Frosty-cold winter seems like a good time to make a new blog post about our track bike build, highlighting some recent progress.

The bike…

We picked up a 2013 Kawasaki Ninja 650 late last year for a reasonable price. It had a little damage, as these lower-cost bikes generally do. It’s a great platform for a track day bike though, as it’s the same bike that Penguin Racing uses as part of its rental fleet. There are a ton of reasonably-priced add-on parts available from the various vendors that we’re a dealer for, like Woodcraft, Vortex, and others.

The parts list (so far)…

We’re setting this bike up for track days and for possibly racing in the new-ish Super Street class at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS). We may even take it a little further and meet the stricter requirements of full-on racing with NEMRR, but that will be later this year or possibly next. In the meantime, here’s the list of bolt-ons that we’re adding to the Ninja…

• Woodcraft Rear Sets
• Woodcraft Clip-on Conversion Kit
• Woodcraft Frame Sliders
• Vortex Sprockets (-1, +2) and JT Chain
• Dunlop Q3+ Tires
• K&N Air and Oil Filters
• Vesrah Sintered Brake Pads
• Yuasa Battery
• Cheap, Ebay Exhaust

Progress (so far)…

All of the Woodcraft parts are installed. They included decent instructions which were easy to follow. All the stock parts they replaced will be put up for sale or just tossed since some of them had previous damage. The rear tire and new chain and sprockets are installed. The JT chain actually came with both a rivet link and a clip-on link. We opted for the rivet and will keep the clip-on for a spare.

The bike got pulled off the bike lift, so we could start on the front end. The fork seals have now been replaced.

What’s Left to Do?

The final step is to cut and install the Sharkskinz race fairings. Although not technically needed for this level of bike, it seemed like a good upfront investment and a good selling point if a racer expresses interest in buying it.

UPDATE

Race fairings installed…