My 1 year mark is coming up. Does anyone have experience with the Good Times Protection Plan? It seems like a good deal especially if I want to sell the bike in the next couple of years.

Sad thing is I bought it for 4 yrs, didn't need it one time! Next bike I buy, I will not waste the money on an extended vehicle warranty.

I purchased one when I got my 2008, and haven't needed it.

I also purchased the maitenance contract. Don't know if it was part of the Protection Plan or not. But I have not paid a penny for any of my service intervals, including two major services.

So the maintenance contract paid for itself last year, and keeps on paying me dividends. I had a major interval service done just a couple weeks ago, and gave them the Pipercross Street filter and the plugs Jeffo recommended and the high output stator and regulator, and the 16T front sprocket, and they charged me $102 for the whole thing.

If I hadn't had work done not a part of the service (the plugs and filter were) it would have been free.

privateer, was the maintenance contract offered by kawasaki or was it specific to the dealer?

It all went on the Kawasaki Good Times Loan Account I had. Not sure if it was dealer specific, but I imagine it is one of the instruments Kawasaki underwrites for the dealers.

As a side note, I had that green credit card for like 8 years from back when I purchased a ZX10R (which I could never really ride properly due to my physical problems.... but I sure tried). I sold the 10 to one of the kids in the local sportbike club.

When I decided to get another bike, I initially ordered a 2008 ZX10R, but sanity prevailed and I changed it to a ZX11 about a week before I would have been stuck with a 10. Heh.

I will not waste the money on an extended vehicle warranty.

Same here. The bike makers know the reliability of their bikes and they would not be offering these plans if they felt the plans would get used. If you make money on the plan, they loose. That is not the way insurance works and that is basically what we are talking about here is buying insurance (which you won't ever use like most of the other insurance you have).

Ok! I'm gonna pass!
But if something goes wrong in the next coupla years, you guys are paying my bar tabs!

What you will prob have happen eventually is the head gasket will leak. Mine does it and so have a lot of others. Personally, I would never want my dealership to mess with my bike for that or almost anything else. I would rather do it myself.

I highly doubt you will have any other problems. Been following these threads for 4 years and you just don't hear much about major trouble. The rod bearing problem is the only biggy and it is not very common. I have heard of members NOT having their EXTRA warranty honored by Kawi for throwing rods. The reason: 'the owner was riding the bike too hard.' I don't buy that. These bikes were made to take abuse and most do take it very well. A certain few may be defective but outside of that, I don't see anyone burning up their 14 on the street . You would be in jail long before that ever happened.

I just bought my bike used and it has the plan until 2015(came with the bike). I believe it is only like 500 bucks and is good at any kawi dealer. I know Kawi builds awesome machines, but if you have the money I beleive it is worth it. I will admit that I am not the kind of guy that will work on his own bike. It all comes down to your finances. If you have 500 bucks just sittin around and you plan on having the bike for a while it seems like a good deal. If you are poor(like me) or plan on selling it in a year you should probably pass. I went to the dealer to have the warranty transfered to me( Yes the good times plan is fully transferable with no fee) and he assured me it is the same as the factory Kawi warranty.

I got it when I bought mine, and was sick for the first few days thinking I wasted the money. But....when I really started thinking about it, the $20 dollar difference in the payment was nominal, and IF I should thrash the transmission or another major part (Heaven Forbid), I won't have to come out of pocket to get my bike back on the road. I know that Kawi is reluctant to honor their warranty at times, but reluctance is not denial. Years ago I worked for a dealership. From what I saw, all the manufacturers will usually prefer to satisfy a customer than to not. Especially in today's world of the internet. An upset customer expressing themselves with the right media can create a lot of lost sales.

The #3 rod bearing in my 2007 lump spun at 9730 miles or so. Yes I was racing the bike and no I did not buy the extra warranty, nor would I, even if I could go back in time and choose again because I am sure Kawasaki would tell me to get bent, sighting racing as the cause.. which it could have been. That said, the engine had lots of glitter in the oil from the very first oil change and on. I always ran Mobile 1 MT4X and changed it, at the most, around 2000 miles or usually much less since I raced the bike. Didn't matter.. I believe the motor was doomed from day one. I am sure racing only hastened the demise.. but it was coming. I replaced the engine with a donor lump out of a low mileage, wrecked 2009 which was totaled out by an insurance company. This motor came with 3300 miles on it and I have added another 5000. I race on it as well... oil looks far healthier at oil changes.

My advise, skip the good times protection. If your oil is sparkly, sell the bike asap and get a different one.... either that or swap out the offending bearing before you spin it. That is what I would have done knowing what I know now.

If your oil is sparkle free, ride it and forget about it... it's probably one of the good ones.

If your oil is sparkly, sell the bike asap and get a different one....

I have sparkles in my oil and I am at 28,500. Large flakes, mostly. I have determined that it is clutch wear and I'm not worried. I'm sure that happens even more with drag racing launches. I wouldn't freak just because you se sparkles ESPEcIALLY when the bike is new and engine ware is typical. Mine has had sparkles in every oil change.

If you can tell the flakes are bronze in color that indicates bearing wear (I am told). Problem---silver with a film of oil over it can look pretty bronzey.

The point__-sparkles are not always something to be concerned about.

That said, the engine had lots of glitter in the oil from the very first oil change and on

The plan is only as good as your dealer
If they say it was abuse then you be screwed .

If you had the protection plan you could have taken it in after a couple oil changes with glitter and had it fixed for free. You might not have ever spun a bearing.

Might have worked out that way.. but I do my own oil changes and would not really like the dealer touching the bike to be honest. Never even took it in for frame recall.. just did the procedure myself. I worked as a mechanic for several years.. not bikes.. cars.. but I know what the game is.. and I know that there are good mechanics but the good mechanics don't get stuck doing oil changes.. ya know? Plus all professional mechanics are in a hurry so they can make money. They would never have even told me the oil was sparkly and the rod bearing would have spun just the same. I actually feel pretty luck to have got 9730 miles on that lump considering it was doomed... including a trip to the southern Calif then the grand canyon in the summer of 2009. Ran great.. slowing chewing up the Babbitt. Anyway.. the bike is a consumable as far as I am concerned.. and racing hastens the consumption... I just used up one motor already is all.

I tore that motor down and it's rebuild-able. Case is good and I scored some rods & pistons from an 08 fairly cheap. I just need a crankshaft and that motor could be brought back into service. The #3 rod journal didn't survive and there is a .0015 bend at the center main.. so it's probably kissed. APE might be able to resurrect it.. but my 09 lump is running good even with the 07 TBs and ECU.. so there is no incentive to invest in a crank yet.

Edit: Sorry.. just realized you said after I had done a couple oil changes... not the dealer having done them. Still.. they would not have done a thing about it. They would have said it was normal. You hear all the rod knocking 06/07 lumps they just blew off? Kawasaki would have turned me away for sure. There would have had to have been chunks and nuggets in the oil before they would have maybe even took it in and spent 3 months trying not to have to take it apart. and work on it. Screw that. I had the bike back on the street and strip in 2 weeks! $2100 later, a 2009 gen 2 lump and a bin of spare parts. It was totally worth it IMO. Glad I saved my money on the good times protection scam.. helped me get the bike back in service much effing quicker!

* Last updated by: motoCycho on 7/27/2011 @ 1:13 AM *

I have sparkles in my oil and I am at 28,500. Large flakes, mostly. I have determined that it is clutch wear and I'm not worried. I'm sure that happens even more with drag racing launches. I wouldn't freak just because you se sparkles ESPEcIALLY when the bike is new and engine ware is typical. Mine has had sparkles in every oil change.

If you can tell the flakes are bronze in color that indicates bearing wear (I am told). Problem---silver with a film of oil over it can look pretty bronzey.

The point__-sparkles are not always something to be concerned about.

Man.. I have had 2 of these lumps now and the first one was like Babbitt glitter soup at oil changes and the other is just that wavy brown micro glitter you can barely see. It looks like gold fluid within the fluid.. but just barely noticeable. The lump that spun #3 had very definite metallic flakes. Only one way to know for sure. send the oil for analysis I guess?

BTW.. I don't see any metallic flakes on the clutch fibers. I have been in my clutch many times. I opened it tonight just to inspect the hub. I swap out discs all the time. Never noticed silver metallic properties on the fibers ever. Just sayin'.

Kawasaki's warranty is worthless imo. they were never interested in fixing the defects on my bike during the first year, why would i pay for more "nothing"? they can suck a dick for all i care. i'll never buy a new one for the warranty again!

Wow, Edge, sorry you had bad luck with K's standard warranty. I may have missed you posting that before, or just lost it in the black morass that serves as my memory.

A lot of that depends on your dealer, how they write the warranty request up. I am blessed to have an excellant dealer.

My family has known them since they had a little Harley shop on Cannon Ave, back when Harley was the only game in town. So they have a decades old reputation to protect, and seem to still care about it.

You can always tell if your dealer is in business to sell bikes and provide good service, or just to sell bikes. I feel sorry for people who have the latter for dealers.

On the other hand, my dealer will call abuse, "abuse", if thats what it is. Pulling wheelies is abuse, and voids the warranty. Just go read it. Things like that. Not that you did that, Edge, some dealers a) don't know how to write warranty requests up so they are accepted, and b) some just don't want them to be accepted, because they don't get paid by K for months.

I had several minor problems which I call minor because they were not engine related thankfully, however they were problems related to obvious defects in craftsmanship and unacceptable like the fuel door which won't open/close because it's cast wrong. We have one Kawai dealer in the closest city I live and the dealer I bought the bike from is over an hour away. Neither one has been in business long because for some reason Kawi doesn't have a big presence here in west Michigan. Perhaps it was their write-up skills that were questionable. Regardless I find Kawi as a whole lacking when it comes to backing up their product from my perspective here in west Michigan. Loved my bike, but the company can suck it.