Kawasaki to withdraw from MotoGP?

What? Really? Why?

Kawasaki to announce their withdrawal from MotoGP on the 5th January next week. The reason is not yet clear, I think maybe they decided when Hopkins bikes loose it's chain on the Le Mans. Hehehe... Just kidding. As most of people commented, it's due because of the cost and financial. I was shocked to read this news. Kawasaki's withdrawal will be the fourth time a Japanese manufacturer has pulled out of a major motorsport category in recent weeks. Honda announced in early December that it was quitting Formula One, while Subaru and Suzuki confirmed later in the month that they were stopping their programmes in the World Rally Championship. This is a slap to MotoGP. Lets wait and see what Kawa will announce on this 5th. Source.

2008 Kawasaki ZX-10R Streering Damper Mod / Fix

Ohlins damper that comes with the Kawasaki ZX-10R from 06-09 is crap. It has the same built quality as other Ohlins aftermarket steering damper, but the function lacks. This is because of the needle inside which has a hole in it and release air even when you screw it to the max. I really not sure why they even bother putting a damper like this on a their flagship bike.

So. One day, I had decided to upgrade my damper. Since I want to do it, I thought modding the damper will be risk free for me, because if it doesn't work, I already can accept the lost. Hehehe.. kinda smart stupid thing. Word around the forum gave a clear guide how to mod the damper yourself. I like to share the little details with some pictures for you guys if you ever want try it yourself.


Here is the crap damper. The Ohlins sticker doesn't do any justice to it.


My open working space. Boy, I'm in for a surprise. If you choose to work the damper, put it on your table inside and get a shoebox. Why ah? I lost a tiny ball bearing and a C clip while doing this process. Take me a day to look for it again.

OK, time for the real thing. The first step, remove the tiny screw using an alankey at the side where you adjust the click.


I pause briefly while you are doing this... Hehehe. That's the Microsoft activation line.


One you have take it out. Note the C clip that prevents the joint to the remove permanently. Remove the C clip carefully. I use a knife. Be careful because it'll bounce when u set it free.


One you remove the joint, you can see the needle which you need to mod to have the damper fix. Use a long nose and unscrew it until it's completely loose. The needle are being locked by two ball bearing on each side of it. Careful not to lost these bearings.


How the needles, bearing(s) and a small spring looks like. I lost a bearing in this process. Couldn't find it again. That's why you only see one here. I went to a bearing shop for a replacement the next day.


I make a mistake on opening up the other end too. You should deal with the first end first. Then only you came to this. You should only open the other end when you want to re bleed the oil. But no harm done.


I use these epoxy glue to cover the needle holes after soldering it.


Err.. I don't know how this thing works. Hehehe... This cylindrical are on the other side of the damper. There's a sponge in it, use as a reservoir for access oils within the damper. The angle needle can be pull out half way, why? I have no idea. Should have been an Ohlins specialist.


The bleeding side. Which again you done have to open it first.

Again the needle. You can see three holes on it, two on each side and one on the top. Solder all three of them. After a few hours cold down, use the epoxy glue to confirm the seal. I have to wait 8 hours to make sure the epoxy completely bond. Then I use a knife to make the needle surface as flat as before. The needle close the tiny tunnel inside the damper, as no air could come out, this will make a complete lock on the damper.


The pain stacking process begins. This again make me think twice to ever mod a damper again. Note the teeth on the damper inside, the two ball bearing are being pushed side by side by the spring so you have the locking click sound. They have special tools for this. It you don't have them, it's nearly impossible to have them fix back again. I tried and tried, until I said screw them. I fix only a bearing for the time being.

Reverse the order and fix them back again. Once you done this, remove the other end cap and re bleed the oil. Take out the sponge first and remove the oil completely by pumping the damper. Make sure no air are inside the damper else you'll feel a free play which is very dangerous for riding.

Credit to guys on the zxforums.com and other kawiforums for this mod. How do they perform after? You'll get a complete lock (which you don't use) on the steering after this mod. I could only say for the fun of it, if you decide to change your damper, go ahead and try it. The OEM damper need to be more stiff to had it perform best on the Zx10R. Else, it's just pointless to put this damper on the ZX10R.

2008 Kawasaki KX250 & KLX250

Looks almost the same. But they far off two different bikes. I still want to find out more about these two bike. I've been wanting for a dirt bike for quite sometime now. The KX250 is a motocross, and the KLX250 is a dual-purpose enduro style machine. So which one to get? If you planning to slam this bike to the fullest, KX250 is the answer. Power and suspension are design to tortured you, not the bike. KLX250 has a street legal advantage. You can ride around town since it can be registered for road use, while the KX250 are meant only for offroad.



I sat down at Mok a few hours today, some paperwork to do for my claim submission. Since there's no bike my the porch except for my scoot, it felt kinda weird. So my interest to get a bike does push me a bit to know more about these two bikes. The KLX are price at RM23K and the KX is around RM26K. No registration needed for the KX, thus no insurance and roadtax. If those figure isn't that high, I know I'll bought one.



Doesn't looks much different. So why opt to get the KX? Mok and Kelana was there. Hohoho... it's totally different, said them. KX is a beast compare to the KLX. The KLX is dog, it'll obey.



KX has no meter, no lights, no panel, no switches, nothing. Even no battery. I'm liking it even more. >:)



Now you can see the real difference. Chassis are more solid. Engine looks more muscular. Suspension I was being told that the KLX couldn't stand extreme off-roading.

Tok Mat has been waiting for us to get one of these. I was told we could get it for the sum of RM5K-7K from a half-cut shop, but that seems a bull talk. My pocket aren't deep enough to spend RM20K for a toy. Even if it's RM10K, I has to consider twice. But I want one. Hmm... Then again. I want it ALL (Queen style). Right?

Insurance Claim

Accident do happens. Sometimes we try to kept alert all the time on the road, but if it's matrix, we can only plan ahead from the tragedy. I just got hit by a Blue Proton Putra on the KL-Seremban highway. Bad news for me that I'm not wearing my suite. I end up getting scratches all over my body. My bike slides but the damage has been done. Huhuhu... But it's nothing that can't be fix again. Another bad news is, the driver isn't a gentlemen at all, he or she hit and run, and I had no chance on getting the car's number. Another huhuhu... I have accept that riding a superbike might have some bad consequences. Alhamdulillah, I'm left with no broken bones and I'm recovering as I'm blogging.

So... it's pretty frustrating to had damage your bike. Right? Hmm... not really. I'm more sad to see my Akrapovic muffler damage and my Sony DSLR camera are totally lost. Two things that I can't get back from my insurance. As for me and the bike, we'll both recover to a 100% shaped anytime soon.


This what happens when a 200 pounder guy sandwiched his camera on the tarmac. Waaaaaaaa!!!

The claiming procedure is not that complex. Same as any other car accident, but cars insurance claim here is much faster. You can get back your car in just a few days. Of course, depends on the damages. For big bikes, I would gave it at least a month.

The first step for claiming the bike after the accident is to make a police report. It has to be done within 24 hours. If you not able to do so, like you a badly hurt on the accident, don't worry, a prove that you not able to do so like an m.c. from the doctor, will help you to delay the report. The nice policemen would understand.

If you go down by yourself, you'll get a fine ticket from the policemen. If you go down involving other parties, the policemen will then be the judge on who's fault was it. The fault party would then be fine.

After this, get your bike to the police station to get them photo-ed. If you in no shape to ride you bike, ask someone else to do it for you. If your bike couldn't the ride, get a transport to get the bike to the station. It is compulsory to have you bike snapped. The insurance agent will then acquire the photo from the police file.

When you done with this. Take to the bike to the workshop. The workshop will standby a list of item to be repaired and replace and will then submit it together with the claim form to the insurance company. You need to fill out the claim form and describe again how the accident happend. A simple drawing to explain the whole story helps.

For most superbikes, all damage item usually will be replace. A performance machine will need tip top repair condition and can't easily be knock straight back up again. The workshop and insurance company know this. They also wouldn't want be responsible if other incident would happen if the repair job is not done perfectly.

After submitting the claim to the insurance, an adjuster will come an see the bike and confirm the part which will be repaired. For new bikes, most of the time the insurance will pay a 100% value of the parts. For machine which is more than a year and so on, they have an adjustment which they called it betterment. The percentage on the adjustment depends on the year. An example, a 5 year machine will have 25% cut off from the parts original value. I don't really sure the exact calculation, but it is not debatable. The figure is been studied and agreed by government and insurance company. The owner will have to bare the differences.

The list of repair bill will be prepared by the workshop. All the parts and repair work will be claim on their retail price. An insurance company is also smart. They will find and check themselves the repair cost so that there will not be any dispute on the price later on. I say this is fair.

Within a week of submission, an approval letter will then come out from the insurance company. The repair work can be done after the shop received the approval letter. Some shop can start their work after the adjuster had had a visit to your bike, but any claim that can be rejected means it will have to be bare by the workshop. So they try to let this not come to them. Parts then will be outsource and will take days or weeks to arrived. This is where Kawasaki is superior than any other brands here in Malaysia. They are prompt and spare parts are easily available. If it not available locally, it'll take Kawasaki just few days to sent them over from Japan. For other bikes like Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda. They don't have local distributors. Workshop will depends mostly on Singapore and if it's not available there, it'll take you some time to get you bike back.

An insurance company will try to pay the least possible amount to you. If the you're not happy with the amount, an appeal is possible. All these process will take about a month if it's been done promptly. Heck... I knew a guy who waits for 10 months to get his bike ready again. I can't imagine the suffering.

Since my camera is a totally whacked. This blog might turn out to be more text for sometime. I lost my Lowepro pouch bag as well, a serious repair needed for my Arai RX-7 RR4, another lost on the Manfrotto G clamp, a torn jeans, shorts and my inner suite wear. Quite some figure that I need to recover back, but again I left out breathing perfeclty, a scar to remind me to always wear a suit, and all bones and joints are AOK. That's likely are more and most important. Alhamdulillah.

Akrapovic Evolution Full System for 2008/09 Kawasaki ZX-10R

Having tried the Akrapovic Hexagonal Slip-On with Akrapovic optional link pipe, I can say they are pretty awesome and worth the upgrade. I'm planning to upgrade to Akrapovic full system maybe early next year. There are two types. Racing and evolution. To summarized the differences with these two system, the Racing Line is made from a stainless steel pipes and the Evolution series is fully titanium. You can have two choices for the ZX-10R for racing which comes with Titanium mufflers or Carbon Fiber. And for the Evolution series, you can have the same choices with the Racing Line, but another special model is the CZ type, it comes with a conical shaped muffler.


The CZ Type Akrapovic Evolution Full system.


One that I had in mind. Carbon Fiber muffler looks awesome on an orange ZX-10R. Carbon is my first choice for my previous slip-on actually. But since they only had the titanium muffler at that time, I don't really mind. This time I would like to get as what I prefered to have.

Akrapovic claims an increase of 14.9hp compare to stock model and a weight saving up to 7.28kg. Hmm.... I wonder why do I even consider to spend all this money just for an exhaust system? Too much poison.

BMC Air Filter for 2008 Kawasaki ZX-10R

Getting the best isn't that necessary. Getting that fit you requirement most is.

I option for a BMC Air Filter than K&N since word around is BMC is much better. And there are two type of them, a race version and a street. Hehe.. I go for the race version. It was claim to have 25% more air flow than the street. I guess the air that flow through the air is too much now. I had backfire when install the BMC compare to the standard air filter. Cool!


Fitting the BMC is now that complicated. Take out the tank, and open up the cover than swap it in. 1,2,3.


You can't tell much the different between the race and street version. Even the part number written on the filter shares the same number with each other. The yellow marking line differentiates them. Race version has this marking and the street one doesn't.


Guarantee limits.


Kawasaki ZX-10R OEM filter. Cost you about RM100.00. Recommended To change every 20,000km. But the BMC last for a lifetime.


My standard filter. After 11,000km of usage. These direct ram air system really gave the filter a hard time.


Neatly tuck in. They made them red so it'll be noticeable. Hmm... Correct ah?

So is it good? It's great!

I just took my bike for a track day today. The difference in noticeable. My bike sound better than before. It had that Darth Vader gene a bit. But I might say that to get full potential of this mod, you need to dyno and add up the PCIII. My air suck in to the bike has increase, so you need to play with them fuel injector to balance it back. The back fire I'm experiencing proves that.