Here is why I wouldn't buy a new "budget" bike.

[KrisZ]

I'm not going to imbed the video because the guy swears, the link to it is at the bottom. I will show some screenshots.
This is a 2019 Kawasaki Z900 that this guy rides pretty much year round in England somewhere.

Just look at the corrosion on some of the fasteners, brackets and brake lines. This is ridiculous. And it's not even the smallest and cheapest offerings. I can only imagine the cheapness of the 300-400cc bikes. Pure trash, use it and throw it away.

search YT for "Kawasaki Cheap Plating and Coatings"

 

[SC Maintenance]

Kawasaki is a budget bike now?

I thought those no name Chinese ones were budget bikes. Not a cyclist - help a uninformed member out? What is the order of operations - best to worst?

 

[KrisZ]

Kawasaki is a budget bike now?

I thought those no name Chinese ones were budget bikes. Not a cyclist - help a uninformed member out? What is the order of operations - best to worst?

Hence the quotes around the budget.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Hence the quotes around the budget.

Ahhhh. Duh.

 

[macarose]

Drives it all year round... but where?

Was it kept outside near the shoreline or in a rusty snowy part of the country?

I worked the largest motorcycle auction on the east coast of the USA for several years. The elements always had their way with a motorcycle if the owner was from the wrong part of the world and didn't keep it garaged and clean.

What you really have in front of you is a sample size of one. It proves nothing.

Without data and context, all you really have is an opinion. Even what I wrote just now is anecdotal experience. Nothing more.

 

[Ursatdx]

He should get his husband to build him a garage.

 

[iahawk]

bikes ridden year round in the UK seem to suffer a lot of corrosion...all bikes...it's not unusual

 

[Ken_K]

Any motorcycle, no matter the manufacturer, would rust similarly if exposed to salty environments for an extended period of time. Zinc plated and painted steel do not survive very well along the shoreline. Even galvanized steel eventually succumbs to rust rather quickly. Aluminum will corrode. The only way to prevent this from happening is build a bike using only 316 stainless, carbon fiber, and plastic.

 

[barryh]

You can't ride a bike year round in England without that happening. I've just done it for 14 years but the bike was sprayed with waxoyl at the start of the winter and not cleaned off until the spring. For all we know that Kawasaki never even had the salt washed off at the end of a ride. That said, the finish on a modern bike is probably inferior to my 44 year old BMW.

I bought a new Z900 in 1976 and some of the chrome tarnished in covered storage during it's first winter. Mind I didn't have the sense to protect it properly back then.

 

[weasley]

For additional context, in the UK the roads are routinely treated with salt whenever there's a chance of freezing, so it is worth either protecting your bike with something like ACF 50 or diligently cleaning it after every ride (or at least hosing it down). Many cars also look like this underneath, but you don't see it.

It is the main reason I don't ride mine in the winter as I can't put up with all the cleaning needed.

 

[joekingcorvette]

Almost any bike will corrode and look terrible if left outside daily. Mine is like brand new and garage kept/babied.

 

[KrisZ]

The guy had an old SV1000 that he treated the same and it was fine, I’ve seen videos of him working on it. It was fine.
Also, a lot of the fasteners on this Kawasaki were also fine, some of them very close to the corroded ones.
It’s is very poor quality control and sourcing from the cheapest vendor.

But no wonder companies can get away with such poorly built products when people automatically blame the user not the manufacturer.

 

[J Dubbs]

I outgrew the smaller "budget" bikes fairly early in my riding career.. I love the big torque of a big engine, so now it's Hayabusa's, ZX14's and the like for me I currently own a turbocharged 14... insanity at it's finest

I do have to say I've owned lots of Kawasaki's over the years, and they were never quite up to the overall quality in fit and finish of the other brands. But they always made the most power in their class, and they were mechanically as reliable as anything

 

[Old fart]

I'm not going to imbed the video because the guy swears, the link to it is at the bottom. I will show some screenshots.
This is a 2019 Kawasaki Z900 that this guy rides pretty much year round in England somewhere.

Just look at the corrosion on some of the fasteners, brackets and brake lines. This is ridiculous. And it's not even the smallest and cheapest offerings. I can only imagine the cheapness of the 300-400cc bikes. Pure trash, use it and throw it away.

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Link to the Video

I just have to say I joined this forum so I could say this is one of the stupidest posts that I have seen in a long time. When you drench anything in salt and don’t clean it what do you expect?? Whoever owns this bike deserves what he got from lack of care. You could give him the most expensive bike/car/truck and the outcome would be the same. And being that you claim it’s a “budget bike “, well that shows your ignorance.

 

[Old fart]

And I should add, please don’t tell Dan Mulholland (you know the main man at Kawasaki of North America) that the Z900RS is a budget bike. You can see his on Brock Davison’s website, Brock’s Performance.com. Dan and his son holds the father/son land speed record on the salt flats, and his son Chad races pro stock for Kawasaki.
I will add pictures of my highly corroded Z900RS tomorrow just to show you the difference in the pictures that you posted. Not any sign of corrosion.

 

[Old fart]

Here’s a couple of pictures that I have on my phone, and I will get some close ups tomorrow.

 

[KrisZ]

@Old fart you went through all of this trouble for the little old me? I feel flattered

I’m guessing people have trouble watching videos and paying attention. Nowhere was salt mentioned, the bike simply sits outside, like his previous sv1000 and sv1000 didn’t have the corrosion.

But sure, feel butt hurt and defend for a corporation that wouldn’t pee on you even if you were on fire.

 

[Mackelroy]

Yeah salted roads, and Sea shore areas will wreak havic . Back in 2004 My wife rav 4 chrome wheel lugs started rusting, 5 miles from the ocean in Florida. It Was only there about 6 months, and moved back to Texas 500 miles inland, with no salted roads, and the rust spots halted. The vehicle is now over 20 years old.

 

[Old fart]

Yeah salted roads, and Sea shore areas will wreak havic . Back in 2004 My wife rav 4 chrome wheel lugs started rusting, 5 miles from the ocean in Florida. It Was only there about 6 months, and moved back to Texas 500 miles inland, with no salted roads, and the rust spots halted. The vehicle is now over 20 years old.

Being a retired Ford technician, I have seen all kinds of stuff. The one I remember is our dealership bought about 20 rental turn ins at a auction that came from Hawaii. Anything on the vehicle’s that was painted still looked good, and these rigs were 12 months old or less. A Jeep Liberty came through for inspection and got all 4 rotors replaced. It had 10k miles on it, and the pads were fine, but the rotors looked like you had taken and put them in a old pond for 20 years, and then got them out and left them on the bank for another 10 years here in Arkansas. People that don’t live in areas that salt the roads or use brine on them don’t realize how bad it is. The brine Arkansas started using a few years ago makes salt look good. On a 2010 F150 that I got that year we got a snowstorm, and one trip to work through it 2 days later my complete undercarriage had turned orange. Once I noticed it I got my pressure washer out and washed the complete truck off. It sure wasn’t the trucks fault that it started corroding.

 

[ZeeOSix]

I'm not going to imbed the video because the guy swears, the link to it is at the bottom. I will show some screenshots.
This is a 2019 Kawasaki Z900 that this guy rides pretty much year round in England somewhere.

Wondering if it's around salt air, because that will corrode parts that just plain rain and moisture won't. I wouldn't say a Kawasaki Z900 is a cheaply built "budget bike", regardless of who said or claimed it. But yeah, since not all the fasteners and metal pieces show signs of corrosion, then some parts may not be as corrosion proof as others. Could be they "cheapened" some materials and/or processes in the corrosion proofing department, and if there are enough complaints than maybe they will step up their game and address such issues.