Actually, I believe you can express about anything you want here to the best of my knowledge. I am not a moderator but I have not seen many posts or thread deleted.

But you will have to accept the fact that there will be opposing opinions. Your experience with motorcycles is general and the C-14 in particular is not statistically relevant. You are also combining experiences with the product and dealers and lumping them all into one as if they were one entity; they are not.

Honda had a fairly nasty problem with Goldwing frames cracking but they corrected that problem, fixed the existing bikes under warranty and moved on. The <relatively> few people who actually owned one with a cracked frame might complain endlessly about Honda, Honda's dealers, Alcoa aluminum and whatever company made the electricity that was used to make the original, poor quality welds. Still, Honda has an excellent reputation for reliability and those few cases cannot offset tens of thousands of trouble- free products.

I think the C-14 is a fantastic bike. I too have had some warranty issues but they were all resolved to my satisfaction and I have moved on, now having past 73K miles and ridden the bike from one coast to the other and back without incident.

It is sorta' like 'Point, counterpoint'. This is the part where I would say "Jane, you ignorant slut!" if I was Dan Akroyd.

Brian

Thats cool, I too have owned tons of motorcycles, lots of brands and have never had to take one in for a warranty issue until now and that goes back to 1976. It also includes my ill fated attempt to own a HD. Again I love the bike but if you cant express your frustration with the COMPANY on the forum that makes the bike, then I guess you are just suppose to shut up and go away quietly. I am not that type. Kawasaki has heard from me by phone and now in writing, maybe they look at this forum occassionaly. Who knows.

Actually, I believe you can express about anything you want here to the best of my knowledge. I am not a moderator but I have not seen many posts or thread deleted.

But you will have to accept the fact that there will be opposing opinions. Your experience with motorcycles is general and the C-14 in particular is not statistically relevant. You are also combining experiences with the product and dealers and lumping them all into one as if they were one entity; they are not.

Honda had a fairly nasty problem with Goldwing frames cracking but they corrected that problem, fixed the existing bikes under warranty and moved on. The <relatively> few people who actually owned one with a cracked frame might complain endlessly about Honda, Honda's dealers, Alcoa aluminum and whatever company made the electricity that was used to make the original, poor quality welds. Still, Honda has an excellent reputation for reliability and those few cases cannot offset tens of thousands of trouble- free products.

I think the C-14 is a fantastic bike. I too have had some warranty issues but they were all resolved to my satisfaction and I have moved on, now having past 73K miles and ridden the bike from one coast to the other and back without incident.

It is sorta' like 'Point, counterpoint'. This is the part where I would say "Jane, you ignorant slut!" if I was Dan Akroyd.

Brian

Are you sure the problems are not statistically relevant. I would think to determine that you would need to view the stats. The only people who know how many warranty issues the c-14 has work for Kawasaki and they are not publishing them, or at least not the real ones. I had two different Kawasaki Customer service people tell me on the phone thay they know their is a problem with Kawasaki final drives leaking. The first one was talking to me about the dealer in Las Vegas who did not have the correct tool to change out the bearing he stated, The tool is a required tool for Kawasaki dealers. You would think with all the problems with this issue the dealer would have one even if it was not required. The second was was a supervisor who I spoke to after I got home his statment was, "Kawasaki knows there is an issue with them (final drives) leaking and they are looking at it." In qoutes because they are his exact words minus the final drive. Also check out some of the issues on other Kawasaki bikes with this problem.

I have rode coast to coast several times with out a problem, the last time on a bike with 70k plus when I started. I just tried to take the trip of a life time from central Florida to Alaska and back. I had problems and was stuck first because a bike with 10K had and issue and stuck longer 10 days instead of the usual four because both the dealer and the Kawasaki Customer service were incompetent. I don't consider this general. it is very specific to my experoience.

With all that said I am not trashing the bike, I like it and bought it because I believe it was the best bang for the buck. My original statement was a question I have been asking myself as I have never had the number of issues on a new bike that I have had with this one and my statement was about my experience with Kawasaki overall not the bike alone.

You know, my bike looks a little off kilter but it rides fine.  It's only been down once and it fell on me so I don't think it was that.  Doesn't affect handling or anything else.  I ain't worried about it.

You know, my bike looks a little off kilter but it rides fine.  It's only been down once and it fell on me so I don't think it was that.  Doesn't affect handling or anything else.  I ain't worried about it.

Mine rides absolutely perfect so Im not gonna mess with it...I was just curious if it was a common thing that the bars were slightly skewed or if there was an adjustment under there I had not found yet... 

The bars are not adjustable but there IS a lot of clearance around the bolts so the bars can be biased a fair amount in both directions (away from center). You might want to loosen the handlebar stanchions and try moving the bars to a more central position; there are three bolts holding each one on and they are very easy to get to so it is an easy thing to try.

Brian

Mine rides absolutely perfect so Im not gonna mess with it...I was just curious if it was a common thing that the bars were slightly skewed or if there was an adjustment under there I had not found yet... 

The bars are not adjustable but there IS a lot of clearance around the bolts so the bars can be biased a fair amount in both directions (away from center). You might want to loosen the handlebar stanchions and try moving the bars to a more central position; there are three bolts holding each one on and they are very easy to get to so it is an easy thing to try.

Brian

 

I will check it out... I put risers on my FJR back in the day so I was assuming there might be some play... every time I get near the C14 I just wanna go ride, I go out the the shop to look at it or check something and I just end up getting on and riding instead 

You know, my bike looks a little off kilter but it rides fine.  It's only been down once and it fell on me so I don't think it was that.  Doesn't affect handling or anything else.  I ain't worried about it.

Maybe it's you that's off kilter then Jim?

Why don't we discuss that in person next year at some point over multiple beers.

Yeah, the liquid in the glass tilts if you put your drink on the fuel tank and the bike is on the sidestand. It looks wrong but is perfectly normal.... 

Brian

Maybe it's you that's off kilter then Jim?

Why don't we discuss that in person next year at some point over multiple beers.

You're on! Then we can both be off kilter.

Are you sure the problems are not statistically relevant. I would think to determine that you would need to view the stats. The only people who know how many warranty issues the c-14 has work for Kawasaki and they are not publishing them, or at least not the real ones. I had two different Kawasaki Customer service people tell me on the phone thay they know their is a problem with Kawasaki final drives leaking. The first one was talking to me about the dealer in Las Vegas who did not have the correct tool to change out the bearing he stated, The tool is a required tool for Kawasaki dealers. You would think with all the problems with this issue the dealer would have one even if it was not required. The second was was a supervisor who I spoke to after I got home his statment was, "Kawasaki knows there is an issue with them (final drives) leaking and they are looking at it."

I have experienced the leaking and the trouble with Kawasaki customer service taking care of it. I posted the whole story here shortly before the whole damm forum was deleted! Is that what you want to happen again? So then shut up and enjoy all the positive comments! Just kidding. About shutting up. The rest is true.

I could swear mine was off-kilter as well.  Then I rode to Floriduh where some blue-hair wanted to occupy a lane at the same time I was in it.  Down she went and it is perfectly aligned now......Not really, but sounds good huh? (although the crash part was true)

I have a new 2017 Concours that is a little crooked with the handlebars as well . It’s funny because the instrument cluster looks a little off as well. Were you able to sort out your issue by chance?

My new 2017 also has the instruments slanted to the left. After looking at the bike it is obvious the fairings are not installed correctly. I mean either the way it was assembled, shipped or prepped by the dealer has the front fairing tilted to the left. Also looking at the gaps between the body panels, on the left side as compared to the right side, I see that the gaps between panels on the left are much wider than the right. Maybe removing the body panels and tweaking the mounting points will
correct this condition. 

Resolved the issue with my 2017 Concours. The instruments looked to be tilted to the left and seemed to be worse when riding. Put the bike on the center stand on a level floor. Then placed a torpedo level on top of the speedo and tach, sure enough the gauges were tilted left. I removed the windscreen and the access panel under it. Next I removed the two side trim panels, the one housing the little glovebox, and it’s mate on the other side of the cockpit. This exposed the mounting hardware for the instrument cluster. I loosened these two nuts and found enough play that I could tilt the whole assembly to the right so it was level. I reassembled it, instruments level, and went for a ride. Things still looked biased to the left on the highway so I returned to the garage and put it back on the center stand. This is when I noticed the fork heights were different. The left one was protruding through the upper clamp more than the right one. I loosened everything on the front end including the wheel. I pushed the right fork up to match the left, adjusted both per the manual, and re- torqued everything and went for another ride. Things were better but at highway speeds things still looked a bit off. The final thing I did was increase the preload on the fork springs and bingo, operational check was good. Took my level along on the ride and everything looks and is level both on the highway and on the center stand. In the end it was assembly tolerances and suspension set up from the factory. In closing I will add that the curved instrument cluster bezel and the round instruments are a bit disorientating and present a slight illusion when trying to decide if things are level or not, kinda weird. Things were obviously leaning left but are level now. 
 

Excellent!

Always good to move things to the right. 

Always good to move things to the right. 

Leave it to you to somehow politicize this...

 

What ? ? ?     Your mind is in the gutter. He said things were better when he tilted them to the right. It's right there in his post.
I think you're watching too much TV Marty.

What ? ? ?     Your mind is in the gutter. He said things were better when he tilted them to the right. It's right there in his post.
I think you're watching too much TV Marty.

Hey, all I did was to quote my betters, and post a smily face. From that you get that my mind is in the gutter?
I may watch too much TV, always have and always will.