On Fri, 2002-10-25 at 10:49, dspuffer wrote:
> Though you have answers for all of the failures I mentioned, none
> of them apply. The problem is the quality of the product. I have
> a '02 that I have had for 9 months with 13K miles on it. I do alot
> of heavy off-road riding.
Hence the reason that no one recommends this bike for "heavy off-road
riding". It's a street oriented dualsport, dammit! If you want to ride
off-road and don't want to whine about parts failing, then go buy an XRL
or dual sport a XR650R. Or get a DRZ400E (or whatever the DS model
is)...
Regardless of the manufacturing quality, with a bike that is *not*
specifically designed for "heavy off-road riding" you have to expect
that parts are going to fail more frequently than a purpose-built bike.
I am sorry, but your logic does not stand ("I abused my bike and parts
broke, therefore it is of low quality and poor design"). Go take a VFR
or an SV off road and see how long they last... Oh wait, you'd never do
that right? Cause they're not designed for that, right? Same situation
here, you can do that, but you have to accept the consequences if you
do. In your case I think that you got away pretty cheap with a cracked
radiator mount and a dead speedo cable for all your alledged "heavy
off-road riding".
>
> The subframe bolt at the backbone is known for failure. Dual Star
> sells a upgrade kit because it is such a problem that it is
> profitable to do so.
Depends if you believe their party line or not. If you're going to ride
it under extreme conditions, then it's prudent to do the replacement.
Again, it sounds like you're riding it outside it's design envelope. Get
used to parts breaking. Yes there have been reports of the bolts
shearing on bike ridden on-road exclusively. I can't explain this, and I
bet that BigK can't either.
>
> The failure of my speedometer and lower radiator mount is due to
> vibration form off-road ridding and washboad surfaces on dirt roads.
> If you look at the lower rad mount you will see that it is very thin
> and a failure wating to happen. Kawasaki could easily and cheeply fix
> this and many other known common problems for very little money. But
> they perfer to keep cranking out the same bike design each year with
> nothing new but gas tank graphics than to take care of their
> customers.
I have the solution to all your problems: buy a different bike! Then
when something breaks on it, I won't have to listen to your illogical
whining. Your purchase of the bike has only reinforced BigK's position
that they don't need to change anything because it keeps selling! Why
change a guaranteed revenue stream? If you'd asked most any KLR rider if
they recommended the bike for heavy off-road riding, I don't think a
single one of us would have said "yes, it's a great bike for thrashing
tight single track and chasing KTM300EXCs!". And even though I am guilty
of riding my KLR places it clearly shouldn't be (and breaking most
everything on it), I too would never recommend the bike for your
purposes.
I can't say this enough about the bike: it's a comprise in design,
expectations and quality. I know that, I *accept* that and I love that
about the bike.
I too think there are a lot of things that could be done better on this
bike, but at the same time it's shortcomings are amply overcome by it's
versatility. I know that it has flaws, but what bike doesn't?
Z - Defender of Medocrity
DC
A2
A5
A11