2004 Kawasaki 636 | Finance Free Custom

If you’ve got the bucks then enjoy spending ‘em, but for the vast majority of us, making ends meet in this slow economy is priority number one. Don’t toss in the towel just yet though— riding a stunner is possible with the cash left over after covering the house bills. It’s easy to talk the talk though, so we decided to scrape together five grand and invest in a bike that’d seen better days. Ready to spend time in order to save money, we mentally prepped for endless negotiating with Craigslist boneheads and set our sights on rebuilding a wreck. Would it be worth it?

While dreams of carbon fiber lulled us to sleep, the reality of buying on a budget set in. With a bike limit of $2000 and the remaining $3K for parts, we could only afford a truly hammered supersport—the kind that sputters on startup and shatters mirrors with its reflection. Browsing page after page of wadded rides drained our spirits, and salvaged titles and bunk motors weren’t going to cut it. The paperwork had to be straight and the engine needed to run strong just in case times got tougher and it had to sell quick.

All the weeks on Craigslist finally did pay off when a haggard 2004 Kawasaki 636 turned up. The 636 has been a favorite of stunters and track rats alike, and it looked like this one had been owned by both. It was spray-canned and had as many cracks in the mirror as there were in the bodywork. If the reflection wasn’t enough to break glass, the shriek of the straight pipe would be. Despite 22K on the odometer it had a strong transmission, straight chassis and punchy motor, though it was ticking loudly from out-of-spec valves. The owner “assured” it’d only been a hard fought commuter. We didn’t argue semantics just the $2,600 asking price. A small dent in the frame from a hard bar slap (collision caused), faint tank compression and drawn out story of how much work it’d need eased him into a $2K roll of greenbacks for the title. Seller urgency closed the deal and we were happily on our way with the remaining moolah for mods.

Once under the garage lights, the miserable bodywork and rashed case covers alluded to more neglect under the tank. Torn down, it actually wasn’t so bad apart from a rat’s nest of taped wires and over-torqued bolts. Of miniscule relief to the wallet were the “almost new” turn signals purchased by the previous owner after picking up a fix-it ticket for flushmounts. With pad in hand, we scribbled a list of replacement parts required before we could ride out with our heads held high.

Phase one of the Ninja restoration was spent snooping out the best quality bang for the buck. The parts list was long—as nice as it would’ve been to blow our stack on a full system, ECU upgrades and fancy brake rotors, we had to remember our strict budget required an even distribution of aesthetic and performance buys. While days were spent making calls and inquiring about products, the nights were filled with wrenching the life back into the once mistreated bike.

As we waited for aftermarket parts to arrive at the SSB HQ, we attacked general maintenance: tune-up, tires, fluids and brakes. It’s easy to jump right into the fun stuff like exhaust, levers and bodywork but you have to get dirty before cleaning up. First came a valve job and cam chain adjustment—avoiding such scheduled maintenance causes bigger problems like burnt valves and cam chain tensioner snappage. With the tick-tock of the motor ironed out and cam chain slap silenced, it was on to replacing the burnt out plugs.