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So, my bike’s got a leaky water pump – it seems to leak one drop every couple of seconds when it’s cold – not so much when it’s warm.

I went into Kawasaki after looking up the Haynes manual to see what I needed to fix.

It seems that there’s an O-Ring that I can replace, and I guess it’s just perished or gotten crushed or something – should be a cheap part, right?

Well, this is where it goes a little weird. I shot a local Kawasaki dealer an email through their website hoping for a response, but was in the area on Monday so I thought I’d drop in to ask since I hadn’t gotten a response.

I asked for a gasket for the water pump (no sleep, too many painkillers, should have asked for an O-ring), and the incredibly distracted and ambivalent guy on the counter told me they don’t sell individual parts for the water pump, and I’d have to buy the whole water pump assembly for $388.75!

I got a little disheartened at this point – thinking about my options on the way home to custom make a silicon O-ring  to replace it. Until I got home and opened my email, which included a response from the dealer.

“Thanks for your enquiry.A new water pump will set you back $388.75.The oring inside the water pump $4.65″

So, um. I can get it now? What the shit? So, I gave up, ordered it and should have it in two days. Glad I didn’t go to all the effort and expense of rebuilding a second hand pump or something like that because the dealer was too slack to give me good service. And I’m damn happy that I knew exactly what I wanted the second time because I had to be able to describe where it was on the Kawasaki documentation (which is kinda hard to get unless you’re on the internet).

I’m thinking I might hit up this route one day soon – maybe even Saturday if I don’t get completely wasted by working a Friday night with this stupid ass cold. Hopefully the weather will warm up a tad, or at least leave the rain out of it so I can jam on some thermals and enjoy the ride instead of losing feeling in my legs again

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Sa-weeeeeeeeet. I collected my bike today, paying my money and getting the bike. You know how it works.

Everything went relatively smoothly except for the light rain starting just as we left to go do it. Riding back was a fun experience, finding out on the fly how the bike rode and where all the controls were

I took it out for a ride tonight (yay rain) and I think it needs a damn good tune but otherwise seems sound. Time and inspections by mates will tell

I’ll get photos in the morning, and until then will dream sexy two wheeled dreams.

I’ve been looking for a motorbike since I got my license and it’s been slim pickings as far as what I can afford. Hooray for being a pizza boy.

There have been a few that I like the look of, and many complete shitters. It’s to be expected with a low-turnover item and my low budget – under three thousand dollars was my goal. Another problem is the fact that I’m 6’9″ tall, leaving me out of the running for many smaller bikes because they look like little pushbikes under me.

After a while of looking, I found this on eBay: Kawasaki ZZR-600. 70ish thousand K’s, seventeen years old and after sending him an email I found that a roadworthy was to be supplied upon sale. There was a reserve of unknown value on it, but I asked and was told it was two thousand – bonus!

Previously the bike had been passed in at ~1900 dollars, leaving me wondering a little about its condition. I met up with the owner and took the bike for a quick ride around the back streets and gave it a good looking over. From what I could tell with my limited bike experience – read none – there wasn’t any leaks, it didn’t wobble, and it rode alright so I decided to bid.

With my usual eBay tactics in hand, I bid with twenty three seconds to go (praying the internet or my wireless didn’t drop out) and secured it with a final bid of 2075.00

It’s in for a roadworthy tomorrow, so hopefully if I’m feeling well enough to go get it and the insurance company will play nice I’ll be the proud owner of a 1991 Kawasaki ZZR-600 tomorrow

Here’s the photos from the eBay auction in case it disappears: