I hate Kawasaki...

[Süsser Tod]

Spent all afternoon doing maintenance on the ER-5, the "12,000km" service...

What a PITA.

I lucked out and all the valves were within spec, BUT...

a) There is pitting on both camshafts. It got me thinking that the bike was neglected, or that maybe they had rolled back the odometer (wich wouldn't make sense considering the conditions of the bike for it's 12 years), etc. Did a quik search in google for "camshaft pitting low miles"... Within the first page I found at least 5 different forums with similar issues on Kawasakis...

Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum • View topic - ZRX cam pitting and missing frame bolt

Cam pitting cause?? - ZRXOA Message Board

The most interesting one is this:

1986 GPZ 900 cam pitting

The cams on that 1986 bike are similar to those on the ER5, and mine look like that... But scroll down further and you'll find a picture of a 2002 ER5, wich is worse than mine :eek

I thought that Kawasaki didn't knew anythign about rust proofing and paint, but it seems that they just don't know anything about quality.

b) Ended up rounding the head of a bolt inside the head (keeps an oil line in place). Don't know what I'm going to do when it actually needs to have the valves adjusted, because it is not possible to do it without removing that oil line. I'll start buying tools and prepare for the worst.

Oh, yes, I rounded the bolt, after having a socket break while trying to remove it. After that hexagonal socket broke I tried another socket, wich ended up rounding the bolt. Then I tried vice grips, and didn't work either... YAY! They fused that bolt into the head at the factory...

Back to my rant. I found more surface rust on the ER-5. That doesn't bother me THAT much, it's a 12 year old bike, and I knew that they were known for rusting. Many or the ER-5 owners/fans say that it is because the ER-5 was a low end bike. Well, how does that explain the surface rust, and paint peeling from the frame on my Vulcan 900??? Well, how the **** does the lower triple tree, that is painted and hasn't peeled, rusts!? (You can see it rusting through the paint! WTF???)

I'm really pissed off right now. Not even my chinese bikes rusted like the Kawasakis do, and what about their quality control? How can they assemble bikes with bolts overtightened to the point of breaking sockets? Oh, and that is not to mention their bonehead engineering...

Seriously, I never had so much trouble with Suzuki/Yamaha/Honda (well, the CBR is the only bike I won't touch, it seems that Honda Engineers didn't knew if they were designing a motorcycle or a 5000 piece puzzle...)

[Builtgypsy]

Kawasaki! Get it away get it away!

[Alawicious]

[scarredpelt]

Uh oh amigo, you just may have committed an unforgivable sacrilege in Lauren's eyes!


Good luck with the bike, there's no sense in wishing you well with L.

[Alawicious]

[LaurenOE]

Originally Posted by scarredpelt

Uh oh amigo, you just may have committed an unforgivable sacrilege in Lauren's eyes!


Good luck with the bike, there's no sense in wishing you well with L.

Pitted cams are cosmetic.

I will gladly take that ER-5 off your hands.

Now, notice how quickly it took for you to check those valves? Yep, that cool finger follower on the cam lobe makes for easy checking - unlike bucket-over-shims like most bikes today.

Surface rust?

That means there is steel under that rust. You can re-finish steel and repaint.

Kawasaki...need I say more?

[LaurenOE]

Originally Posted by Süsser Tod

Spent all afternoon doing maintenance on the ER-5, the "12,000km" service...

What a PITA.

I lucked out and all the valves were within spec, BUT...

a) There is pitting on both camshafts. It got me thinking that the bike was neglected, or that maybe they had rolled back the odometer (which wouldn't make sense considering the conditions of the bike for it's 12 years), etc. Did a quik search in google for "camshaft pitting low miles"... Within the first page I found at least 5 different forums with similar issues on Kawasakis...

Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum • View topic - ZRX cam pitting and missing frame bolt

Cam pitting cause?? - ZRXOA Message Board

The most interesting one is this:

1986 GPZ 900 cam pitting

The cams on that 1986 bike are similar to those on the ER5, and mine look like that... But scroll down further and you'll find a picture of a 2002 ER5, wich is worse than mine :eek

I thought that Kawasaki didn't knew anythign about rust proofing and paint, but it seems that they just don't know anything about quality.

b) Ended up rounding the head of a bolt inside the head (keeps an oil line in place). Don't know what I'm going to do when it actually needs to have the valves adjusted, because it is not possible to do it without removing that oil line. I'll start buying tools and prepare for the worst.

Oh, yes, I rounded the bolt, after having a socket break while trying to remove it. After that hexagonal socket broke I tried another socket, wich ended up rounding the bolt. Then I tried vice grips, and didn't work either... YAY! They fused that bolt into the head at the factory...

Back to my rant. I found more surface rust on the ER-5. That doesn't bother me THAT much, it's a 12 year old bike, and I knew that they were known for rusting. Many or the ER-5 owners/fans say that it is because the ER-5 was a low end bike. Well, how does that explain the surface rust, and paint peeling from the frame on my Vulcan 900??? Well, how the **** does the lower triple tree, that is painted and hasn't peeled, rusts!? (You can see it rusting through the paint! WTF???)

I'm really pissed off right now. Not even my chinese bikes rusted like the Kawasakis do, and what about their quality control? How can they assemble bikes with bolts overtightened to the point of breaking sockets? Oh, and that is not to mention their bonehead engineering...

Seriously, I never had so much trouble with Suzuki/Yamaha/Honda (well, the CBR is the only bike I won't touch, it seems that Honda Engineers didn't knew if they were designing a motorcycle or a 5000 piece puzzle...)

The ER-5 was a cobbled together model. It is thought of as a "messenger" bike in various parts of the world. It was never a flagship model. Your bike is also a 12 year old bike that is ridden in the rain. Most motorcycles that are ridden in the rain regularly will have rust. It's part of the game. Naked bikes (like the vulcan and ER-5) are also susceptible to more rusting than normal because the frames take more of a beating from being exposed to the elements. A naked bike has limited choices of the metal to be used for the exposed frames, since the frame has to be welded and exposed to the elements. If not steel, naked/cruiser bikes would cost thousands more.

Material wise, framewise - you have Aluminum in various configurations, "Chrome Moly" Steel, Stainless Steel, Titanium and a few other exotic materials to construct a frame out of.

The ER-5 was destined to get the cheapest most malleable material and that is low carbon steel.

Low Carbon Steel has low resistance to rusting as all paint that is used today has permeability to atmospheric moisture.

Sorry you don't have the proper tools to do maintenance, but that's not Kawasakis fault.

China likes to use lead based paint, which is good for paint, not so good for the environment. Mexico is fine with that and why some bikes never make it to the USA.

Kawasaki FTW!

[Electrical_Tech]

I love my Kaws. I a good farmer.

[Süsser Tod]

Originally Posted by LaurenOE

The ER-5 was a cobbled together model. It is thought of as a "messenger" bike in various parts of the world. It was never a flagship model. Your bike is also a 12 year old bike that is ridden in the rain. Most motorcycles that are ridden in the rain regularly will have rust. It's part of the game. Naked bikes (like the vulcan and ER-5) are also susceptible to more rusting than normal because the frames take more of a beating from being exposed to the elements. A naked bike has limited choices of the metal to be used for the exposed frames, since the frame has to be welded and exposed to the elements. If not steel, naked/cruiser bikes would cost thousands more.

That's what I thought, and that is why I didn't had any trouble with the ER-5 rusting. But, that doesn't explain why the Vulcan is rusting. And yes, it's only surface rust, but I really don't maintenance on a 4 year old bike should include stripping a bike to the frame to have it repainted.

You know what is worse? The Vulcan has more rust than the ER-5.

And let's get real for a moment. My ER-5 only has 12,000kms, that's 7500 miles, and it spent most of it's previous life parked indoors, as there are no signs of weather related wear. The rust has developed in the last 2,500 miles... (The Vulcan is worse, the rust has developed within 1,000 miles...)

And I have a better example, the CG125 that I had. It was built in Brazil, used and abused as a courier bike, to the point that I'm amazed that the thing even ran when I got it, yet there was no rust anywhere on that bike. And you can't say it was because of lead on the paint, as the CG125 is sold in Europe.

Originally Posted by LaurenOE

Material wise, framewise - you have Aluminum in various configurations, "Chrome Moly" Steel, Stainless Steel, Titanium and a few other exotic materials to construct a frame out of.

The ER-5 was destined to get the cheapest most malleable material and that is low carbon steel.

Low Carbon Steel has low resistance to rusting as all paint that is used today has permeability to atmospheric moisture.

Well, triple tree and frame seem to be made out of low carbon steel... on the Vulcan. That would just mean that they went even further to cut costs when the Vulcan was designed than they did when the ER-5 was cobbled together from the parts bin.

About the paint. Eh... no. The Katana I had before, 18 years old, didn't had any rust at all. And that is also a "low end bike" with a cheap steel frame. The XT660R also has a steel frame, and it is not rusting. The Katana was built in Japan and the XT in France.

Originally Posted by LaurenOE

Sorry you don't have the proper tools to do maintenance, but that's not Kawasakis fault.

"Proper tools" What is the proper tool to remove a 8mm bolt?

I always thought that you remove 8mm bolts with 8mm sockets, please let me know if I'm wrong...

No, no way in hell I'm going to take the blame for that, as I was able to remove one of them perfectly fine, the other one was overtightened at the factory. If it hadn't been overtightened it would have came out as easily as the first one did.

In fact, the only "proper" tool I didn't had at hand was a stud remover or an easy out to take it out.

Originally Posted by LaurenOE

China likes to use lead based paint, which is good for paint, not so good for the environment. Mexico s fine with that and why some bikes never make it to the USA.

I guess that's also why the XT660R was never sold in the USA, but built in France and sold almost everywhere else, right? What about the Katana? Mine wasn't some Mexican specific built in China bike, it was in fact a CARB Katana that lived in San Diego until 2001, when it was imported to Mexico.

Seriously, I wouldn't have a problem if only the ER-5 was rusting, as I knew that those bikes were prone to rust. But the Vulcan? I really can't wrap my head around the idea of repainting the frame of a 4 year old bike with 5,000 miles on the clock.

What about the pitting on the cams? Pitting is a sign of fatigue, and fatigue is related to wear and/or improperly hardened cam lobes. The links on my first post show it is related to the later as it happens to bikes with very low miles.

I had been trying to convince myself that it was no big deal, but what I saw/found yesterday was the last straw.


And I guess I'm done with my rant about Kawasaki. Lauren, you are free to support Kawasaki just as I'm free to stay clear from Kawasaki.


I wonder... I've heard several times that in Florida you could register a Manatee if you put wheels on it, so, is there any way you could get the ER-5 registered? If it were possible, I guess I could sell it to you. Parts for the ER-5 are not an issue, as for some odd reason Kawasaki sells parts for them (maybe they were sold in Canada?).

[acalliste]

Manatees don't handle for shit.