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2 years with my Kawasaki Ninja 650: Overall service & running costs

30th January 2024, 15:09 by Ananth Iyer

I must say that, this is one of the rare breed in my garage where labour cost of Servicing always exceeds the consumables.

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3rd Service and 2 years Ownership

Last year riding in Ninja was reduced by 2/3rd compare to first year ownership. Couple of long trip plan was called off in the last minute due to family commitments. Nevertheless I have ridden 2k kms in 2023.

Due to the less running, I'm servicing the vehicle once in a year with JMB Motors - Ambattur. They have opened a branch in OMR but still Servicing was not fully operational.

There were two issues to address,

Last month, I planned to go for a morning ride to Pondicherry but bike refused to start and there was no sign of battery down(all electricals are working well and there was no long cranking sound when I push ignition button), however self-start didn't worked. With the help of security, we pushed the vehicle in 1st gear and started it. Thanks to him. I kept running the engine for sometime, stopped and cranked. It started as usual and I continued with the ride.

I visited Serenity beach to watch sunrise. Spent some 30 mins watching the beautiful sunrise in a cold morning and then planned to visit Auroville Bakery for breakfast, started the vehicle and it worked fine. Its a peaceful place, had breakfast in open air dining, spent about 45 mins. When it was time to return and started the vehicle, but this time same issue and refused to start. Hesitantly asked the watch man for help and he pushed couple of times but bike didn't start as there was not enough traction due to slippery surface. Watchman informed me that he has steel plates operated in his legs, so cannot help further. I really felt bad for asking his help and if he would told me earlier, I would have avoided asking for help. Watching my ordeal, one of the bakery worker came for rescue and we tried few times and it started finally. Thanked both of them and started back to home.

There was slight mis-alignment in headlight and illumination was pointing downwards. I already feel the LED throw is not sufficient on top of that this illumination issue become problematic in night rides.

SA - Kalyan keenly listened to both problems with the bike. Additionally I asked to fit a phone holder (long pending accessory to install). Usually I wait and collect the vehicle, as the service center was 50kms away. But this time I left the vehicle in the service centre for two days. They checked the battery and it was good and SA mentioned there was Fungus formed in few places and that might have caused the starting issue. I remembered that in November I planned for a early morning ride and took out vehicle from parking to open space and in few mins, it started raining heavily for 20 mins and I left the vehicle in rain. Once the rain stopped, when I was about to start, my wife got up and informed a family emergency and we had to leave to our native immediately. So I parked the vehicle back and wiped with micro fibre cloth as soon as I can with the limited amount of time and covered it. I believe this might be the reason for Fungus formation. Anyway lesson learned in a hard way.

I must say that, this is one of the rare breed in my garage where Labour Cost of Servicing always exceeds the Consumables. This was my 3rd Service but according to Kawasaki it falls under the category of 5th Service. As a part of servicing, they cleaned throttle body and SA recommended for Petronas Performance Engine Oil and I told to go ahead. Will see if there is an improvement compare to the regular engine oil.

Maintenance and Running Cost: