LACK OF GREASE IN JAPAN !!

Yep folks its been a joke in the bike trade for years that Japan must have run out of grease cos' they hardly put any in their bikes. I have pulled my rear suspension, swingarm , link arms, etc and greased all the bearings and shafts with moly[ LOAD BEARING GREASE...].Some of the lower components were dry and one shaft a little stiff.....38000 kms and two years old..so I serviced it just in time, will grease the steering head next.So, do the same to your bike even if it is one hour old with 2 kms on the clock, cos it looks like Japan has run out of grease...PS..all brands suffer the same neglect. When I worked as a bike mechanic in Sydney, a mechanic buddy bought a brand new GSX1100, and it blew me away that he picked up his bike from the dealer ,rode it back to our workshop and pulled it apart, and put the grease in they forgot on the assembly line...when he used to go past me on one wheel...well, I blamed it on that well greased machine!!! warm regards Ian

thats interesting - maybe one day in the cooler months we should arrange a sydney meet and do all this stuff [- as i dont know what i am doing and havent got the tools anyway] and then have dinner or something at a boozer

Sounds like a good idea to get those that are keen to have a rear suspension service day..I can guide you through it.......nuts and bolts, good tools and common sense, oh yeah , a pot of good quality grease

Yeah, a 'spanner day'. My club tried a couple of spanner days, but by the time we remembered why we were there, we were to pissed to do any work. The last one we held, one guy did some work on his Suzuki Cavalcade, but forgot to put 2 of the 4 spark plug leads back on. It took him a week to work out why he had lost power and his fuel consumption was up the shit.

b12mick wrote:Yeah, a 'spanner day'. My club tried a couple of spanner days, but by the time we remembered why we were there, we were to pissed to do any work. The last one we held, one guy did some work on his Suzuki Cavalcade, but forgot to put 2 of the 4 spark plug leads back on. It took him a week to work out why he had lost power and his fuel consumption was up the shit.

I bet I know who that was

Dink

Dink.1170 wrote:

b12mick wrote:Yeah, a 'spanner day'. My club tried a couple of spanner days, but by the time we remembered why we were there, we were to pissed to do any work. The last one we held, one guy did some work on his Suzuki Cavalcade, but forgot to put 2 of the 4 spark plug leads back on. It took him a week to work out why he had lost power and his fuel consumption was up the shit.

I bet I know who that was

Dink

He rides a GSXR1100 as well.

Ah Mr Rowe, say G'day for me. Know his brother too, with the 'Busa & one or two Katana's.

Dink

Dink.1170 wrote:Ah Mr Rowe, say G'day for me. Know his brother too, with the 'Busa & one or two Katana's.

Dink

I will in deed. I'm not sure when I'll see him next, as you know he spends a lot of time on the road.

Yep u r all dead right I found the same in my old XR 400 and KLX 400 when I took the steering heads apart.

Lack of grease helps part wear out prematurely and we either buy a new bike or more spare parts!

Paul

Look, I think the buck stops with the dealers here. The bikes come here in a crate, practically disassembled and it's up to the mechanics in the dealers to torque the bolts and attend to all the lubing.

geekay007 wrote:Look, I think the buck stops with the dealers here. The bikes come here in a crate, practically disassembled and it's up to the mechanics in the dealers to torque the bolts and attend to all the lubing.

Ah - well in that case I guess I'd better pull my bike apart this weekend - knowing it was delivered by a well-know Suzuki dealer here in Canberra .....

jgs9000 wrote:

geekay007 wrote:Look, I think the buck stops with the dealers here. The bikes come here in a crate, practically disassembled and it's up to the mechanics in the dealers to torque the bolts and attend to all the lubing.

Ah - well in that case I guess I'd better pull my bike apart this weekend - knowing it was delivered by a well-know Suzuki dealer here in Canberra .....

I think it's a good idea to attend to these things whenever parts of the bike need to be removed for maintenance etc. I had a GPZ900R that had the engine mounting bolts only nipped up hand tight. It's only because I felt around the bike when I washed and polished it that I noticed them loose.

geekay007 wrote:
I think it's a good idea to attend to these things whenever parts of the bike need to be removed for maintenance etc. I had a GPZ900R that had the engine mounting bolts only nipped up hand tight. It's only because I felt around the bike when I washed and polished it that I noticed them loose.

Reminds me of a car my Dad had - a Falcon, bought brand new which blew a head-gasket out of warranty and on inspection had a head-bolt
which was only finger tight. Speculation was it had only lasted as long as it had as it was being used as a taxi so the engine never had a chance
to cool down long enough for the head to loosen up (maybe, interesting story though)

geekay007 wrote:Look, I think the buck stops with the dealers here. The bikes come here in a crate, practically disassembled and it's up to the mechanics in the dealers to torque the bolts and attend to all the lubing.

No they don't. They turn up in a crate practically assembled and a person (not necessarily a mechanic) does a pre-delivery service (ie. puts the mirrors on, checks for defects, etc).

Sloth_27 wrote:

geekay007 wrote:Look, I think the buck stops with the dealers here. The bikes come here in a crate, practically disassembled and it's up to the mechanics in the dealers to torque the bolts and attend to all the lubing.

No they don't. They turn up in a crate practically assembled and a person (not necessarily a mechanic) does a pre-delivery service (ie. puts the mirrors on, checks for defects, etc).

I don't know if it's the case these days, but when I had a servo, my mate worked for Parramatta Kawasaki and I remember him uncrating a ZX-9. Apart from the engine being bolted to the frame and the headlight assembly/ dash being intact, the rest of the bike was in parts. He had to put the forks on, swing arm, wheels fairing etc. I remember that model actually had a grease nipple on the swing arm. In any event, when a dealer sells a bike, they are the last point of contact with the manufacturer and the first point of contact with the customer so basically the buck stops with them IMO.

Yeah they mostly aren't like that any more. They are pretty much all together and ready for the showroom floor (Suzuki's and Honda's are anyway).

The problem is the margins on something like a Bandit are simply too tight for a dealer to have a mechanic spending time pulling a bike apart to add grease to swingarms, headstems, stands, etc. Unfortunate, but that's selling to a price point.

Sloth_27 wrote:Yeah they mostly aren't like that any more. They are pretty much all together and ready for the showroom floor (Suzuki's and Honda's are anyway).

The problem is the margins on something like a Bandit are simply too tight for a dealer to have a mechanic spending time pulling a bike apart to add grease to swingarms, headstems, stands, etc. Unfortunate, but that's selling to a price point.

You could be right there mate. Bikes cost a lot more back in the mid-late 90's. Liability wise, should some catastrophic failure occur, I wouldn't want to be in their shoes.

I've seen bikes in crates at my local dealer. Pretty much completely assembled except for handlebars, mirrors and front wheel