new members : mingle with the crowd first...

Is it just me, but new members with single numbers postings asking for in -depth technical advice. Why not just join the community and get a bit of street cred here first before burdening us with all your problems.

Everyone is welcome here for the aircooled kz forum, this is the place to go for old-school four cylinder kawaksaki twinshock. Probably several thousand years' of collective kz/gpz experience here, use it, I do, most days.

Personally I see questions here everyday that members here could easily answer but now just don't bother - myself included. Post a few pics, master the art of writing in paragraphs and you'll get a lot more help here.
Diagnostics is hard enough on a bike in front of you, let alone on the other sie of the world. The solution is in the detail of the probem.

I'm a newbie here myself, but was lurking here for years before and have had over a dozen of these kz over the past 25 years. I'm here to learn, not to teach.

Most of my better postings here are what I have learnt from my amatuer skills from years ago - learn from my mistakes...get in with the crowd, ask us, we'll help. Just remember this ain't yahoo answers , if you can't be arsed, nor can I.

All very true; especially "The solution is in the detail of the problem."

Consider a question such as "My engine doesn't idle smoothly what could be the problem?"

Then, after 10 or 15 exchanges the person asking the question reveals "Maybe I should have mentioned that I replaced the 4 Mikuni carbs with one Rochester Quadrajet that I removed from a 1966 Chevy; I mounted it on the engine using some PVC that the plumber next door was throwing out. Oh, and I cut off the exhaust headers 3 inches from the cylinder head because my uncle Fred told me less back pressure equals more horsepower. However, I doubt that those minor changes would affect how the bike idles."

Yes, I exaggerate (slightly), but hopefully folks reading this will get my point. If one is going to ask a technical question give as much detail as possible so folks inclined to answer will have a reasonable chance of helping. Ed

Yup, as much as we all passionate here about these old bikes, the bottom line is there are many competent motorcycle technicians that can sort these 'simple' old fashioned air cooled bikes out for $50 an hour plus parts.

If you want it for free, you're all welcome...old bike and problems is what we do here, just give us something back. A good detailed diagnostic with pics as a start, and even maybe a thank-you if it works.

A drunken rant complete with unedited misspellings maybe, but i sense I am not alone on this forum among the more experienced members with this maybe controversial view judging by the lack of some replies to newbie problems.

New members bring it on, we feel your pain, but we have out own projects that even us more experienced owners don't easily sort out.
Help us help you out, and new posters will get much better replies.

And stick around, kz is a lifestyle choice, plenty of dated but unfashionable fast bikes around cheap as chips, we do it for that iconic style and sound that you can't buy nowadays.

What bothers me is if asked if they have a manual, it's ask another question or ignore it entirely. Bikes maybe cheap to ride but it takes money to keep them rideable.
You want cheap. you get cheap.
Steve

You have a great point.....but you need to remember that alot of the questions are coming from younger crowds that are excited about their Kz and cant wait to get on the rode.
I think we should continue to advise as needed and hopefully will see another Kz on the rode again.
Iv been off my 77kz1000a1 for 18 years and when i decided to get it back on the rode...i join this forum and started asking lots of questions before doing any reseach or buying a manuel.
But with all the questions i had and members (help) asking ther questions.....now i have several manuels and only ask if i dont underrstand something.
Believe me you all are doing good....keep it up
Love this Forum....

Yeah, I wish there was something like this when I was 18 and working on my first bike.
Steve

over half. I should say well over half of the questions asked here and on other forums can be solved with someone simply taking the time to read it in the manual. that being said everyone speaking on this post has helped me when I was trying to fine tune my carbs and when I was switching from points and condenser to electronic ignition and small bits that I just couldn't wrap my mind around. and I thank you for that. my largest was I do everything from my phone and when I got a new phone it's damn near impossible to upload pictures. no matter what patton sent me to help the problem was and still is me.hahaha

My sister tried to guilt me in having Xmas with her by accusing me of hacking her phone. I called her back and told her I have a dumb phone and she has a smart one, how could I do that? She said I was the only techie in the family, so it must have been me. She then said she just wants to have Xmas with my family. I told her she should have thought about it before she looted our mother's estate.
There's nothing wrong with asking questions as long as they are honest ones and there's no agenda behind them.
Steve

I do everything from my phone and when I got a new phone it's damn near impossible to upload pictures. no matter what patton sent me to help the problem was and still is me.hahaha

I think the problem for me was pic file size, I need to resize all my pics that I post here, plenty of free online photo editing available. Lunapic is quite handy.

I was recently reminded of a lesson I learned long ago, but forgot when giving advice on this forum...
When I was in school ( and that was definitely long ago) I worked as a lifeguard at large resort during the summers. Of course the pool had an outdoor bar. I was sitting on chair one day when a guest approached me. He had obviously spent more of his day at the bar than in the pool. He said "my buddies over there bet me $100 I can't do a jackknife. I saw you diving earlier. What's the secret to doing a jackknife?". Now we had to be polite to the guest, so I told him the key was getting more height than a regular dive. You want to go almost straight up, do your pike and enter the water going straight down. You can probably guess what's coming...He went literally straight up and came right back down into the diving board headfirst. I pulled him out and we did first aid on a fairly nasty cut on his head. Fortunately he must have been to drunk or concussed to mentioned my "coaching" to anyone. The resort could have been facing a lawsuit and I would have surely lost my job.
The point is...I now consider the knowledge, ability and experience of the poster before I reply. If they don't own a feeler gauge, they probably also don't have a torque wrench. I'm not even going to mention pulling the cams to do a shim under bucket valve adjustment. Their next post will be about bent valves or asking how to remove a broken bolt/repair stripped threads in a head.
Some tasks are just beyond the abilities of a beginner. I think every reply to a technical post should start out...Do you own or have access to the following tools? If they are your Dad's/Buddy's/Neighbor's tools, are they willing to help you? Otherwise they are only going to do more damage to the bike and possibly hurt themselves.
I really want to encourage young riders to enjoy old KZ's. Someone has to take over from us old farts. Some are on a real budget and I remember those days. I feel bad for them. None of us started as experts. We learned from a variety of sources. I wish the internet existed when I was learning. However, it's still no replacement for basic mechanical skills. They need to find a local mentor who can teach them hands on just like most of us probably learned. Otherwise take it to a professional. I told a professional that I would pay extra if I could watch and promised to only ask 3 questions after he was all done. That's how I learned to lace and true wheels. The mechanic was so surprised that he let me help, ask all the questions I wanted and actually gave me a discount.
I just haven't found a polite way to tell this to new posters.

You're absolutely right. I've thought of that. I try to foresee the mistakes coming and warn about it. That's all one can do.
Steve

I'm sure I'm no one to comment. I registered in September of '13, and I'm sure many of my posts have been eye rollers for many old timers on this forum. The contributors here have always been patient, and helpful. All I can say is thank you.

The thing that gets me is not just the lack of motorcycle repair experience, but the lack of basic internet computer skills. Ebay? Never heard of it let alone used it. Partzilla or equivalent? What's that? I can't tell you how many times looking at an exploded view of a sub-assembly I'm working on has completed the missing gaps I couldn't figure out from the service manual. Google? It seems they try one search string and give up. Finally, they don't seem to know how to search this forum to see if their question was answered in the past. Almost all the information I have pulled from this forum has been from searches. If you are contributing on a computer forum you should at least have these basic internet skills.

My other issue is ignorance or fear of their local part shops. You would think some contributors never walked into NAPA, Autozone, Motion Auto Parts or O'reilly. They have never been to a wrecking yard. Never bought a bearing from a bearing shop. Never walked into a Kawasaki dealership to get something from the parts counter. I have always found the folks in these shops to be courteous and helpful. Yeah, sometimes they are more expensive than on-line but you avoid the two week wait. On a recent post I saw someone recommend a site for purchasing carb vacuum nipple plugs. Really? You wouldn't just go to NAPA to purchase those?