SOLAS anyone?

[LilNinja77]

Ok sorry if I missed it, but I've looked a little on the site (which I'm admittedly still getting used to) and haven't seen much mention of SOLAS tape, anyone here a fan? I absolutely love the stuff; my helmet's polka-dotted with it to the point of causing seizures (just kidding, I promise.....well, not about the polka-dots), and I'm constantly adding little bits to my ninja (yeah yeah I know I need to get a gz, I'm working on it for crying out loud) to try and stand out in traffic a little more. All of my hard luggage is striped with it, and I'm thinking of getting some of the strips that are made to go along the edge of your rims. Sorry if this is posted in the wrong area, I just figured it's safety related considering it helps you be seen by those cagers who only wake up long enough to drive when something shiny flashes in front of them.
Ride safe

[jonathan180iq]

Got any photos? I've never heard of it.

If you're already riding an EX250, why on Earth would you wawnt to jump ship to the GZ? I like my bike, but they are completely different bikes. If it's a second bike, that's a different story.

[LilNinja77]

Sure thing, I'll put some photos up in a few minutes. As for the GZ, I want to add one as a second motorcycle. I rode one during the MSF course and damn these bikes are a hoot when in their element. For me the ex250 is the "big-boy" in the garage (I have no reason to go over 100mph, and I already have it equipped to go touring, 5+ hour rides are easy), with my mountain bike being the smallest, and I'm wanting a middle bike to fill the gap. Besides, I just like small single-cylinder and parallel-twin powered motorcycles. WIll try and get those pics up soon.
BTW, S.O.L.A.S. is an acronym for Safety of Life at Sea, it's the reflective tape that the Navy uses. It's just as reflective (if not more) than the stuff the DOT people use and keeps its' reflectiveness for 5 or so years, comes in bunches of colors too. You ever see the reflective rim-stripes on some bikes? Same stuff, though not sure if those are actually SOLAS or some other kind of reflective material.
Ride safe

[LilNinja77]

Okies, here are some pics for you. In the first one, you'll see my 3 lockable hard-boxes (two 8 gallon and one 24 gallon Action Packer.......wal-mart is a cheap bikers' best friend :tongue: ) with different designs of SOLAS tape on them, with no flash from the camera. The second photo is with flash.....quite a difference IMO




the third has one of the smaller tail-boxes mounted for use, and shows my dot-design :cool: This particular picture does not have the rear-lights on, but the tape is still visible when they are.



In the fourth pic we have the three boxes again, with the front-fairing beside them (you can see the fairing-reflector just above the bikes' front-forks), and my EX250. Usually I keep the fairings on, but I got the urge to ride naked again :rawk: .....wait, I mean the bike is naked, not me :blush: Yes I have lots of stickers on her, and yes she looks a bit different from a stock bike; which is just the way I like it.



And finally in the last pic you have a frontal-shot that shows the mirrors as well



If anyone has any questions/comments about the tape, my luggage, or my bike, feel free.
Ride safe

[jonathan180iq]

That looks pretty solid. I might try that stuff out on my Peugeot. I have a rear rack and panniers to go along with my blinkie but sometimes I feel like I would like more.

You mentioned touring on your Ninja. I still have a Duke style touring windshield from back in the day, if you are interested. It's one of the originals. I no longer have the EX so I'll sell it to you for cheap. I came across while organizing my garage.

Let me know,
Jonathan

[LilNinja77]

Thanks for the offer but I'm pretty much covered.......stock windshield, Zero Gravity Double Bubble, Small Duke and Touring Duke. The best part is I didn't really buy any of them (unless you count the stock one as a "buy" since it came with the bike); the small duke shield was given to me by a friend, and when I bought a Corbin Gunfighter seat from another ninja-forum member, he threw in the Double Bubble and touring Dukes' shields for free! I don't know why I have so many windshields, I really prefer to ride without the fairing and shield on.

I don't really go "touring" much, at least not as a deliberate idea; rather I just mean that taking that weeklong get-away on the bike is no biggie since I have the luggage-space and can ride pretty much all day with no issues of discomfort. Longest ride in one stretch so far has been about 7 hours, but I like to take my time and see the surroundings, I'm never in much of a hurry to get anywhere when riding. I don't see the appeal of the IBR style rides (see how far you can go in the shortest amount of time), kinda defeats the purpose of riding if you ask me. A lot of the veteran guys at the ninja-forum are huge in to it though, but I just don't understand it personally. A couple of them have actually entered and finished the big IBR race (11,000 miles in 11 days) and I think it's neat that a little 250cc bike can keep up with the big boys, but once again the point of it all is kinda lost on me. For me the most interesting part is the engineering aspects of how they modify their bikes, they think up some neat ideas. One of them who lives a few hours away from me custom welds up huge 10 gallon fuel tanks for long-distance touring.....talk about never needing to fill up!

You can order the reflective tape online, I've heard of a lot of people getting it from the 3M and Aerostitch (sp?) websites. I got all mine from a riding buddy who has a daughter that works for an advertising agency, she gets the stuff in big fat rolls. There's also the generic kind you can buy at hardware stores (seen it in Lowes' and Home Depot before, around the mailbox-lettering area, they keep it with the big plastic mailbox reflectors....in fact you can see that I have two of them on one of the boxes), though I don't know how effective it is.

I have to ask, what happened to your EX ?
Ride safe

[jonathan180iq]

I got a new one back on '03. After about a year of riding, the program that sponsored the job that I had was canceled. So, long story short, I had to sell it to stay afloat. I really missed it until I starting searching for a new bike in '06. At the time, the Ninjas had that hideous flame job on the outside. I was also looking at the most economical thing on the market and the GZ fit the bill. So, here I am, doing my best to make this bike more appealing to the outsider and helping other riders find out how easy this bike is to operate and maintain.

[LilNinja77]

Oh bummer on losing the bike, I hope I never *have* to get rid of mine. Yeah the flame graphics are pretty cheesy, removing them was the first thing I did to my 07, made the bike look so much better.
[/quote]So, here I am, doing my best to make this bike more appealing to the outsider and helping other riders find out how easy this bike is to operate and maintain.

I like your outlook on trying to get the gz more well known/recognized, hence one of the reasons I would like to add one to my garage. I love my ex250, but it's not the only 250cc motorcycle I'd like to own. It's defintely my choice for an everyday bike, but I'd love the gz to have as a fun project bike. (springer solo seat, clip ons, cherry bomb muffler, whitewall tires, springer front end, railroad spike footpegs.......now that's my dream bike)

When first looking for a motorcycle, I was stuck between the virago250 and the gz250. I had heard of the ex, but was still undecided on how I felt about it. I grew up around Harleys, so I was already a fan of cruisers; but was also quite intrigued by sportbikes. But I thought, as many people do, that all sportbikes were super high-powered speed rockets.......and to an extent this is true when you are limited by the small selection of the U.S. market. I had ridden the gz in the MSF course, and had an absolute blast; but quickly noticed the lower back pain that the cruiser-style seating caused. One of the instructors let me sit on his CBR900RR and I quickly realized how much more comfortable I am on sportbikes than cruisers. I can ride far more comfortably and safely leaned forward than backward....better yet is to be sitting straight up like on the ex.

So walking in to the dealership I went and sat on the gz: instant smile, sitting on it had brought back memories of the MSF. I went and sat on the virago: instant frown; I could barely turn the bars before whacking my knees (a lot like a honda rebel). So I found the ex250 over in a corner and took a seat: instant decision, I knew this would be the motorcycle riding home in the back of my truck. I wasn't thinking of sportbike vs cruiser, I was just looking for which bike would best serve me, and I couldn't deny that the ex was that bike. The ex will remain my primary bike for sure, but what's wrong with having more than one :2tup:

I've been calling the ex250 a sportbike, but in truth it's really a standard with sportbike fairings on it. Take the fairings off and it looks like a large kawasaki-badged nighthawk. I doubt I'll ever buy a true full-blooded sportbike or cruiser, I just don't really like either end of the spectrum. I'm hoping to buy an old used gz sometime as a project bike, but rarely see many used ones in decent shape around my area (don't really have the funds to warrant buying a new one right now, maybe when I'm done with school).
Ride safe

[jonathan180iq]

I feel ya.

When I first decided that I wanted a bike it was pretty much love at first sight with the EX. I mean, a liquid cooled 250cc bike that is small enough to be comfortable for everyone and at the same time large enough that you can tuck down over the tank while your feet have tons of road clearance. IF I have one complaint about the GZ it is the lack of leg room and the lack of options for feet placement.

Other than that, overall power delivery and ease of use is right on with everything that I think a motrocycle should be. For aesthetic reasons, I wish the whole bike was a little taller and flatter. But, that's not what it's designed for.

For what it's worth, I also really like the Nighthawk but it needs disc brakes to bring it inline with the new world technology.

Take care,
Jonathan