Newer bikes are reliable?!?!

[Gremlin]

I have always fancied the 2004/2005 zx10, and I got all excited whenever I saw one. The opportunity came up just recently, when Mt Eden got this bike back together, after it was loaned out to someone, and they dropped it on the road leaving their house (bike has stock pipe and smoke double bubble now, ferkin nice screen).

I had passed a car, heading towards my house, when suddenly, it acted like it needed reserve. Given that it was full, and there IS no reserve on the bike (fuel light) something was wrong. Went through a roundabout, and had no power, and was coasting basically. Pull over to side of road, with rear fishtailing all over the place, initially thinking a flat, but whatever it was, it was weird.

Picked it up at 5pm Friday. Phoned Mt Eden at 7.30pm to report it needed picking up. I got to within 1km of home, but hills were in the way. I think a fuel line got loose or something, as fuel was pissing out of somewhere, and it made it very interesting trying to pull over, when the rear tyre was coated in fuel.

So, a bike 2 years old, with less than half the k on the clock, vs my 10 yo bike, with 72 ish k on the clock. I ain't no mechanic, and wasn't too thrilled at the chance to work on a bike far more advanced than mine, and it wasn't mine to begin with. Was quite funny having my bike delivered to me... I felt like I had cheated on it, and it had come to rescue me

Hopefully next weekend will be part 2... anyone else got a zx10 that needs strength testing? Oh, and for the short time I had it... farken heck, what a blast of a bike

[moko]

I bought a brand new GS850 when they first came out.Broke down the first day I had it,turned out someone at the factory hadn`t put a wire in somewhere and the battery wasn`t charging.Not a great start but it never let me down again.
Bloke I work with has got a totally disgusting Suzi GS125,leaks oil everywhere,no side panels,electrics exposed to Brit weather.I`ve known him for 2 years and it`s never,ever let him down apparently,I know for definate it hasn`t in the time I`ve known it despite looking worse than some bikes I`ve seen dumped in hedgerows.Currently got 72,000 miles up,think that`s 150,000 kms roughly.

[orangeback]

welcome to the ZX10 , but maybe your was made on a friday afternoon and there was a big piss up that weekend. and the japs where in a rush to get to it .
there seams to be some bikes that have loads of problems and others that are sweet as. the joys of mass production

[notme]

Can't be arsed searching (barely thru my first coffee at this stage of the morning!) but someone on here recently mentioned "bathtub curves" - search wikipedia.

Interesting reading....basically the incidence of failure for a new bike (up to a few years) will be high as manufacturing oddities are found, and the incidence of failure for an old bike (past say 15 years) will be high as parts wear, but somewhere in the middle you should get sweeeeet running and no problems....

The newest bike I've owned is the '04 I currently have, and when i did all the research and found out about the SV1000 clutch slave cylinder issue, the PAIR mods and so on, I was happy to find that the previous owner had fixed these things as they probably showed up in the first 2 years and were likely done under warranty!

[Madmax]

My ZX10r had a complete engine rebuild at 6000 kms
due to a bearing problem, went like stink after
and has never had any other problems

[frogfeaturesFZR]

Bought a brand new PE 250 of cyclespot years ago, first new bike I'd owned. The mech overfilled the crank and the clutch slipped like a b-stad all the way home. When I rang them about it they said ride it back in, I said no way its got no clutch. The salesman said 'can't you ride without a clutch ? I did it for a month once ' I said no, pick it up. So they sent the office girl in a ute to pick it up. Bloody lucky my father and I were home at the time. When they fixed it they tried to charge me for new plates. Which had to be shipped in from Japan. I may have been a nipper at the time but even I knew that was not on. So my first and only new bike was great for the first ride, then no bike for a month, then yeehah good after that. Shit happens..

[Madmax]

had a PE250 my self stuck the thing in a river one time
pulled it out and got the sand out went for years
(they are the best bush basher around)fucken thing even had lights