kawasaki ninja 650r restoration video series

Back in January, Adrian at YouMotorcycle bought a 2006 Kawasaki Ninja 650 with 330 km on it for only $1,300. The previous owner is an entrepreneur who’s businesses blew up, and then so did his wife (they had three kids in seven years). On top of a crazy life, he was a fairweather rider who’s wife absolutely hated him riding motorcycles (eye roll).

He wanted to get the bike fixed up before selling it, but when he found out what that would cost him, he decided the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze, so he sold it to me as-is where-is instead. I’ve slowly been getting this bike back to her former glory and video’ing it (“vlogging” it) along the way.

I’m not a motorcycle mechanic nor a video editor wiz, so some parts might be painful to watch, but if you like watching this type of thing, or if you just want to flame a stranger on the internet to feel better about your own miserable life, feel free to watch my videos  Here are the first three:

#1 – Bringing the bike home, explaining the plan for it, and coming across an interesting surprise:

#2 – Getting the bike to start (overcoming dead battery, vapor lock, and another surprise to tackle):

#3 – Siphoning out the old gas with a $15 gas pump (tank had been drained in the past so I took a shortcut here):

Still ahead: I’ll do an oil change video, coolant video, and finally a brake fluid video.

I was thinking about putting fresh tires on this bike, because despite the low km the rubber is still 13 years old, but I think I’ll leave these on, reflect that in the price, and let whoever buys it deal get whatever tires they want for it. Some will buy the best rubber they can get, others will happy with a crappy set of Shinkos, whatever…

If you guys have any questions, comments, or would like to lend a hand or spin a wrench with me, give me a shout.

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