Hi All,

I am new to the forum, been riding for a few years now and on my second ZX14 after the first one left it guts all over the road.

Hope to have many interesting chats and share as much tech knowledge as possible!

Well your in the right spot for both of those aspects, this is a great forum.

We like good sharing of knowledge around here!

Did it leave its guts due to mechanical issues or rider error? Welcome to the forum.

The dealership said "Unknown mechanical failure". They refunded me completely (minus the finance admin costs) and then I bought my current 14 from them.

My first 14 was a bad apple. When I picked her up from the dealership, on the way home the brakes picked up a shudder and the next day the bolts holding the caliper stripped and pulled out of the mounting, this resulted in a very scary no brakes situation where I had to use the rear at motorway speeds to bring the bike to a stop. The dealership said sorry and replaced the bolts and said it was a freak accident which they can't explain. 2 weeks later my clutch started slipping in 6 gear when on the power. By the the time I got her to the dealership which was about 30 km away, she was slipping in every gear from 3rd up. After a 2 week wait they said it can't be explained, freak accident etc etc etc and the replaced the entire clutch pack. Then 4 days after receiving the bike back i was on the highway/motorway cruising in 6th gear and all of sudden there was a whine for 1-2 seconds followed by a single clunk-like noise and a burning leg. Some cogs had come through the top of the casing, oil through the exhaust and out of the hole in the casing, all in all a bad situation. Managed to bring the bike down from 140km/h without any incident even though the rear tire was covered in oil. Road side assistance fetched me along with the bike. They stripped the engine etc and I got the famous excuse of they don't know what happened, freak accident etc etc. The request to have the engine replaced with a crate engine was denied and they tried to rebuild the engine. After six months of the bike being in the workshop and 2 unsuccesful rebuilds (when they did the test ride the engine blew both times) I managed to win the fight and get the money refunded. When i went to sign the documentation, I signed the papers on my current 14 at the same time.

* Last updated by: GuyBaulch on 11/10/2013 @ 12:17 AM *

That was one sour lemon.

It was a very sour lemon, but that didnt affect my opinion of the brand whatsoever.

What a bummer...geez.Glad yer back though...not many would have hung on with the same brand;)

Welcome. Good to see you could keep the faith after an experience like that.
Most would move on from that in another direction. I'm sure you will enjoy this place and the new bike.

Thanks guys. I wouldn't consider another brand. My future father-in-law has ridden Kawasaki all his life and he's never had any mechanical problems that were due to build quality.

somebody feel asleep putting that together. kawasaki has always been good to me and I'm sure you will be glad you kept the 14 in your stable.

I suspect that your bike was used either as a test mule or a magazine test bike, then sold as new without letting you know about it. I could see one freak problem, but not 3.

Mad

Mad love from the Nation!