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Advice for a met GPZ 500

  • Thread starter Rods
  • Start date
R

Rods

Guest
A friend of mine is looking at getting a bike. A Kawasaki GPZ 500s has come up at my local IAM group. Does anyone have any experience with one of these?

M Reg (1995) 13,000 miles
New chain, shock, battery, pads
?1250 ono

What is the build quality like on these machines? Is it a suitable first bike? Is this a good price? It seems quite a lot to me for a 10 year old bike. What would people consider a good price?
My friend isn't yet 21, so she'll need to get the bike restricted to 33 bhp. Could anyone give me an idea on how much getting the bike restricted might cost?
Also, for my own information, how do restricted bikes behave? Lots of acceleration to 50 then petering out? No power whatsoever? I've never ridden a restricted bike so not sure how they behave.
We've been considering CB500's, ER-5's, Yamaha 600 divvies, bandits etc, but was just wondering what peeps thought of this.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
:beer:
 
derek kelly

derek kelly

The Deli lama
Club Sponsor
New chain? I thought they were Belt drive :dunno: From what I can remember I think they are fairly robust and reliable machines
 
A

Aidey

Guest
My wife had one of these for a year after passing her test. Benefits are light weight, low seat height, sportier than an ER5 and dead easy to work on. Faster than most others you mention except perhaps for the Bandit. They do need regular cleaning and TLC to stay in good nick. I bought the one for my wife with 43K miles on and she did 4K more in a year without any problems.
Rear sprocket bearing can fail as its not shielded from water. Check by grabbing the sprocket and see if it wobbles about. Easy and cheap to repair though. Can also wobble due to worn cush rubbers, typical Kwak problem.
Cant comment on restriction as never ridden one either.
 
derek kelly

derek kelly

The Deli lama
Club Sponsor
Having previously owned a 600 bandit, I can certainly vouch for them, a lovely friendly bike to ride, and if I didn't have the BB then I would have a 1200 Bandit, only thing I can think of to watch out for is the rear spindle for some reason they are not greased, I had my Bandit from new and when I went to adjust the chain it wouldn't budge had to have the spindle knocked out and greased then it was fine
 
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