Hey,
just to share my rant at my first problem with the bike
So I take her in for her 600 mile service, and until then she'd been working perfectly (btw I ignored factory break-in recommendations and just throttled her from the 3rd outing). Drive her from the mechanic's directly to destination (my grandfather's house on the lake), 100 miles with approx. 60 miles of highway.
On the highway, after about 40 miles, the friggin FI signal turns on. Bike's working fine though, so I continue.
When I slow down for the toll-booth, I realize the revs won't go down all the way! The engine revs to a min of 4/5 K and just sits there. So I turn the bike off after the toll booth and let her sit for 5 minutes while I smoke a butt. Turn her on again, idle is back to normal, I'm thinking, phew, problem solved! I start riding again only to find out that now the opposite is happening, she won't go above 7K revs!
I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to NOT be able to speed and accelerate hard with a sportsbike rubbing your crotch!!!
I had to drive her for the rest of the way (AND BACK, of course) with a max speed of 75 m/h in 6th, with cars of all sorts and even damn SCOOTERS overtaking me!!! I'll never forget it
Anyway, took her in last Saturday to see what the problem was, basically the 636 has a double butterfly valve system with primary and secondary valves controlling airflow in the inlet manifold. The electric motor that controls the secondary valve movement broke, therefore the valves aren't opening and the engine is basically choking. Yippee.
The electric motor has been ordered, hopefully it will arrive by week's end so that Saturday I can take it in again and get it replaced.
Bike still under guarantee so I shouldn't be paying anything, no damage to the rest of the bike... but I've already lost out on 2 weekends of good riding and the cold weather is coming FAST by my parts
Thanks for listening to me blow off some steam! This experience leads me to the obvious questions: in your experiences, how reliable have your Kawas been? Have they given you trouble? How often can I expect to be taking the bike in for problems such as these???
Hope I'm the exception to the rule and your bikes run just fine
