I said I'd never...

....buy a Kawasaki.

'Don't like them! Exhausts are made of a special blend of papier
mache and dog faeces!'

Test rode the ZX9R E1 I won on ebay the other day which had since
suffered a bit of a problem, as in one of the front calipers unbolted
itself whilst the vendor was riding along, and it then caused a bit of
cosmetic damage to the front wheel.

Anyway... given he said I could either not go through with the deal or
he'd knock a fair lump off the price in view of the above, I thought
it rude not to go have a look at it in a diversion of sorts on my way
up to Leicester this evening, as it currently lives in London.

What a lovely bike!

Lovely power delivery, nice smooth handling, decent brakes, and it
didn't feel uncomfortable to ride at all - all thoughts of trying a
Thunderace 'just to be sure' disappeared within half a mile of getting
on this.

Much nicer than the 'blade I briefly owned, anyway, and an infinitely
nicer bike than the Fazer 1000 I test rode last night.

A deposit has been paid - I pick it up next weekend.

To summarise, I think I've had a pretty good deal, even in view of the
fact - first registered September 2000, totally standard and
original, 24k on the clock, new pads, recent tyres, couple of small
cracks on the fairing but nothing major, nigh on a years MOT and tax -
£1850.

What say you, TOG?

Bikesure have come up with a half sensible (1) quote on it as well -
£550ish fully comp, £300ish TPFT.

(1) Bearing in mind Auntie Carole wanted over £1200 fully comp, and
nigh on £600 TPFT, I reckon that's 'half sensible' by comparison.

 

As I was saying to someone this very evening I managed
to double the mileage on an X7 in the space of a year.

And having got my latest acquisition at the top end of 16k
on the clock I am pleased to report I average about 1000
miles a month, which is just as well as it's about what I'm
insured for. I may actually end up paying slightly more when
call them to see if it's 10, 12 or 15k p.a. I went for.

Their jaws dropped and they tried to talk me into 5000
miles for the year, as that's what most people do.

On the plus side I am expecting to make use of my
EU cover this year, and most of them rate in kM which
are shorter by 5/8 so it should balance out.

G DAEB
COPYRIGHT (C) 2008 SIPSTON
--

 

It's good job you're a rock hard biker init.

 

I certainly feel safer.

Imagine speaking to an insurance company and seeing their jaw drop (or
one assumes hearing it) when you say you want cover for 10 to 15k miles
a year! Imagine!

 

Sounds fair. Not a stunning bargain: not too much. Just the right
price for the right bike. I'm one of the bods here who really likes
ZX9Rs. It's a cliche, but as a 'real world, real roads' bike they
rock.

My mate Niall had a gearbox prob with his earlier C2 (I think) model.
That cost a grand to fix. I think the E gearboxes were strengthened.

 

Good Heavens! Why, that's more mileage than many riders manage in an
entire lifetime! Such a thing cannot be true, Shirely?
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"It's a moron working with power tools.
How much more suspenseful can you get?"
- House

 

Odd innit? I must have been in touch with some very strange insco's over the
years too, coz I've never been asked what my expected/intended yearly
mileage is likely to be.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

I believe it's a possibilty as I myself have already covered slightly more
than 15K on two wheeled motorised steeds and I'm not quite dead yet. In
fact, I'll go so far as to say I may have a few hundred miles left in me.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

I think it's a sad throwback to when I was 17 and wanted a 125, and
the AR125 looked distinctly old hat compared to the TZR125.

Poor excuse, I know - funny how our formative years can sometimes
cloud our judgement for so long.

Any idea what it was making with the standard can, and were all the
figures obtained on the same rolling road?

Even if they were, you'd be surprised how much difference something as
simple as a change in temperature can make to the peak power readings
taken from the same vehicle..

Is there any particular reason why Kawasakis seem to come with 'carb
icing' as standard? Just seems to be something that has affected
various models of theirs over the years, whereby other manufacturers
seem to generally manage to knock out bikes which don't suffer with
it.

 

Seems like an awful lot of bike for the money to me, anyway.

Gearbox feels fine on this... but then I suppose it would do after a
succession of Honda 'boxes. ;-)