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The one I own is a first generation. I bought it for cheap as a bike for my then wife to learn on. It was beat up, not too bad, and the right price for a bike to drop in parking lots. I have ridden it a few times, and it was impressively light. Performance of this bastard hate child is not what this review is about. This review is to make you feel better about having gotten a Katana, a bike that doesn't make you want to die.
So, the 500 was popping out of 2nd. I hadn't decided if I was going to keep this bike as a grocery getter or sell it, so I figured maybe I want it to work right. As I've read on the ex-500 forum, swapping in a 2nd gen transmission is "easy" and fixes the problem. I would have to say, +1 to Kawi for fixing a problem, and keeping the parts interchangable. So I got a transmission off of ebay for really cheap. This is where my fun began.
As I'm sure you're aware, fairings get in the way of things like removing an engine. Naturally, you have to remove them to do things like disconnect stuff. Well, have no fear! On the EX500, you not only get to remove any main fairings, but the tail fairings as well!! That's right, the engineers that designed this bike somehow managed to find a way to make the tail fairings be in the way. But, it's easy. Each side is only held on with 1 screw. I mean, screws have mass, and you wouldn't want the weight of a stable bike to make it less fun, would you?
They need to be removed so you can remove the sides of the airbox, because it's designed to be too large to fit in the frame. Once the sides are off, and the top, and you remove some electronics, and PULL THE BATTERY FROM THE AIRBOX, then you fight with pulling it off the carbs, and then bending and twisting and deforming it enough to get it out of the frame, so that you can remove the carbs, which was actually fairly straight forward after that.
Another "feature" I noticed was all the precautions they took in making sure NO ONE would EVER mess with your spark plugs. I mean, if they were right there, easy to get to, you never know what might happen to them. So Kawi instinctively hid them. They are easy enough to find, they aren't hidden from view (with the tank off), just hidden from tools. After you remove the PAIR emission system tubes, you just need to remove 4 small bolts to be able to get the hose barbs out of the way. With that done, you can then drain the coolant system, so that you can pull the coolant hoses that run to the top of the engine. But that would be too easy as well, so you have to unscrew the metal tubes that run down into the engine where the rubber lines clamp onto the tubes with the clamps also hidden from tools. With all that out of the way, you can actually pull the spark plug wires/boots off the plugs and get to them, safe in the knowledge that NO ONE has tried to steal the plugs, or ever change them.
I could actually go on and on, but with how long this is already getting, adding any more would be as retarded as being one of the engineers that made this abortion of a motorcycle possible. But hey, lets end this on a good note. The one great thing I can say about this bike is
So, the 500 was popping out of 2nd. I hadn't decided if I was going to keep this bike as a grocery getter or sell it, so I figured maybe I want it to work right. As I've read on the ex-500 forum, swapping in a 2nd gen transmission is "easy" and fixes the problem. I would have to say, +1 to Kawi for fixing a problem, and keeping the parts interchangable. So I got a transmission off of ebay for really cheap. This is where my fun began.
As I'm sure you're aware, fairings get in the way of things like removing an engine. Naturally, you have to remove them to do things like disconnect stuff. Well, have no fear! On the EX500, you not only get to remove any main fairings, but the tail fairings as well!! That's right, the engineers that designed this bike somehow managed to find a way to make the tail fairings be in the way. But, it's easy. Each side is only held on with 1 screw. I mean, screws have mass, and you wouldn't want the weight of a stable bike to make it less fun, would you?
They need to be removed so you can remove the sides of the airbox, because it's designed to be too large to fit in the frame. Once the sides are off, and the top, and you remove some electronics, and PULL THE BATTERY FROM THE AIRBOX, then you fight with pulling it off the carbs, and then bending and twisting and deforming it enough to get it out of the frame, so that you can remove the carbs, which was actually fairly straight forward after that.
Another "feature" I noticed was all the precautions they took in making sure NO ONE would EVER mess with your spark plugs. I mean, if they were right there, easy to get to, you never know what might happen to them. So Kawi instinctively hid them. They are easy enough to find, they aren't hidden from view (with the tank off), just hidden from tools. After you remove the PAIR emission system tubes, you just need to remove 4 small bolts to be able to get the hose barbs out of the way. With that done, you can then drain the coolant system, so that you can pull the coolant hoses that run to the top of the engine. But that would be too easy as well, so you have to unscrew the metal tubes that run down into the engine where the rubber lines clamp onto the tubes with the clamps also hidden from tools. With all that out of the way, you can actually pull the spark plug wires/boots off the plugs and get to them, safe in the knowledge that NO ONE has tried to steal the plugs, or ever change them.
I could actually go on and on, but with how long this is already getting, adding any more would be as retarded as being one of the engineers that made this abortion of a motorcycle possible. But hey, lets end this on a good note. The one great thing I can say about this bike is
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