Bike magazine-subscribers

"disdain"

 

NP. Offer's always there.

Meh. Thassa fucker and no mistake. I haven't come across that for
some time now, I thought the manufacturers had sorted that out. A lick
of paint might help, when you've got time.

 

Mine definitely won't be another Kawasaki, not until they've sorted out
their build quality issues. My Versys is riddled with corrosion and has
had 5 items replaced so far under warranty, with another 6 waiting to
be fitted.
[/QUOTE]
I didn't want to hear that. Oh well I may not bother after all.

 

I came across it a few weeks ago when swapping the Jeep's wheels for
the ones with knobbly tyres. I always coppa-slip them, but hadn't had
the wheels off since the fuel blockade, whenever that was. Much Plusgas
& pounding of tyres with a big hammer eventually got them wiggling.

Three guesses what one of the first jobs will be when the new cage
arrives next week...

 

I didn't want to hear that. Oh well I may not bother after all.[/QUOTE]

I very rarely clean any motorbike I own and my 10R still looks pretty
god when it comes to lack of corrosion. Ok, I've never commuted
through winter but it has been used in very shit conditions and left
manky for a few months afterwards.

I didn't need to make any warranty claims on it and I find it hard to
believe that Kawasaki build quality had gone that far downhill in such
a short space of time.

 

All depends on where the bike was built. Kawasaki make bikes in Japan,
Philipines, Thailand and Malaysia. Apparently mine was built in
Malaysia but Versys production shifted to Japan for the 2010 model. I
only know this because the country of origin is printed on the side of
the crate they arrive in from Kawasaki's warehouse. AFAIK the ZX10Rs
were all Japanese built.

My bike had lots of passivated parts, which corroded like mad. The 2010
model has all of the same parts black powder coated. When I got new
engine and bellypan brackets sent through on warranty, they sent
passivated ones the same as what had corroded, which are now waiting to
be blasted and powder coated before fitting. Kawasaki wouldn't send me
brackets for a 2010 model because they don't have the same part number,
despite me insisting they are exactly the same part but with a better
finish to them. I know they're the same, I fitted 2009 ones to a 2010
model in the workshop one evening.

When I was working at the shop Kawasaki sent a memo to all dealers
regarding the amount of corrosion claims they'd been getting, and the
upshot was they wanted dealers to be much stricter and to look for any
way out of putting them through. It was a bit difficult for us to
refuse a claim for all the same things my bike needed on another 2009
model that was 3 months old and had done only 750 miles.


--
Lozzo
Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike
in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere)
BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite
they churn out)

 

WTF is a passivated part when it is at home, one that crashes meekly?

 

The greeny bits, usually nuts, bolts and fairing brackets, that sort of
thing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passivation

 

Pre-rusted. I understand now.

 

Got it in one. When I received the new engine and belly pan brackets,
three out of the six parts had rust forming on them inside the sealed
packets. I still have them here if anyone would like to see them.

--
Lozzo
Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike
in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere)
BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite
they churn out)

 

snip

snip

So, the Versys is a good bike if you buy the 2010 Japan version,
otherwise a potential rust-bucket?

 

Yes

--
Lozzo
Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike
in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere)
BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite
they churn out)