KZ550 update

Thanks for all the input, you folks are knowledgeable, kind, friendly.
A real asset to USENET!

I am in the midst of teaching myself to be a motorcycle mechanic, the
victim is an '82 KawaHog
550.

I'm gathering up the goodies: I have a quad set of vacuum gauges, I
think I need to fabricate a temp fuel tank.

My tactics are to gradually do more work, learn more, and equip my shop
in an incremental manner.
Come Spring it'll be a new bike! (Maybe).

I rigged a pulley hoist so that I can get it up on the center stand by
myself without tipping it over.

I'm looking at a $60 fixture for doing a pricision job of wheel
balancing. Is it necessary? Maybe?

I'm looking at a motorcycle floor jack from Sears for $90. Is it a must
have? Will I use it often if I buy one?

My local Kawie dealer quoted me $2.40 each for the longer screws that
attach the engine side covers. One of us is crazy, just plain nuts.
Please help me, is he nuts or am I? I will soon try to find them from
another source.

Thanks again, you folks have been wonderfull and I sure do appreciate
the advice!!!!

 

Surely if you need that then you must be doing it incorrectly, or a very
very small parson. It also helps if you wear shoes with hard soles.

Ian Singer
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Maybe you need to learn to use the weight of the machine to help you,
instead of trying to lift the rear end of the machine with your right
arm.

An acquaintance (who I will admit was a madman who could be seen doing
*anything* you can imagine on a motorcycle) demonstrated the technique
of rolling the machine backwards, pushing the centerstand down with his
right foot, while steadying the machine with one hand on the handlebar
and the other on the seat bar, and the machine
simply lifted itself by converting rearward into upward lift.

Nah. If the wheel bearings are loose enough to allow the wheel to turn
for 30 seconds when you spin the wheel, you don't need a balancing
fixture. I never use one.

A coffin hoist suspended from a garage rafter works well, and you don't
need to worry about crushing the exhaust system with it.

Kawasaki dealers charge too much, but they do have to charge a minimum
amount for parts, considering that they have to order them, stock them,
and then throw a lot of mixed hardware away.

And, they have to special order hardware for guys who never come back
and pick it up. What are they going to do with all that hardware, wait
for it all to grow into a motorcycle?

Yamaha instituted a minimum pricing on all parts twenty years ago, and
riders quickly learned to find substitute parts from local hardware
stores.

Don't let odd-looking mismatched hardware bother you, and don't compare
what you ride to the immaculate machinery that collectors own. Just
enjoy your bike and appreciate it for what it is, an older machine that
you like to tinker with.

No matter how much work you put into an old crock, somebody will run
down and buy the latest, greatest, trickest machine in the world and
show up at the motorcycle hangout, bragging about it.

The way to shoot that guy's ego down is to completely ignore him when
he shows up. If you and a couple of friends on old rat bikes ride off
everytime Mr. Goldbags arrives, he'll get the message and go somewhere
else...

 

I've always been able to balance wheels acceptably by using a home-rgged
stand, but $60 isn't much.

I'm not sure that a floor jack is. On the occasions when I have to
'perch' a bike that only has a sidestan, I use a couple of cheap axle
stands. Sometimes a block of wood as well. Cost maybe £15 ($30).

Just get one of those aftermarket allen screw conversion kits.

 

To be fair, motorcycle spares are expensive because manufacturers have
to:

1. Provide back-up for a huge number of different current models
(compared with, for example, car makers).

2. Those models sell in very, very small numbers (compared with car
models).

3. Those models are changed rather frequently (compared with car models)

4. This leads to a lot of old models needing parts back-up as well.

With overheads like stock control, packing, shipping and storage all
being pretty much the same (that is, it costs much the same to record
the presence of a single small piece of plastic on a computer system, as
well as pack, ship and store it as it does a much more complex
component), small items do cost a lot.

In addition, there's a higher profit margin on parts. There has to be,
if you're selling components that may not acually be needed.

And, as you say, people order and pay for parts and then never collect.

Yamaha does not have a minimum pricing policy as such - at least, not in
Europe The US may be different.

There is a lot of interchangeability between parts in a manufacturer's
range, and even between different makers' ranges.

A common dodge here used to be, if you needed a camchain for some
models, to buy one for a Kawasaki KLR650. That, being a tall DOHC
single, had a very long chain, which was remarkably cheap. You then
lopped off the requisitie number of links and secured it with a soft
link.

And again, as you say, even a modicum of ingenuity can secure you
allsorts of ironmongery which will do the job for a lot less money.
Right now, I'm off to pick up an in-line fuel tap from my local
lawnmower shop. Cost about $10. Cost of a genuine Kawasaki item $100.

 

Yes, but these are relatively fast-moving components and relatively easy
to tool up for and make.

Petcocks, your own example - well, how many of those will a manufacturer
actually sell? Not very many. Yet he must stock them for the occasions
when one is wanted.

To anyone thinks that motorcycle spares are ridiculously over-priced,
ask yourself this question:

If manufacturers really are ripping people off with parts prices, and it
was that easy to replicate the parts and undercut the OE supplier, and
make a decent profit in so doing, why aren't more people doing it? Why
don't people supply pattern fuel tanks, instruments, exhausts, lights,
bodywork?

OK, you can get aftermarket *alternatives*, but not proper pattern
examples, that look like the factory original, with the possible
exception of bodywork, and that is generally for people racing sports
bikes, of far, far lower quality, and supplied unpainted.

The market would tend to dictate this sort of thing, and if there's
nobody producing good copies of OE kit at much more attractive prices,
then I can only think of three reasons why not:

1. They're absolutely terified of being hit by copyright lawyers. As
pattern parts are a way of life in the four-wheeled world, I doubt this.

2. They just can't be bothered to do it. I think this is unlikely.

3. They can't tool up and make the stuff at price low enough to tempt
customers away from OE. This would be my bet.

 

That is the reason. However, the motorcycle manufactures deliberately
make minor changes to lock aftermarket manufacturers out.

Take simple things like petcocks, for example. Manufacturers go
and change designs these for no good reason - they have worked the same
way for 50 years - because they don't want to standardize on a "universal"
petcock and give the aftermarket a shot at supplying a cheaper alternative.

Ted

 

You should be able to get the bike on the center stand by yourself.

I use the axle on a set of jackstands.

You exhaust pipes are lower than the fame, so the jack will hit them
first. If you buy the jack, you will have to fabricate something (like
a piece of wood) so the jack will contact the bottom of the
engine....or remove you pipes.

You can get a whole set of stainless screw for the entire engine at
z1enterprises.com for about $20.

 

Not necessarily. Take some of the very long petcocks you used to see -
maybe three or four inches from tank to bowl filter.

Now consider the designer of a new machine. Right, nice meaty carbs,
packed in close. A tank design that hugs the frame rails and makes
everything compact....

...and BUGGER! The fuel tap won't fit, or if it does, the rider can't
reach it.

So, what to do? Change the frame design? The tank design? Reposition the
carbs? Or get a different fuel tap?

Or would you suggest that the bike be designed around the fuel tap?[1]

[1] The way BMW used to design it around the battery ;-)

 

And golly gee looks cool but has no space for fuel, so your going to be
spending quite a lot of time sitting in gas stations. WHAT AN
ADVANCE...NOT!

I said "no good reason" If the old fuel tap fits, use it, don't design a
new one.
Yet I have seen them change the fuel tap design when the old design would
have worked.

I would say the fuel tap not fitting would be a good reason.

I thought they designed it around the half a volkswagen beetle engine they
use.

Ted

 

Have you actually *looked* at some fuel tanks lately? I mean, since
1976. My Ducati has a tank like I describe, and holds plenty.

I'm sure this could have occurred. Examples?

Sir has obviously never tried extracting a battery from an old airhead
boxer.