My bike also dropped those 2 fairing bolts shortley after the six hundred mile service (done by dealer) noticed them gone under a 1000 miles on bike. that is kinda crappy.

Candy man is correct in commenting "that is kinda crappy". It is. However, its a part of what we all have been doing for all of our riding lives. Old dirt bikes from the 70's to today, we all loose bolts from the plastics. It just happens. Gotta check 'em often. I find a loose one all of the time. It is just a part of your pre-ride routine. It not new news to KHI Ninja dude...

lie2me...

Tim Rice Kawasaki USA:

Tim.Rice@kmc-usa.com

Explain to him what happened to your fairing bolts..am sure he will appreciate your comments too.....

The few riders here who believe that the bike is perfect out of the box must be on drugs.

When you buy a new car, you sure don't drive it 3000 miles and go around and check to see if the motor mount bolts are still tight......that would be stupid....so.......you shouldn't have to do that with a brand new motorcycle either...especially a new 14r which is Kawasaki's flagship sport bike this year...

Send him a note...let us know his response..should hear from him in about 24 hours...

I never had this happen on my 07 14 . I am pretty meticulous as I have been a auto tech for over 20 years. the two lower right hand fairing bolts fell out at some point round 900 miles. I have seen these bikes in the crate looks like all the dealer does is put on windshield and fill fluids. Guess I will be loctiting everything.

Now guys...c'mon...it's only a couple of bolts on a motorcycle.Now if it were the calipers or something....

My 07 never had those come loose...but ya gotta remember...they 'may' have used the same bolts for their new bikes...which possibly didn't fit exactly as the earlier models.They did change(revised) the steering unit in the new bike.I doubt you'll find any loose stay bolts in the 2013's.

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 10/8/2012 @ 4:49 PM *

I work part time on weekends in a large bike dealership in maintenance/repair......so I know what goes on in there and what doesn't and see the lack of care that bikes get when they are stacked up and customers are in waiting room....so smartass ........you are clueless as usual......always trying to bring attention to yourself on the internet..when you really don't know beans from buckshot!

Don't worry about me resting my case.....I will rest when your computer crashes forever.

It's true...they do miss stuff sometimes.....that's why it's good to get that manual and use it for what ya can.I had a seasoned mechanic install my upper fairngs and all on my 07 one time...unfortunately,I had to stop at the side of the road and redo everything...he had the tabs and all in the wrong positions!

Saw the best mechanic in the office last week..customer wanted oil and filter change and check for a trip he was going to be making when he left the store...changed oil and filter, didn't even check air pressure in tires, or wipe the bike down after he was done....so much for checking for loose bolts......

Lots of times a guy will bring in a perfectly filthy motorcycle....and the mech(or someone)has to spend however much time 'cleaning' it before they can even do any work.I can understand sometimes their 'lack' of enthusiasm towards certain jobs.

I always made it a point to clean my bike head to toe the day before any service at the dealer...which wasn't very many.But the point being...whenever I took rims and tires and such in...I always cleaned em up.Always got em back very nicely taken care of.They"shouldn't",but it is human nature to judge a customer's care with how they present what they have...no getting around it really.Sometimes it helps to communicate with the mechanic...you know...small talk....like tire pressures and such.Surprising how far a little 'get to know yer guy' goes.If he makes a mistake...blow it off....maybe even give the guy a tip.I used to...occasionally.I don't mean if he totally blew something serious...no...but for a good decent job...ya...I will tip em.It always comes back around anyway IMO.

When I had my valves checked and such...I removed everything the night before and rode my 'naked'07 to my mech.I KNOW he appreciated me doing that...the bill said it all.Really...who wants to spend time putting plastics off and on a bigazz bike like the 14.I don't.But for help's sake...I did.

When I had my valves checked and such...I removed everything the night before and rode my 'naked'07 to my mech.

I did this for my zx12. It saves money on labor and I know that my plastics are taken care of by the guy that has the most vested interest in my motorcycle....Me.

Riding Naked rocks.

Thanks for the e-mail address. I typed a little something up last night and sent him an e-mail. I realize a lot of people have different opinions on the matter. I had the steering lock up on me, so I feel its my responsibility to at least shed light on the fact. Now, if you decide to blow it off, like I did, that is absolutely up to you. I wish I would have loctited these damn things when I read about it. I would not have had to go thru the bullshish of finding new bolts and the entire incident.

Your steering locked?OMG....now that's VERY serious.Geez.Had no Idea those bolts could cause that.Yup....they definitely need to know about that...good job and glad you didn't dump...sheesh.

Common sense tells us to tighten up bolts on these bikes routinely....am just trying to make a point that with the new 14r Kawasaki's flagship bike, it should be safe to drive right out of the box, and not need to have all bolts tightened up right after purchase.

You don't do it on your car....you shouldn't have to do it on a $16,000.00 motorcycle! Not in a few thousand miles. Many people who buy this bike have no mechanical experience or expertise....maybe they just want a big HP bike for bragging to their friends...and have no idea of what is required to maintain it in safe operating condition.

Usually a 600 mile service is oil and filter. Tightening up over 100 bolts and nuts on this machine is not something I have seen any service mechanic do or want to do.....especially on a brand new machine....some owners put 600 miles on it the first week, and am sure they aren't looking for their front fairing bolts to see is the cap nuts are still there.

So, when this happened to me in such short mileage..and I did tighten them routinely before the nuts came off.....on the particular date...I was really thrashing the bike at high speed on some rough paved roads, so think the extra vibration caused them to fall off. Loc Tited them on...but they still came off, so that is why I used special locking nuts with lock washers as the factory should have done to fix the problem.

Just wanted other riders who have this new bike to be aware of a potential problem they could have on theirs...

Good you shared that....mine were a smidgen loose...nothing serious at that point.I locktited and checked em again several times...they stayed put.

Never saw any dealer doing a first maintenance of oil and filter going over every bolt and nut on a new bike with less than 600 miles on it and tightening up each and every bolt...especially two front bolts that hold the front fairing in place.....they should not be looseened after only 600 miles of riding and falling out!

Hi Guys, had my bike serviced yesterday, 600 mile first service, when it was done, the service desk told me what they had done and one of the points was that they "checked that all accessible bolts were checked they were not loose" so at least here in the UK it's part of the service schedule that its checked, (well at the dealer I use anyway) but to be fair I would never leave it to them, every time I clean the bike I always check all the bolts myself... It's a 5 minute job which is F@&! All time after spending 2 hours cleaning it!

I never had any loose bolts of consequence on any of my Kawasakis....the fairing stay ones...those were actually a first for me.But like I said...I just snugged em after locktighting...they were good to go.I have however tried to 'loosen' certain bolts...gotta say...I rounded off a couple of allen wrenches once or twice trying to break those babies free.;)

Your steering locked?OMG....now that's VERY serious.Geez.Had no Idea those bolts could cause that.Yup....they definitely need to know about that...good job and glad you didn't dump...sheesh.

Yes, I can't say it locked my steering(then again, turning Right was not an option), but it definitely impeded me from going where I wanted too. At the time I was doing a U-Turn. Had a been in a shorter sweeping turn, I would have had some serious issues. If you look down the right side of the steering stem, there is a metal protrusion(bumpstop) from the frame. Now, imagine a 10mm(?) castle nut sitting there between the triple tree and that bumpstop. I am not sure on the degrees, but losing 1/2 inch or more of steering is pretty dangerous.

I need to take pictures, and look at it again. From my explanation, it seems like the bike would have issues turning right, not left....I will have to see when I get home. I don't recall if the castle nut was sitting on the top of the lower triple tree or not. Regardless, the nut was stuck to the left of the bumpstop between it and the steering stem. I confuse myself, I will put a 1/2 nut in that spot so you can see exactly what I'm referring too. Only difference is this time I'm not going to ride it like that. :O

* Last updated by: lie2me on 10/9/2012 @ 9:54 PM *

Ya...I can see how that castle nut(fairing stay bolt) could back out and happen to fall right there....yes...I can see that.1/2 loss of directional steering could easily get ya killed under the right conditions.Glad you caught that Lie.Strange things can happen...I doubt Kawasaki realized that could be a very serious deal.

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 10/10/2012 @ 8:59 AM *

***I have not gotten a response from the e-mail I sent last week.

I have two missing fairing screws that seemed to have worked their way out to the highway. Both of them looked just fine, and I had tightened all of them before I left the dealership. My guess is that with all of the shaking from the missing fairing stay bolts, they were loosened up enough to fall out? They were not sticking up at all, looked as tight as the day I picked it up at the dealership. This goes to show you that they need to be checked. Those two fairing bolts are my fault...so the cowl has two less bolts for now. Rechecking the entire bike before I ride it again---and going to stop being lazy about checking them.

Anyone ever try a small piece of teflon tap on the fairing screws? I'm not sure this would help, might make it a pain in the ass with those brass/rubber grommets on the backside. Just a thought.

* Last updated by: lie2me on 10/11/2012 @ 9:49 AM *

Was the rubber well nut missing?Or only the screw backed out on those fairing screws(not the castle ones).Those well nut screws should not be able to back out...I've never had one do that?But overtightening WILL crack the tabs...then the whole well nut can slip out under the right conditions.Sometimes if you buy aftermarket well-nuts...the brass threaded piece will break free of the very bottom of the rubber part...then they won't tighten.The screw will only cause the brass part to move up the threads,but the grommet won't expand and flatten against the underside of the tab.The whole well nut can come out if it gets pressure on it going the right direction.Factory ones I've never seen do that.

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 10/11/2012 @ 10:31 AM *

Both nuts were missing, and lower bolt was missing...upper bolt was inplace but had backed out and was almost ready to fall out when I discovered my condition...pushed it back in and drover slowly home to fix the problem.

I Hate to admit it but it happened to me too!

Well I went for a burn this pass Sunday an I felt something hit my boot looked in the rear view an saw nothing so I kept it moving as the moved on an packed on the miles I notice that one of my mirrors just would not stay set then after some more miles the whole front end of the bike was jumping around. Long story short I then stopped later an checked the bike over an shore enough the top bolt an both nuts were gone good thing by this point I was only about 35 miles from home but the bike has shaken apart a little bit an shouk the bolt out right by the speedo. Today I went to the bike shop an ordered 2 bolts an 2 nuts I told them what happened an we went to the back and the floor to check there ZX14r an even 2 that were there for service and every last one were loss...

So lessen learned by me!!!

* Last updated by: Black1 on 10/24/2012 @ 7:54 PM *

+1 at Black1 : "lesson learned"