Chernihiv Region Charity
“Aratta”
Óêð
––– Home | About us | News | Clubs | Our partners | Gallery | Contacts –––
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Chernihiv Region Charity
|
Óêð |
|
––– Home | About us | News | Clubs | Our partners | Gallery | Contacts ––– |
|
I wanted the 2001 model as it is the easiest to de-restrict, and also has the distinctive green color and peeling paint graphics. Glyn at Slipstream imported the ninja from Germany (this is why the clocks are in Kph). After the running-in period of 2000 Kms we replaced the cams, con-rods, crankshaft, valves and pistons. An Iridium “Double Bubble” screen was also fitted to make wind resistance less at high speed. I also fitted a rear hugger to protect the rear suspension from road dirt. We used police radar guns on an old airfield in England to find out the bikes top speed (341 Kph). The original speedometer only goes to 300 Kph. I met my wife, Larissa in Chernihiv in September 2005 while I was driving a convoy of Humanitarian Aid from England. We married in Chernihiv in August 2006 and I now live in Chernihiv. I work in Europe for an international haulage company based in Holland, while I am at home in Chernihiv I work with “British Humanitarian Aid” in England and Chernihiv Region Charity “Aratta”, acting as a liaison between the two organizations and organizing fund raising projects in Europe for both charities.
In July 2007 I rode on my bike from my mother’s house in Skegness, England to Evening School No.3 in Chernihiv in just under 40 hours, making stops only for fuel, cigarettes and espresso! This trip raised enough money from sponsorship to buy 3 new computer systems, a laser printer, and new lights for the computer room and tools for the school maintenance department. We also had a competition for the students to guess the mileage on the ninja trip computer with a prize of US$ 200 for the closest guess. The total mileage for the trip was 2885 kilometers and the closest guess was 2880. In September 2007 my wife and I heard of the Nord Motofest and decided to visit. This was my first time at a motorcycle event in Ukraine. The warmth and friendliness of the organizers and fellow bikers was amazing, and the hospitality was second to none! The ninja was re-registered on Ukrainian numbers in September 2008, and I now use it to travel to the various branches of “Aratta” and
to help create publicity for the charities both in England and Ukraine. One of our projects is to organize a rally from England to Ukraine with a group of up to 400 English bikers (www.bike2ukraine.com).
The rally will raise money to pay for a new aid distribution centre and social centre for the charity Aratta in Chernihiv. This is a long and very difficult process, but gradually the interest in England is growing. A small group of English bikers traveled to Ukraine this year and visited the Motofest, they also made a lot of new friends and have promised to return again next year!
In august this year we decided that it was time to make some changes to the ninja, we fitted a full titanium Akrapovic Evolution Race System, this gives a power increase of 17,5 horsepower over stock, K+N High Capacity Air Filters, Power Commander 3 with usb port (if you buy this model of power commander you can connect your bike to a laptop and adjust the air/fuel mixture as required), Goodrich braided steel brake lines, Brembro race pads, and 2 new ecu’s which allow more rpm in every gear. A stock 2001 ZX12 redlines at 10500 rpm, ours now redlines at 12000 rpm. The ecu’s also bypass the torque limiter in the lower gears.
It works by checking your position via satellite 10 times per second and using this technology can also measure horsepower! If you fit it with an SD memory card it constantly records and you can later download the data to your computer. The performance box needs a 12v power supply and fits easily to the inside of your screen using supplied suction mounts. The English group brought the performance box to the MotoFest from England to ensure that we could make our speed tests, many thanks to Roman, Malcolm and Ian! Last year I had contacted many of the motorcycle magazines in England and asked if they would write a small article about the bike2ukraine rally, because we are a charity we can not afford to pay a lot of money for advertising. One magazine editor said to me “we are not interested in charity projects, if you have a fast motorcycle then we would be interested!” So, if we could make the ninja fast enough then we could advertise the rally in for free in england!
On Saturday 11th September we carefully fitted the datalogger and connected the power lead, if the performance box had been damaged on its journey from England then we could not accurately make a speed test. Once the datalogger had located the satellites we made the final checks on the bike. Just after 6pm, three bikes left the MotoFest and headed out on to the main road, we were on a mission! The idea was simple, the first two bikes would clear the way up to 300 KPH and then it would be just me, the ninja and hopefully clear road! The first run ended at 340 KPH when I had to slow down due to traffic, the return run was a similar story, the sun was now setting, and was directly in our eyes. Desperation started to set in, six and a half years of working, tuning, hoping and dreaming was about to end in disappointment here at the side of the road! As we were discussing what to do next, two bikes came into view, on their way back to the MotoFest. My two friends, Yarik and Yura stopped them and quickly explained what we were trying to do. “How can we help?” they asked, “can you help us to close the road in one direction for a few minutes to make a hole in the traffic?” The traffic was stopped, so now we have a chance, “Go, go, go!!” screams yarik, I launch the ninja, quickly moving up through the gears, trying to calculate if I waited long enough to avoid catching up with the last car to pass our “roadblock”. Into top gear, not looking at the speedometer, just concentrating on the horizon as the acceleration continues and the windblast increases, seconds seem like minutes. The ninja hits the limiter We will be using the datalogger to measure the horsepower later this year, at the moment the estimated horsepower is 210 at the rear wheel. Many thanks to all of our friends who have helped to make this possible! |
September 11, 2010
I am Alexander Phillips was born in London, England and moved to Chernihiv in
2006. I passed my motorcycle test in 1984 and have been riding motorcycles ever since. The ninja was purchased in
January 2004 through Slipstream Motorcycles in Skegness, England.
We also fitted a Hyperpro RSC steering damper, this damper has a sensor, it does not work at low speed, but only starts to work as you start to accelerate. Hardened carbon-steel sprockets were fitted, the stock ZX12 uses a 46 tooth rear, at the moment we are using a 44 tooth but will possibly change this to a 42 tooth. We now had to solve the problem of finding a speedometer, after many hours of searching on the internet we decided on a Racelogic Performancebox. This is basically a gps datalogger, it can measure speed from 0-1600 KPH and is accurate to 0.2 KPH.
in top gear, time to slow down! The datalogger has been set to record the highest speed, so no need to look at the display yet – trust the technology! I make a u-turn and ride back to the group, as I pull up there are six people eagerly waiting, I point to the display on the datalogger, it tells us maximum speed was 366.2 KPH. The 0-100 KPH time was 2.8 seconds.