this is how it looked on the first day I had it
it's a Kawasaki EX500D...I'd been looking for one of these for maybe a year....as my step-son had taken the Motorcycle Training Course and gotten a permit to ride with me on a few little day jaunts(with nether the 'CafeSport' nor the other Wecked CL350 bikes on the road yet, we found it kinda impractical for us to ride together on such mismatched bikes in my collection, like with him on the Derbi SuperMotard or Yamaha Cruiser and me on the BMW or SuperSport)....the EX500 'Ninja' does have a very sporty look, but actually is known to be a "beginners bike" I was even alittle shocked how underpowered it was when I first jumped on one
...tho not much power, the engine is very well mannered, feeling that there is no wrong RPM range to run it in(which finding the 'power-band' of the Derbi or Yamaha is important for healthy riding) and it runs smooth from low 3,000RPM all the way to 10,000RPM without surprises....with a slightly lower seat height and much more upright sitting position(than any 'real' sport bike) it's actually comfortable.... with neutral predictable easy riding for confidence and forgiving handling, this bike still ran strong enough on the highway at 70~90MPH, and nimble enough on the corners that I thought it would be grand for the Kid to tag along with us older folks without giving him a chance to get in over his head, or enough power to embarrass us
...sure, the bike did feel stable enough to reach the "ton", but besides the looks, its, in a word: "unthrilling"
*then the next day* I took the bike out to get a new title in my name, plates, and insurance...and almost with in minutes of competing those official tasks of making it mine, changing the plates in the parking lot, and pulling out into the street, I was run over by a car pulling into the lot I just exited(he turned into a different entrance cutting across my lane, from the wrong far lane, while I was traveling in the lane next to him nearest to the lot with access to the lot's entrances/exits) on a one way 2-lane street, that the driver of the car must of thought he was on a two-way street and only looking for on-coming traffic, and not me beside him...one of those classic 'car turns left in front of a motorcycle that they don't see' type of scenarios ...
...and the bike suddenly looks like this now
after one day!!
...anyway, the whole story is/could be another blog in its self
link > http://runoverhead.blogspot.com/ < link
****sigh****
another project bike, this 'fix'(along with the zebra repaint I'm doing on the Derbi) just will delay action on the CafeSport even more than any of my own procrastination that I was already having trouble with...this Ninja was bought as a 100% clean ready to go bike, mostly just so I wouldn't have to mess with the Yamaha, Derbi, or even the Wrecked CL350 for the KId, as well as giving me a better around town bike opposed to the kinda clucky(and often miss-behaving) Yamaha, and I could move the CafeSport back into the benching area ...D'oh
