Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

kawasaki are ripping us off!!! I went to get e set of rings for the 9 motor yesterday. Bloody hell. I nearly died when richard told me it was $320 for rings, $160 for a head gasket and $60 each for the base gaskets. Not Richards fault, it's the big K getting greedy.

thats pretty steep...

I think they're all pretty much the same. A set of rings for the YZ250f (one cylinder) is around $100.

Spares pricing is an interesting science. My ex neighbour was the Honda MPE sales manager for western NSW and he explained it like this. Things that are required commonly are as expensive as buggery, because they are used regularly and you have little choice. In most cases you'll buy the original part anyway so you'll happily get ripped off. Things that are less commonly replaced tend to be cheaper for some odd reason. This is why a top end rebuild kit for a Honda CR80 was about $150 (comprising a tiny piston, one ring, a gudgeon pin a bearing and a circlip), while an entire carbie when I need one was $140

Where you can do it aftermarket is the way to go.

Try owning a honda

Stereo wrote:Try owning a honda

Or a MV Augusta...

red_dave wrote:

Stereo wrote:Try owning a honda

Or a MV Augusta...

I'd like to try it though... (the MV that is not the Honda)

jpbikeboy wrote:kawasaki are ripping us off!!! I went to get e set of rings for the 9 motor yesterday. Bloody hell. I nearly died when richard told me it was $320 for rings, $160 for a head gasket and $60 each for the base gaskets. Not Richards fault, it's the big K getting greedy.

imo..its actually not that bad
but
the price for the rings is a bit steep
I just sourced a set of rings for a 5litre Holden...$310
for EIGHT cylinders
but then again....the old V8 Holden is tad more common than a 9
and it does NOT rev to 11000

the head gasket????try a genuine VRS kit for a Toyota Camry at $210
(which inc valve seals and manifold gaskets) or a genuine VRS kit
for a SAAB 9000 at $390

'large' prices for slow moving spare parts are common
someone has to pay the procurement and storage costs


cheers

Seriously though.... The reason I swapped from owning hondas to another brand is because of their rediculous pricing.... My regulator rectifier on my honda blew up and it was going to cost over $400 + another couple of hundred bucks..... Instead I put in an after market jobbie for less than half the price and a Kawasaki battery which was half the price.... same battery too...

Apart from after market parts which can often be found cheaper and at as good if not better quality, a good method, is to find a shop who raced these bikes. Often they have built up large stocking of commonly used parts while racing, which sit and go dead stock. They then often offer them reasonably cheaply. takes some knowledge of who did what, or finding out, but is often a worthwhile exercise!!!

try a timing belt kit for a holden vectra $990
some of the older ones need to be done every 60,000km.

but yeah are you sure theres no aftermarket option??
i rebuilt my xr600 for about 150 bucks. piston/rings/and gaskets/seals
with aftermarket bits. but Ballards sell everything XR, not sure where you can get kwak stuff

I was a bike shop here in Penriff a couple months back and they had a Bennelli Tornado with a blown motor and the thing was 5 days out of warranty, Bennelli didn't even want to know about it, the thing app have just over 12000km on it and it was gonna cost the owner near enough to $10k to have the motor rebuilt.

I don't actually find those prices too bad for genuine parts, as in its about what you'd expect from a manufacturer. You could probably buy aftermarket rings from somewhere, the gaskets maybe...certainly be worth a few phone calls at those prices. Just don't tell anyone how much K are charging before you get a price!

Wattie wrote:try a timing belt kit for a holden vectra $990
some of the older ones need to be done every 60,000km.

Wattie
I think that price inc fitting..but its still exorbitant
the belts about $300 from memory

It cost me $160 for rings in my GT recently...then some dodo (me!) broke two of them trying to get the barrells back on single handedly....another $80 flushed. All up it cost $430 for rings, all o-rings in the top end, a hone, base, head and valve cover gasket. Valve cover gasket is $60! Pretty exxy bit of cardboard. Labour was free. (me.)

i agree try ZX7R parts
Radiator $1100 (Ebay $70)
Gear box rebuild replaced selector drum, 5th gear and selector fork along with gaskets required, just short of the $2000. And no they do not fly you to Japan to pic them up personally(although at those prices they could).

Even the starter relay, yes a relay $160.

It sucks but if you need it you need it!!

I'm on the lookout for bikes at auction just in case somting major happens. At least i have stock.