thanks bro ...

Ho ho! Just finished installing the FZ16 hugger on my Ninja. Two hours worth it - no swingarm drilling, all the alterations done on the plastic hugger. Will post a full DIY later today - tons of step-by-step pictures. This hugger now won't budge even after circumnavigating the globe on the bike

Somehow things which look deceptively simple to do on the Ninja end up taking a few hours to accomplish!

How to install a FZ16 rear hugger on Kawasaki Ninja 250R!

Before I write anything, I want to thank Itzli since the pictures in his post showed me that it was possible to fit a FZ16 rear hugger on the Ninja 250R. He also told me on how he fixed the hugger on the right side of the swingarm - though I did it in a totally different way today as I was not comfortable with drilling any part of the bike.

Alright then, here goes. To begin with, here are a few pictures of the unmodified Yamaha FZ16 hugger which I bought yesterday for Rs.110 from Orion motors in Koramangala, Bangalore.

FZ16 hugger - left(chain) side:


FZ16 hugger - right (exhaust) side:


FZ16 hugger - center view:


And this is the stock chain cover setup on the Ninja. Needless to say, this allows the muck to be splashed all over the mono shock and lower fender area. And I haven't even been once out on wet roads!



Step 1: The first step in this process is to cut the right hugger arm because it will not fit on the Ninja in its stock form. I used a Rs. 5 metal saw and I mounted that on a small blade handle I had. This is just the beginning, so just cut it without worrying much about the lines and the curves. The metal saw will leave messy edges, so using a sharp cutter blade, clean up the edges - like when you sharpen your pencils with a cutter blade. Enough pressure to shave off some chips, but not so hard that the blade starts cutting into the plastic.

Me cutting the right hugger arm:


Touching up the messy edges with a cutter blade:


Step 2: Now you have cut the unwanted part of the hugger and even cleaned up the edges, but it still looks like a sawed off shotgun. You don't want that look anywhere on your 3 lakh+ bike, right? So time for adding some nice lines and curves to the right side of the hugger. What I did was I copied the profile of the left (chain side) hugger arm and replicated that on the newly cut right hugger arm. Pictures are below and more text follows:

Paste a few strips of invisible Scotch tape on the left hugger arm:


Then, using a silver pen, trace the edges on the tape:


You might get it wrong once or twice, but don't let that discourage you!:


Once you get the lines right, peel off the tape and paste that on a chart paper:


Using a blade and following the silver lines on the tape, cut a paper pattern in the same shape:


Then paste the paper pattern on the modified right hugger arm while keeping the top line and tip aligned:


Trace around the pattern edges using a silver pen. Ignore the two additional wavy lines in the picture, I was just fooling around :



Leave a 10mm margin from the traced edge and start cutting the extra portion in the hugger using a metal saw. After a few minutes, you will have a rough cut 10-15 below the traced silver line. Be careful not to go below 10mm to the traced silver line since cuts by a metal saw are very messy:




Once you complete the rough cut, start using a big cutter blade and start trimming around 90% of the 10mm margin. You can also do this with a smaller cutter knife but the blade needs to be sharp. Once you reach near the silver traced line, use small and gentle cuts to shave off margins until you reach the silver lines just below the paper pattern. The ultimate goal is to match the lines of the plastic base with the bottomline and curves of the paper pattern and silver line. Word of caution: the movement of the blade should be away from your body. The pictures show otherwise because they are for representative purposes only and I wanted to show the cutter blade clearly:



Cut complete:


Remove the paper pattern to see the finished product! Looks nice, eh? I erased the silver markings with a paint thinner later:


Step 3: When I tried on the hugger after this step, it would not sit properly on the swingarm. After looking around, I found out that a portion of the hugger/chain cover needs to go into a metal slot near the rear shock, and the FZ16 hugger construction was getting in the way. So out came the blade again and here's what I did:

Cut a small rectangular piece in the center area of the hugger:


This is the famous metal slot:


See the marked area? That is where the hugger needs to enter the metal slot:


Step 4: Mount the hugger on the swing-arm. There are two attachment points on the left side to fix the hugger. The first is the original 10mm bolt point above the swingarm spool area, and the second is a big silver hex bolt near the rider footpeg. The original second bolt position cannot be used with the FZ16, hence this new position. Using an Allen key, loosen that bolt and with a 10mm spanner head, loosen the rear nut. Slide the hugger over the wheel and after settling the front portion of the hugger into the metal slot (step 3), tighten both the bolts on the left side of the swingarm:

Opens with an Allen key:


After loosening and taking off the bolt, put the hugger over and re-insert the bolts, though do not tighten it fully since you have to take off the hugger in step 5:


The hugger attached on the left side:



Step 5: While the left side has inbuilt provision to secure the hugger with bolts, the right side ain't so lucky. While Itzli had to drill the metal swingarm and use a metal L clamp with a M6 bolt, I wanted none of that. So guess what I used? Two extra long Ty-raps! (Cable ties). I thought this was a simple solution which worked.

Buy a few Ty-raps - you need only two, but get some more for a rainy day. They need to be around 25-28cm otherwise they won't be able to wrap the swingarm and pass through the hugger.

When the hugger is mounted on the swingarm, make two markings on the right hugger using a silver pen. One is near the swingarm joint just behing the right footpeg and the second is somewhere midway, just above and behind the rear brake cable.

Yo brutha! What's rapping? Me Ty-rap! (edit: picture wrongly says 28mm, should be 28cm)


Make markings for holes on the right side of the hugger. This is needed for the wraps to pass through.


Take the hugger out and make a hole big enough to accommodate the Ty-Rap you have bought. The holes I made were small initially, so I used a hot metal nail (heated over a candle) to melt the plastic inside the hole and widen it. I was holding the hot metal nail with a heat resistant Kitchen mitten. Then use a cutter knife to shave off the surface of the hole to make it smooth and aesthetically pleasing.







Mount the hugger back on after cleaning the silver markings with paint thinner, and then attach the left side. You have holes on the right side now, so pass the cable ties through the holes and the swingarm and brake cable respectively. Cut the excess ty-rap ends sticking out with a scissor/cutter. The Ty-raps I used were white, so I later used strips of black electrical tape to cover them - they now blend in extra nice with that gloss.

The Ty-raps without cutting:


The Ty-raps after cutting:


You don't like the white Ty-rap look? Fret not, I made them black - used thin strips of black duct tape!



So this is how it was done! Fits very tight now, and no more muck anymore. This will do for now until I get my Carbon fibre hugger from Japan!

Some more pictures:

@ bluevolt : I'm sure if you had lottsa sparetime, you would make a CF tail hugger out of some carhood and post a DIY here !!!

Enjoyed reading it, keep up the good work.

great going.. so the ty-rap idea did work!!!! ill plan out something next week. got some other projects stuck atm..

BTW - i think it would be good if you put up your worklogs in a separate single thread, would be very beneficial.

Good Job blue volt

Thanks - someday I will get around to working with CF, that material is tough to work with!

Thanks for the Ty-rap tip jd, it did work very well!

Actually I did submit all my 5 DIY's in universal threads, but Sunny went ahead and created a separate sub-forum for DIY (second from top in the main forum, thanks Sunny!). He told me to put those there as five separate threads, which I did. Waiting for the mods to approve!

Thanks man - you should also get yourself a hugger when you get your bike. Trust me, the amount of muck which gets deposited even in dry conditions is NOT funny.

Will sure do... Janaki was pretty confident this time.. said I should get it by 2nd or 3rd week of Feb.... but I've heard that before

Great going Bluevolt, loved the detailed pics

Ty rap's may not hold it for long because of the vibrations involved.....

Thanks buddy!

Good quality Ty-raps are much stronger than you expect them to be. And these were the extra strong imported ones - lets see, if these hold during my GQ trip in Feb(6000 km+ distance), they would have passed the test. We will come to know end of Feb.

The idea is tie the ty-raps very tight so that the hugger does not vibrate at all

^^ an enitre section dedicated to your DIY's bluevolt, wonderfull
keep them coming....

PS: did not want to add no-value comment in the DIY thread, so posting here

@ bluevolt: buddy i think you have some biking passion there..great work !

Ninja 250 waiting period in ncr

Hi,
Saw the baby ninja at Probiking in Lucknow today,waiting period 90 days!!
Any idea what is the waiting period in New Delhi?
thanks
singhisking

ty-raps are used extensively throughout aircrafts, in the wiring and also to retain items that are prone to vibration, but need to be replaced at regular intervals.

i work on aircrafts, so can comment on this aspect.

Good quality tyraps go a long way in holding onto something.. like 3-5 years nearly before they turn brittle..

Thats why i suggested ty-raps, easy to use, and long lasting.. I still stand by em.. they are like what duct tape is to americans...