new 2003 engine blown by doohickey,

[mxdseca]

my riding pal had about 13000km on his new KLR650 when the motor quit, turns out the doohickey spring let go, into the balancer chain resulting in bent valves. He wanted to wait till the warranty was up before putting in the aftermarket part..... Kawasaki did the work under warranty but he had to buy the aftermarket doohickey, they still don't admit there is a problem with the factory part. In our small group of 6 riders, we have had 5 bikes with either cracked doohickey part or broken springs, but only 2 blown engines. Actually the first engine went on a new 2000 before we all knew about this doohickey problem, but in hindsight we are pretty sure it was a doohickey problem just like this last bike.