Nervous new owner

[O.C.]

Didn't think that there were so many positive owners about as a local dealership tried to put me off a GTR, said any owners were never happy with them and never kept them long, mind you he was trying to sell me a FJR13.. lol

Just shows - I'd rather try the Kwak and see how it goes for myself.

Cheers folks.
Al.

just imagine what nonsense you'de have been told if you did your shopping at Hirsts 

[alibx11]

  it was Hurst's.... must be known for it..

Anyway, so far I'm glad I got this one, which is easy to say cause I haven't even seen it yet,

[Bryn]

it was Hurst's.... must be known for it..

Anyway, so far I'm glad I got this one, which is easy to say cause I haven't even seen it yet,

So you're happy with it then 

[O.C.]

it was Hurst's.... must be known for it..

Anyway, so far I'm glad I got this one, which is easy to say cause I haven't even seen it yet,

I honestly doubt that they've ever had a GTR in their showroom amongst their badly presented/dirty bike display.

Typical and predictable response from them   

[alibx11]

Got my bike today, just got home an hour ago..

Must say I'm disappointed the dealer (Vivamoto, who are apparently "we buy any bike.com") didn't tell me it was an import, bike is originally from South Africa, no big deal as they still drive on the left and it's not a power restricted region but thought dealer should have declared that.

Took it for a run at the boat, lovely engine but does feel bit slow to get going, not instant throttle response I was expecting. Certainly gets going but looks like I could be getting a flies removal done....

I do like the looks of it and also the KIPASS system is a lot handier than I was expecting.

Love the white clock dials... :) will put a pic of them up soon..

It has a headlight protector and battery charge lead, also like the box on  the tank, although it's an odd shape.

Very comfy but think I will be ordering a set of bar raisers tonight as just feel like that extra couple of inches would make all the difference in comfort... oh vicar...

There is a Two Brothers can on it which is a little bit "peppy" shall we say, doesn't say "not for road use" or "race use only" so have no idea if it's road legal but dealer has just mot'd it for a year...

Rear brake pedal has an awful lot of travel so looks like I'll have to at least bleed the brakes if not give them a full strip/service, will investigate soon.

Looking forward to doing a few minor mods, accessories to make it a really nice bike, looking forward to actually getting it away for a proper tour/ run....

[O.C.]

I would have thought that the dealer was 'duty bound' to inform you that your bike is an import. I don't know if a S.A bike will be any different performance/specification wise, apart from what you have already noticed.

The bike definitely shouldn't, as far as I can see, be slow to get going, and the only way to put that to the test is to compare with another GTR.

Good to see that you have got your GTR and I'm sure that you will enjoy it very much.

My bike has a Two Brothers pipe and hasn't required any re-mapping, also I do have a "sound surpressor" fitted to ensure Db legality, its the gold insert that can be seen in this picture

[/b]

[Deon]

The bikes we get down in SA are not restricted at all. Yours should therefore not be sluggish as you described ( unless the dealer did something to it ). The laws i.r.o aftermarket cans down here are not nearly as strict as yours in the UK, so we therefore tend to fit the aftermarket cans and take their baffles out.

How are you getting around the fact that the speedo is in Km/h as opposed to Miles/ph ???

Anyway, your bike looks very neat. Hope you will eventually enjoy her !!!

Deon

[alibx11]

Thanks OC and Deon, I do like the bike ok and maybe it's just me expecting a bike with 150+hp to take off like a scalded cat, it certainly doesn't take long to break the speed limit on it but think it's just the flies damping the initial surge I was expecting..

I did check on the Kawasaki.co.za site for spec changes and saw that it is not restricted in power output, in all honesty spending the first 2 years of its life in SA probably kept it in better condition than spending 2 winters here would have done, so doesn't really bother me, still think the dealer had to declare that though.

The speedo and ODO are in Miles, I think I saw in the owners manual that you can simply push a few buttons and change the readings from km to miles and vice versa.

The clocks were changed from black faces to white ones as there is a pair of black dials with the bike, but definitely think I'll keep the white ones on as they are really nice. Will post a couple of pics of them tomorrow night.

Where did you get the sound suppressor OC? might have to invest in that too.... how does it stay in as there doesn't appear to be any inside flange to screw it to.... also does it stop all the farting and popping on the overrun, relating to the bike anyway.

Thanks.
AL.

[Deon]

Yes, you are able to set the settings from Km/H to MPH but these are only for the consumption etc.

The speedo would have been marked in Km/h and I have never seen a bike here in SA with white dials. The fact that yours are white dials and marked in MPH, means that your cluster was changed.
Food for thought ???????


Deon

[coman37]

Yes, you are able to set the settings from Km/H to MPH but these are only for the consumption etc.

The speedo would have been marked in Km/h and I have never seen a bike here in SA with white dials. The fact that yours are white dials and marked in MPH, means that your cluster was changed.
Food for thought ???????


Deon

Maybe a dash from a ZZR ?

Coman

[Deon]

Maybe a dash from a ZZR ?

Coman

Perhaps but not a SA ZZR ( ZX14 ) and marked in MPH. I have a sneaky feeling that his performance has been affected by this dash change.

Deon

[alibx11]

Thanks for the input, unfortunately bike is at mother's house as I don't have a garage so will give it closer inspection tomorrow night and could be contacting the dealer shortly if it's a problem.

There is a set of black dials with all the paperwork which I didn't take much notice of so had just assumed they were removed and the white dials put on, I would have thought that the ODO would change in relation to the consumption readings settings as that's very easy for digital instruments to calculate... my Seat car stores the odo reading in km but displays miles on clock... will try to match up the service book readings to see if there's any discrepancy when I convert km to miles..

[2kwacks]

looks very nice indeed, white clocks hey!! well you've got something the rest of us haven't the white clocks are most likely of the zzr1400 model and I think they look much better than the black clocks. had the white clocks on my zzr1400 and there alot easier to see what speed your doing especially when "ones" getting on like me a few more prevention accessoires you may want to consider.. radiator gaurd, fenda extenda, rear hugger and don't forget to keep that rear preload adjuster moving fully clockwise and anti clockwise every other week or it will seize up hope to meet you, and your new steed on the 2013 gtr meet..
"be there or be square"

[Rusty]

TBH I wouldn't really worry where it came from ... it looks very nice and I have no doubt you will have many fun miles on it !  Sluggish ? Give it some wellington .. it's anything but sluggish, but then I havn't ridden a ZZR1400 !!
Let us know how you get on with it ... really .. you will love it.. 

[Deon]

Thanks for the input, unfortunately bike is at mother's house as I don't have a garage so will give it closer inspection tomorrow night and could be contacting the dealer shortly if it's a problem.

There is a set of black dials with all the paperwork which I didn't take much notice of so had just assumed they were removed and the white dials put on, I would have thought that the ODO would change in relation to the consumption readings settings as that's very easy for digital instruments to calculate... my Seat car stores the odo reading in km but displays miles on clock... will try to match up the service book readings to see if there's any discrepancy when I convert km to miles..

Perhaps you did not understand what I was trying to explain or my explanation was not clear enough       ( which is not uncommon    ).
I was not referring to the digital information on the dash but the analogue speedo. In SA we use KM/H and not MPH. Therefore, if your bike was imported from South Africa, they would've had to change the speedo cluster to show MPH instead of KM/H. The question I think you should ask the dealer where you bought the bike from, is where and from what bike he got the dash from.
I have a nasty suspicion that by changing the dash on your bike, that it might have had some influence on your performance (or lack thereof as you explained). Just a thought from my side.

Deon