Firstly, to address the people who are inevitably going to ask why I would bother spending money i will never get back on a GPX: a few main reasons;
- I like the GPX - to me they are this everlasting staple of 250 riders, and theyre pretty iconic too, having been pretty much unchanged for 20 or so years.
- I always wanted to keep this bike as a commuter, even after i get a larger machine - fuel efficiency and a pretty large tank equal large distances between fuel stations!
- With the introduction of the new Ninja 250, the resale price of the GPX is going to go one of two ways - either theyll go down, or theyll turn into a collectors item! (im guessing the former)
- I learned on this bike - i had a stack when i was on my L's, I had the typical stop-drops, and i had this last stack 7 months ago... its not exactly in pristine condition, and repairing it to new would seem kinda boring...
- I do things that seem odd just to be unique... I always have. Sometimes, its the stupider the better, but mostly the big appeal is that you just dont have modded GPX's here, and so it will be different.
Some of you may remember
this thread, which has been a bit of inspiration.
Some may remember
this thread, which is the first step of modification to my bike.
I've always liked fighters and fighteresque bikes, and mentally toyed with the idea of a fightered GPX, but couldn't justify hacking into mine when it was still in good condition, especially when people dont usually keep their 250's longer than a year.
So to fix that problem
I threw it down the road back in December, and its had cracks in the fairings and missing a screen ever since (see images).
So this is what I want to do;
- Fairing chop: Something very similar to the Ninjatard (see 1st link above).
- New headlight(s)/headlight fairing: Not sure which way im swinging here, i havent seen anything that really catches my eye and makes me want it... I like the simple twin headlight setup, but that seems a little default... or there is headlight fairings, many of which look really cool, problem is you have either cheap and nasty or super-nice but kinda costly...
The above two obviously presents their own problems with things that currently attach to the front fairing, like;
- Mirrors: probably bar end ones, i like the CRG Lanesplit mirrors, but that could be because i havent really thought about it much
- Indicators: Probably custom rig of some variety - maybe attached to the new and improved side fairings or to the sides of the headlight fairing, depending on which way i decide there...
- To bellypan or not to bellypan: Not sure if i want to keep the bellypan there, the headers are by no means attractive, and i could pretty easily leave it attached as is - it bolts on just in front of the foot pegs on both sides and just under the radiator - but it also usually bolts to the front fairing so i would need a bit of chopping to make it look less like 'something should be attached here'
The 'supplementary' list:
- Bars: Woodcraft make some lowered risers which lower the riding position by about an inch - not much but any lower and they would collide with the oddly shaped/positioned tank. They arent cheap though, and dont look much different from the stockers so im undecided here. Maybe something completely different.
- Exhaust: Thinking a 2 into 1 kit for my zorsts, although... again, if i could do something like that ninjatard i would be very happy, and would clean up the rear of this bike a lot.
- Tail: I'm pretty much unimpressed with the tail end of this bike, again the one in the ninjatard is pretty cool but he has done some frame chopping to achieve it and it looks like it may have pretty severly weakened the whole tail section of the frame. I'm a pretty small dude and im not that concerned that my weight alone would cause buckling of the frame if i chopped it up, but have a prang or hit a pothole and it could be a very different story.
- Colour: I'm halfway between a matt black, and a white... completely undecided and subject to change.
Budget comes into play a little here - only in that if its real expensive it will take longer... if i really like an idea i'll damn well save my pennies rather than scratch it off due to price...
I'm posting before I do anything basically because I want ideas and (for some unknown reason
) I respect the opinion of the members on these forums, especially the usual mob that frequent this section. So any ideas on any aspect of this project are completely welcome.
