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jwasbury jwasbury is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Weehawken, NJ
Posts: 3,593
Quote:
Originally Posted by creaturecat View Post
I should mention that I am doing preliminary research. I have not purchased the bike yet. My Japanese bike mechanic, having worked on 2 different Elefants,just personally guaranteed that I will regret ever buying it. Having major second thoughts at this point in time. Time to back away, perhaps.
What is your mechanic's reasoning? Assuming you are looking at a 900 elephant, if so, its the same engine as the 900ss and Monster. That's a great engine, and pretty simple to work on. I've owned my 900 Monster since new (1995) and once it was out of warranty (12months) its never been serviced by anyone but me. Its been a pretty reliable beast over the years. One possible achillies heel is the headstuds, which had issues for a number of years (including my 1995, but not sure of the 1994 models). That can be an expensive fix if you don't DIY.

I never bought a $400 shim kit...if I need a different sized shim, I go to the dealer with my vernier caliper and buy the one I need. Over 13 years and 30k miles, I now have 3 shims in my "kit"
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Jacob
Current: 1983 911 GT4 Race Car / 1999 Spec Miata / 2000 MB SL500 / 1998 MB E300TD / 1998 BMW R1100RT / 2016 KTM Duke 690
Past: 2009 997 Turbo Cab / 1979 930
Old 08-18-2009, 12:02 PM
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