons of fun! It didn’t exactly help me get anything done, per se, but it was an enjoyable experience. This week I also ordered the gear I need (Alpinestar gloves and Joe Rocket pants) so I’ve got head to toe gear now. Rather, I’ll have it when it ships and arrives here. Anyway, onto the work done:

I began working on the wheel bearings first. I purchased a bearing removal tool for this purpose and it works phenomenally well! It consists of several plugs that are sized for various internal diameters of the bearings. The set also includes two rods with tapered ends that fit in a slot in the plugs. These are used to expand the plugs and then knock out the bearings.

I got two bearings out, and then encountered my nemesis:

There are snap rings holding the rest in! I didn’t expect these, and I didn’t have any snap ring pliers. I ordered a set, but needless to say that stopped my progress on wheel bearings until I got the pliers (which I since have received) and have time to work on them again.

When I got the bike, I noticed the suspension was very soft. Sitting on the bike makes it sink down a lot, and I’m not a small dude. According to Ninja250.org, the ZX600 shock makes a good upgrade, especially if you’re over 200 lbs. Well, I fit that category, and I found one in good condition on eBay for $20. I ordered that when I bought the bike. Since I intended to do the whole rear suspension, I figured that was the perfect time to install the shock. I got an oil change kit from Murph’s Kits; it’s made for Concours shocks, and these are basically the same thing. I drained all the old oil out of the shock. This was a process of draining the oil, heating the shock to loosen some more oil, then letting it hang overnight, heating it again, and getting the last of the oil out.

That’s the old oil. The new oil is almost clear. Once I replaced the oil, the shock was good to go. The kit comes with everything you need to get the new oil in.

I also replaced the horn! The old/stock horn was really wimpy and would probably elicit laughter rather than action from fellow drivers. The new horn is far louder and should be very easy to hear.

Finally, I ripped out the entire rear suspension (swingarm, unitrack/suspension pivot, rear shock, and tie rods), took out all the sleeves, cleaned everything, lubed everything, and put it all back together. Yup, the one thing that took the vast majority of the time isn’t taking up much of this post. The point of this isn’t to describe how to do this, but what I did.

One interesting thing was I found a great place to mount the valve for filling and emptying the pressure in the shock. Ninja250.org says to remove all the bracketry from the shock, but I found that if you leave the last bracket on, you can put it near the left footpeg and retain it with an existing bolt. Almost looks like it belongs there.

I neglected to get washers to space out the shock; the lower mount is slightly wider than stock so it has some side-to-side play. I have the washers and just need to install them.

Bonus: here’s a picture of me sitting on a BMW S1000RR at the Internation Motorcycle Show last weekend. Man, that was a phenomenal bike. No offense to my 250R, but that bike was amazing.

As always, here’s a gallery of all the pictures I took of the work so far:

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Tags: EX250F, Motorcycle, Ninja 250R, Project