Well it's been a long time coming people, but I thought I would share with you my "blast from the past" 1990 ZX10 Ninja restoration project!!!
Lots of time and money went into this restoration, much more than I thought, but the end result is better than I expected. I have no regrets at all and in many ways it's better than new. It rides great, handles fairly well for an old bike (modern tyres and rebuilt suspension helping no doubt), shifts smoothly through all six gears, braided stainless steel brake lines and fully rebuilt brakes help it to stop ok, it has a surprising amount of power from its still very healthy 997cc engine, and perhaps best of all… it is turning plenty of heads around Perth ;-)
It all started back in 2013 as summer was releasing it’s grip on the weather and I was going through some old photos… I noticed a photo of my old 1989 ZX-10 taken circa 1993 (below)
I was thinking how cool that bike still looked even by today’s standards and that many more modern bikes have lost those smooth flowing lines that Kawasaki got so right back in the late 80’s and early 90’s with their GPz900R, ZX-10 and the legendary ZZR-1100. I wondered if any of these 1988-90 ZX-10 Ninja’s (my favourites of the era) were still around, and if so what condition would they be in? Funnily enough, a quick look on eBay Australia that night turned this up…
Wow! And the guy keeps it in his living room – it can’t be too bad!!! A quick email to the seller (in Victoria) at nearly midnight their time got a very helpful message back and within 5 minutes we were having a chat on the phone. The bike was a genuine well looked after 1990 ZX-10 Ninja with just 40,000Kms on the clock and everything on it worked! I think we did the deal that night and within days it was picked up by a very helpful transport company (Tristate Transport) who would take it back to their depot in Melbourne, pack it into a bike-crate and ship it to me here in Perth.
Whilst this was all going on I was talking to a few bike shops here in Perth about performing the restoration work and made the decision to trust the work to Motorcycle Masters in Kewdale. I’ve always had great service from them and the mechanics I spoke to their actually seemed interested in doing the job! Once it arrived in their Kewdale workshop I just had to go and take a peek for myself…
Although she looked in good shape, age and usual wear and tear etc had taken their toll and as much as I could have just got some new tyres, a chain and fixed a few small things I knew this bike deserved the full treatment and a full restoration began. First they had to pull it all apart…
Once it was basically mostly in pieces, we worked out what needed to be done, which was basically everything! In the mean time I knew I needed a parts (donor) bike to supply the required bits and pieces made out of “unobtanium” and to this end I sourced a fairly good condition 1988 ZX-10 out of Queensland that was still road licensed and running. The donor bike had been found!
Over the next several months the following work and parts were either ordered, repaired or made from scratch! The old 88’ bike was pulled apart and every time a better part was found on the 88 bike it was used on the 90’ bike so that we had the very best parts to work with. Not having the 88’ bike would have made the entire job much more difficult!
- Front fork inner tubes completely re-chromed
- Front suspension rebuilt using 10W fork oil
- Fully rebuilt rear suspension
- Front and rear rims bead-blasted and repainted in gloss black (hides the dirt and looks better than stock in my opinion) Note that the front wheel from the 88’ bike had to be used as the front rim from 90’ bike had a slight dent in it.
- All new wheel bearings fitted
- New cush drive fitted to the rear wheel
- New Pirelli Angel tyres in 120/70/17 and 160/60/18 (stock sizes)
- New DID 530 x-ring chain, new 530 rear sprocket and new 16 tooth 530 front sprocket from PBI (as stock chain etc was the odd-ball 532 size)
- Fully rebuilt front and rear brakes using top quality parts
- EBC HH front pads, Gold rear pads
- Fully rebuilt brake and clutch master cylinders
- Goodridge stainless steel front and rear brake lines were fitted (in black)
- Goodridge stainless steel clutch lines were fitted (also in black)
- Valve clearances done
- All top and side engine gaskets replaced
- A new site glass for the oil level was fitted (the mechanics said the engine was clean as a whistle inside)
- Output shaft, gear shaft and clutch push rod seals replaced
- Rebuilt water pump with all new seals
- Reconditioned radiator and oil cooler
- Fuel tank flushed and treated
- All new temp senders and switches
- The seat was re-covered
- Electrics tested and all old wires that had become brittle or hard were replaced
- 4 new spark plugs, new oil filter, K&N air filter etc
- All radiator and coolant hoses were replaced with new ones
- All four 36mm CVKD carburettors were stripped, cleaned and fully rebuilt
- Exhaust headers were repaired, welded and high-temp ceramic coated in “chrome”
- Some fairings were cracked and needed repairing and then painting in OEM colours
- All sorts of parts were repaired, cleaned and painted – nothing was left dirty and dusty!
- Countless nuts and bolts were sourced, painted and fitted in place of the old ones
- The gearsack rack from the 88’ bike was fitted (it’s just so useful and I have a very good condition gearsack bag from way back in the 90’s that I’ve kept all these years!)
- All new globes, fuses and a new battery was fitted
- Full tune up, road test, passed it’s road worthy test and certification
- Full WA license issued from DOT WA
Here are some photos of the bike coming together (I have many more but given this is already a long post I’m keeping it limited)
Finally a week or so back I got the call she was ready to go, and I must say she looked as good as new, if not better than new!!!!
Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed bringing the old girl back to life.
Cheers!
Greggy