James Deuce
15th January 2009, 19:30
We all know our bikes need looking after. There's the basic stuff like regular oil and filter changes, and tyres, and making sure all your lights and switches work. You can get an insufferably smug glow from being a righteous basic service freak, but there's other stuff too.
The Zed is the first bike I've owned for more than 2 years, or more than 20000km. I've formed opinions on bikes in a 100th of that distance. I've also owned bikes that I've failed to wed wholly. How much of that is down to the bike as she was delivered?
Let me explain. The Zed was great to start with, did everything I needed it to very well indeed, and responded to throwing money at parts that the factory forgot to finish with vim. Which improved my vigor. But a mid range dead patch coupled with testicle numbing vibration, and a top end lacking in citrus flavoured zest started to tick me off. You know, it's my bike, and it's good, but.....
It was starting to look like Kawasaki was lying on the spec sheet about the Zed's peak HP, much the same as they've lied about their commitment to MotoGP. Wringing its neck saw much less than the magazine reports suggested was possible and I got so depressed I put on about 9kgs from binge eating, which of course only made things worse.
One service, eight shims, and glory be. The Zed as she should have been to start with.
It nags at me though. Where does the responsibility lie for ensuring that a bike goes out the door of dealer as the manufacturer intends lie? The easy answer is "The Dealer!"
I don't buy that necessarily. I know from time in the automotive industry that cars go out the door ready to rock and roll. Any problems are dealt with under warranty and the manufacturer foots the bill. Not the dealer or distributor. The manufacturer.
My bike was put together, crated, sent to NZ, and someone in the factory had installed shims that had the exhaust valve clearances out of spec, from the word go. Maybe they checked the clearances with a cotton bud.
I've paid for this intangibly and tangibly. My confidence in my own ability to pick a bike and know it's a good un, has taken a knock and my wallet is dented as well. I went for a ride a couple of nights ago. I've done nearly 550 kms in two days this week and the second tank of gas I bought on that trip only just ran out today. 311.7kms, 16.77 litres of fuel. I don't know if anyone remembers my petrol company comparative fuel range experiment, but the best mileage I was getting in 2006 was 270 or so from 16.5-17 litres of fuel. The guys at TSS bought me another 40kms of range per tank. Thats like my tank growing two litres in size.
My fuel consumption has dropped from around 6.1l per 100kms to around 5.2l per 100kms. I did the better part of 30000kms with the poorer fuel consumption figure. We'll call that 300 litres of fuel roughly averaged at $1.50 per litre. Someone owes me $450.
All whinging aside though, the "big" service has reduced my running costs per km and put a smile on my dial when the twisty thing is wound to the stop. I just have to kill the habit of going down two to overtake now. The way the universe unwinds in 4th could get expensive and cause me to walk further and more often than I'm really comfortable with.
The Zed is the first bike I've owned for more than 2 years, or more than 20000km. I've formed opinions on bikes in a 100th of that distance. I've also owned bikes that I've failed to wed wholly. How much of that is down to the bike as she was delivered?
Let me explain. The Zed was great to start with, did everything I needed it to very well indeed, and responded to throwing money at parts that the factory forgot to finish with vim. Which improved my vigor. But a mid range dead patch coupled with testicle numbing vibration, and a top end lacking in citrus flavoured zest started to tick me off. You know, it's my bike, and it's good, but.....
It was starting to look like Kawasaki was lying on the spec sheet about the Zed's peak HP, much the same as they've lied about their commitment to MotoGP. Wringing its neck saw much less than the magazine reports suggested was possible and I got so depressed I put on about 9kgs from binge eating, which of course only made things worse.
One service, eight shims, and glory be. The Zed as she should have been to start with.
It nags at me though. Where does the responsibility lie for ensuring that a bike goes out the door of dealer as the manufacturer intends lie? The easy answer is "The Dealer!"
I don't buy that necessarily. I know from time in the automotive industry that cars go out the door ready to rock and roll. Any problems are dealt with under warranty and the manufacturer foots the bill. Not the dealer or distributor. The manufacturer.
My bike was put together, crated, sent to NZ, and someone in the factory had installed shims that had the exhaust valve clearances out of spec, from the word go. Maybe they checked the clearances with a cotton bud.
I've paid for this intangibly and tangibly. My confidence in my own ability to pick a bike and know it's a good un, has taken a knock and my wallet is dented as well. I went for a ride a couple of nights ago. I've done nearly 550 kms in two days this week and the second tank of gas I bought on that trip only just ran out today. 311.7kms, 16.77 litres of fuel. I don't know if anyone remembers my petrol company comparative fuel range experiment, but the best mileage I was getting in 2006 was 270 or so from 16.5-17 litres of fuel. The guys at TSS bought me another 40kms of range per tank. Thats like my tank growing two litres in size.
My fuel consumption has dropped from around 6.1l per 100kms to around 5.2l per 100kms. I did the better part of 30000kms with the poorer fuel consumption figure. We'll call that 300 litres of fuel roughly averaged at $1.50 per litre. Someone owes me $450.
All whinging aside though, the "big" service has reduced my running costs per km and put a smile on my dial when the twisty thing is wound to the stop. I just have to kill the habit of going down two to overtake now. The way the universe unwinds in 4th could get expensive and cause me to walk further and more often than I'm really comfortable with.