Bike mods v. bike warranty?

[CookMySock]

A modern, fuel injected, computer controlled bikes system will cope with the alteration.

Agreed. The ladies' bike in question is a little 250 with a carby.

Suziki has offered a ‘free’ XXX brand muffler with a bike – Bandits, GSXR, SV etc – I’ve personally watched many of these being fitted – BOLT ON, no modifications.

All EFI bikes ?

Harleys will usually come as a pipe and ‘carb’ (injected now) kit from Screaming Eagle as they are that chocked in stock form to meet govt standards.

A carb fitted bike traditionally benefited from a richer mixture after a more free fitting pipe has been added – often all that is needed is to alter the clip on the needle or shim it if there are not grooves.

This is a misconception. The engine isn't running richer - its running the same mixture setting as it was before the exhaust mods. If it didnt have this carb mod, it would now be running LEANER due to less exhaust back pressure, and that is a big problem, and is exactly why the carb rejet needs to be matched to the exhaust mod. It is POSSIBLE as you suggest, that any particular exhaust modification does not alter the back pressure so that carb mod is essential, but that is up to the exhaust manufacturer to establish, not tuning newbies to find out the expensive way.

Bottom line – if you are worried go and ask your dealer, I’ll stick a $10 note on it that he/she will be happy to take your $ and fit one for you.

And this is precisely the problem. Dealers will take your money no-problem! It is up to us to figure out if that is wise. Dealers with any scruples at all will fess up right away and honestly tell you what will and will not damage your bike, without care for what sale they might lose. Which sort of dealer would we rather trade with ?

DB

[nodrog:Me]

....have you noticed how many Summer Feasts Suziki has offered a ‘free’ XXX brand muffler with a bike – Bandits, GSXR, SV etc – ....

have you noticed the small print on the summerfest brochures, "exhaust may void warrenty"?

i have had aftermarket parts on all of my bikes (including powercommders), and warrenty work carried out, all with no hassle.

its up to the discretion of the shop to disclose the modifications to the manufacturer, so find a friendly shop.

i know of a '06 ZX10 that was highly modified putting out 25+ hp over standard, which stripped 4th gear before 18000 k's, about 6 months old, Kawasaki NZ replaced the entire gearbox without a problem.

[AllanB]

have you noticed the small print on the summerfest brochures, "exhaust may void warrenty"?

I’ve dragged out a few old Suzuki Summerfest brochures – there IS fine print stating ‘Suzuki warranties do not include aftermarket additions such as muffler kits, clothing …..’
Which should read as – ‘we do not consider it a ‘Suzuki’ warranty claim if the Yoshimura cans we fitted to your SV100 from new blow apart in the next two years’.

As far as ‘suspect; dealers go (are they still out there?) – I’d asked mine about mods to the stock mufflers – they were mainly interested in selling me $1600 worth of cans. My point was that the mods I proposed (larger outlet tube on the muffler end – retaining 90% of stock internals) was a much more restrictive system that a $1600 pair of cans with a 50 mm straight through core! This is why I wrote to the importer whom all warranty claims go through for final approval. And I got a ‘go ahead’ written response from their technical manager.

My arse covered in other words and basically that’s the advise everyone is giving.

I’ll be interested to see what comment I get from the dealer at my next service!

I absolutely LOVE that comment regarding the ZX Kawasaki claim! Now that is one I'd expect to be rejected. Good on you Kawasaki NZ.