My questions for Kawasaki

Dear Mr Kawasaki heavy industries & motorbikes,

I have three questions for you, I hope you will find the time to answer
them.

They all relate to your wonderful ZX-6R J1 motorcycle.

1. Why did you chose to fit 6 pot brakes instead of the more normal 4 pots?
I have never seen anything to suggest that braking performance is improved
by having 6 pots rather than 4, it just means that when the pistons seize up
it takes 50% more time to clean them. I know this because ...

2. ... For the love of god, could you not have made your brakes from
something that doesn't seize tighter than a nun's fanny if you dare to ride
your bike in anything that could even be remotely called winter? Why did
you want me to spend long hours on cold days on my knees in front of the
bike armed with a toothbrush and can of brake cleaner? What made you
believe that, while I was busy hack-sawing out pad retaining pins, I'd idly
think, "**** me, these Kwaks are great bikes. I should buy another one."?

3. As for the pad retainers... they're held in place with a retaining pin.
It's a lovely little retaining pin. It does its job very well. It's easy
to remove, easy to replace, it generally scrubs up OK, even after winter
abuse. WHY THE **** DIDN'T YOU PUT TWO OF THEM IN? Sorry, about that, it's
my nerves you know. It's just that, if you had put two of them in then,
rather than having to blank off one end of the run for the pad retainer, you
could have just had a hole all of the way through. Which would mean that
WHEN THE FUCKING, BASTARD, CUNTING PAD RETAINER SEIZED SOLID YOU COULD
HAMMER IT OUT, CLEAN IT UP AND PUT IT BACK IN RATHER THAN HAVING TO HACKSAW
THE FUCKER OUT AND THEN PAY FOR A NEW ONE!

4. Sorry, I know I said I only had three questions, but 2 more just sprang
to mind. Firstly, do you know if brake cleaner fumes can cause violent mood
swings?

5. Secondly, would it be possible for me to meet the engineer who designed
the brakes for me bike? If possible I'd like to meet him somewhere dark,
with no witnesses, but plenty of heavy objects; house bricks, lead piping,
socks full of pool balls, etc.

6. Um, any chance of some free Kwak merchandise?

Yours with a twitch,

--
AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
Kawasaki ZX-6R J1
BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL)
BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, TEAR#3 (and KotL), DS#5, Keeper of the TFSTR#
The speccy Geordie twat.

 

[snip brake 'issues']

<fx: FWD:>

 

cc it to Suzuki as well.

 

<big snip>

I picking up a hint that you have had some problems with your motorcycle.

Which bit was it? Electrics? Wheels?

 

Fashion. For a while it looked like brakes would go the same way as
razors, and we'd eventually have 10 pot calipers covering half the
wheel. But, in fact, everything's gone back to four now.

You should wash your bike occassionally. Even throwing a bucket of
cold water over the brakes a couple of times a week during winter
would make quite a difference.

If you'd have to drift it out, you would need a new one. The pads
float on the pin, so for optimum performance they need to be in quite
good nick anyway.

But anyway, if you didin't ride like such a poof, you'd wear the pads
out much more often. The resulting frequent replacement activity
would give you plenty of opportunity to clean and re-grease the
calipers, and so avoid these problems.

So, it's your fault.

 

Yes it would make quite a difference. Unless you washed all the salt off
it might make things worse, because the seizing is caused by galvanic
corrosion for which water is required. It's a bit like throwing petrol
on to a bonfire, only not as much fun.

The best solution is to grease the bits that corrode (not the discs
stupid). Whenever I get a new bike now it's the first thing that I get
done.

HTH

 

I know, I know. Tell me about Italians and winter.

I did the Guzzi brakes this weekend, replaced all the pads, the front
/discs/[1], greased the pins and checked all the pistons were good and
free. Took me an hour, maybe an hour and a half.

ermmm, that's not quite the same is it.



[1] 95,000 miles and well under service limits (6mm) at 4.5mm

 

It's a while since you last fished, isn't it Bonnas?


--
AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
Kawasaki ZX-6R J1
BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL)
BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, TEAR#3 (and KotL), DS#5, Keeper of the TFSTR#
The speccy Geordie twat.

 

Really? on the 1000?

I've _so far_ not had the brakes sieze up on either the SV or the GSX-R6...

And that's not washing it much at all.

 

Not on the Thou, but I head pretty nearly the same experience on the
750. Except without the seized pad retaining pins.

The Thou won't be seeing salt enough to cause a problem.

It got washed every weekend, but it got used everyday no matter what
the weather.

 

<SNIP BRAKE PROBS>

I'll not mention how nice and easy MrHonda's were then...

 

I've got them too, they seem OK but aren't as good as the 4 pots on the
R6 / R1 used to be.

 

Champ wrote

<sigh>

I miss Bear.

 

*Shrug*. Who knows. It'd still be better if the pins and pistons were
greased to exclude the water and salt. Equally, it wouldn't be beyond
the wit of Tokico man to isolate aluminium bodies and steel pins/pistons
from each other to avoid galvanic corrosion.

Ah, the good old days when they used proper salt. The ammonium chloride
they typically use now is far better at corroding stuff.

 

It could be.

Suzuki really need to get a move on with their gixxer thou based
streetfighter. Hopefully they'll put a bit of a screen on it, and I'll
go out and buy one.

 

Chris H wrote

You could help though. Try not doing so much east/west riding for a
start.

 

I haven't been to the West Riding for ages.

 

<pedantic mode on>

An alloy of what?

<pedantic mode off>

ITYF that the sliding pins are steel.

 

Heh. All of his excuses would be gone.

OTOH he might actually improve, given how easy they are to ride. G'wan
Rob, you know you want to.

 

I think mechanically they're the same as the Thou ones as well, except
the Thou's are painted gold.