When we got back from Vietnam a small mountain of mail was neatly stacked (by the cat-sitter), awaiting attention.
In my pile was an automatic insurance renewal form (yeah, you can go whistle for that, baby, I’m off to comparethemarket.com!), and there was a High Priority letter from Kawasaki.
Unfortunately the letter was notification of a ‘potential’ safety problem (or a product recall notice, to put it another way) with the ZX10-R.
The fix, it seems, is for me to take the bike to my Kawasaki dealer, as soon as possible, so they can carry out the required work, in about 2-1/2 hours, and free of charge.
The letter, helpfully, lists the work that needs to be done:
- replace 2nd gear output
- replace 3rd gear output
- replace 4th gear output, and
- replace 2nd gear input
Now I’m no C21st motorbike mechanic, but to my eyes, this looks like a significant gearbox replacement/rebuild.
Yes? No? Yes?
Anyway, I rang my local Kawasaki dealer, spoke to the service department, gave them the bike registration number and the VIN/frame number.
The service department said they would now have to contact Kawasaki to get the work authorised, and they’d be in touch with me as soon as it was, and as soon as the parts had arrived.
I like my local Kawasaki dealer. They’re a friendly bunch who know their onions (to mix a metaphor).
And I appreciate the way that Kawasaki have dealt with this product recall.
But, and I can’t quite put my finger on it, there’s something missing here.
It’s all a bit academic really; because of the rubbish weather we’ve had for the last four months, the Ninja has hardly had any time out of the garage.
But there’s just something not quite right with this situation…