Double trouble

Well, here's how I became the proud owner of a Kawasaki 1400 GTR in Diablo Black... :blink:

This riding buddy was heading for the Kawi dealership to have his 600-mile service done, when a thoughtful multi-tasking non-male person blew a Yield sign and T-boned him. Rider and bike tasted the mud in the roadside ditch. Bike looked like sh*t, rider had a chipped bone in his foot and went straight to the ER.

The excitement of owning Kawi's flagship waned for him virtually overnight.

The dealer offered to buy the "wreck" from him but lowballed it shamelessly...(1/3 of MSRP). I asked this friend to send me pictures of his ride and, after looking at the damage, I came to the conclusion that the dealer was coldly preying on a badly shook-up dude. :nono: I told my friend so but he was adamant that the bike should go. So I matched the dealer's price and the bruised black beast now sits in my garage waiting for TLC and some spare parts... (but we're looking at maybe 2 grand worth of bits & pieces)

Will I ever learn?

Stef

teerex51 said:

Will I ever learn?

Click to expand...

Hopefully, no.

Excellent acquisition, Stef... enjoy!

Two grand doesn't seem like a lot of damage. I spent nearly that much for parts from a minor deer strike. I doubt I could have resisted if I had that opportunity. Sounds like you'll have a nice 'spare' bike.

Destiny smiles upon thee! Embrace it! :clapping:

Congrats! :clapping: It sounds like you got a great deal. I don't know if you are allowed to replace the exhaust in Italy but you could certainly add a GiPro TRE -- but only if you want another 15-20 pounds of torque at 3K.

teerex51 said:

Well, here's how I became the proud owner of a Kawasaki 1400 GTR in Diablo Black... :blink: This riding buddy was heading for the Kawi dealership to have his 600-mile service done, when a thoughtful multi-tasking non-male person blew a Yield sign and T-boned him. Rider and bike tasted the mud in the roadside ditch. Bike looked like sh*t, rider had a chipped bone in his foot and went straight to the ER.

Stef

Click to expand...

What some guys won't do to get a good deal on a bike. Shifty Eye-Ties............

"when a thoughtful multi-tasking non-male person blew a Yield sign and T-boned him."

Stef,

Tell me you didn't put your sweet wife, Chris, up to this!

Shamo, Shamo!!

Way to go Bro.

JW

What some guys won't do to get a good deal on a bike. Shifty Eye-Ties............

Click to expand...

Tell me you didn't put your sweet wife, Chris, up to this!

Click to expand...

Mmmhh... that obvious, huh? :lol: :lol: :lol: Heck, Machiavelli was my great-great-great something or other :devil:

Stef

PS: GiPro TRE here I come.... & that OEM howitzer is history

Sweet! Hope your buddy mends quickly.

Nice pick up. Should be fun to compare the two. Maybe you can fix the heat issue with the Concours while you are replacing the tupperware. I wonder what a naked or partially faired Conny would look like? Have fun. I'm jealous.

PICTURES!!!!????

Of course, we can wait for the travelogue done from the seat of the C-14. I wonder how difficult a choice it will be come "riding day"? We'll be following your repair adventure...

I think this might just be a bit of "overkill" for a spare bike, don't you? :yahoo:

Two of my previous bike aquisitions were wrecks ; I was younger and didn't have a lot of money for shiney new ones It is fun to disassemble them and make them right again! Enjoy

Congrats on the new (used) arrival Stef! Make sure you save room for both in the garage. Have fun on the trip, I already miss not going. Post plenty of pics and a video, K?

--G

Here's a few quick and dirty pics of the Connie.

I wanted to strip off the busted parts, draft an inventory of sorts and place an order for spares before leaving to Spain.



This above is the bike's "good" side. There's just a couple of scratches probably added while the bike was being trucked to the dealer's.



Not unlike the old Feejer, there's a lot of stuff inside that fairing. The offending vehicle (a Fiat, surprisingly ) plowed into the C-14 at the left headlight's level and under the LH mirror.



The mirrors are bolted onto an alloy subframe running L to R across the nose, which in turn bolts at 90° onto a cast aluminum stay. This "T" holds the whole shebang in place, including the windshield actuator, which miraculously was not affected. The alloy subframe is broken on the left side where that POS Fiat hit the bike and the UP plastic headlight assy took a heck of a wallop. The LH reflector crumpled but the plastic shell containing the headlights returned to its original shape milliseconds after the impact. Gotta love them engineering compounds. The clear outer surface of the headlight didn't even crack.



So basically the damage is now fully exposed. Several tupperware parts need replacing where they snapped, cracked and sprung loose. The alloy subframe is toast and I'm trying to save the LH mirror, which was cleanly amputated but not hit. Again, I put the whole damage at 2 grand, give or take a few hundreds. There are several items a dealer would trash in favor of a spanking new part, but they can definitely be saved with no adverse effects on the operation and looks of the bike.



As you can see the impact area was close to the radiator but did not damage it. There are no leaks and that puppy looks pristine. Pheew...that'd be an expensive part to replace.

This project'll be lots of fun, more than I deserve to enjoy on my lonesome. So it's turning into a communal Forum effort and I expect we'll spend many an evening sipping beer and pretending to fix the bike while shooting the breeze and swapping lies

Yes, I agree: as a spare bike this is a handful. The time will come when she'll need to find a good home, but that's still a few gallons of Pilsener down the road.

Or maybe the FJR will leave me for a more faithful owner...

Stef

Well, here she is.

Finished the job this AM and now the Connie/1400GTR is ready to go to the dealer's for her 600-mile service.

The degree of finishing on the bike is pretty good and the use of black plastic fasteners not so widespread as on my 2005 FJR. Reassembling the fairing bits is simple enough, but there's a fair amount of tweaking needed to make everything fit and snap into place. Goes with the (plastic) territory, I guess.

Since I was at it, I had my old FastBag resprayed Diablo Black. It works two ways: a good selling point if I end up selling the bike or a convenient color-coordinated storage option if I keep her.

Stef

:yahoo: CONGRATULATIONS! :yahoo:

Now that the repairs are finished, that will be an excellent addition to your stable. After you put some miles on that bike we'll be awaiting your comparison post.

Congrats on the practically new bike! I'm so friggin' jealous.

Thanks guys

For the record, we stayed well within our estimate (apart from grossly underestimating a single cost-item: beer ).

And yes, a comparo will follow as soon as the friggin' rain stops and the 1,000-km service is done.

Stef

Wow,congrats bro,bike looks good ^_^ .