Advantages: Reliability, cost, engine. Disadvantages: Brakes,front end handling.
I thaught i,d write a review on the GPZ500 as i have owned one for 15 months now, untill it was stolen 3 weeks ago! :( allthough it has since been recovered and im hoping to buy it back off the insurance company.
(hence my review on the vfr400 nc24 which i braught to replace it)
My bike is an 96 reg on an N reg, and had 10,000 miles when i braught it, and i have covered 7500 miles on it.
Ok as with the NC24 review i,l start from the front and work my way backwards!
Front tyre is 17 inch and lasts a while, it had an original front tyre on it when i got it, and only cost me £60 to replace it, so if youre gentle with the braking etc you can expect 7-8 thousand miles from a front tyre maybe more!
The forks are good enough, i havent had to replace fork seals yet, but they are pretty soft, which is a god thing for this style ...
Twisted_Individual_23 16.07.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Kawasaki GPZ500s
Advantages: Low running costs, excellent handling, fast. Disadvantages: Suspension a bit soft if two up.
Having returned to biking after a 35 year break ( yep im 54) i jumped at the offer of a 2001 GPZ500S that had just 3000miles on the clock. The bike had been dropped so there was a bit of remodeling to do but all has been kept origional. I live in france and do a 100 mile round trip every day come hail or sun to work. I get 190 miles per tank but can get much more if i keep the speed down. I can say that the handling is excellent. I was a bit nervous for the first few days as I got back into the swing of biking in the wet again. I had a few very gentle slides but this just helped my cornering confidence. The bike is very forgiving. so eventually I replaced the old rear and fitted a bridgstone battleaxe 45 rear tyre. wow! that changed the handling and the slides have gone. Now I can corner faster in the wet with more lean than I used to in ...
Advantages: fast, light, cheap to insure and run Disadvantages: lumpy at low revs, needs good tyres and regular servicing
roads.
I filled the tank to the brim and managed 290 miles before hitting reserve. I did another 16 miles on reserve before filling the tank to the brim again, at a cost of £14.20. Petrol was 81.9p a litre.
That worked out at 80 mpg ! WOW!
Needless to say, I'll be hanging onto this bike for a while longer!
****Update for August 2006****
Sadly all good things come to an end - Kawasaki have discontinued the GPZ500S in the UK. It was replaced by the unfaired ER-5, which uses the same engine. Recenty they brought out the ER-6 with a more beefy 600cc parallel twin engine. The GPZ500S is still being sold in the USA under the "Ninja500R" name.
I managed to pick up a brand new GPZ500S E10 (2003 model) in early 2005. It must have been one of the few remaining new GPZ's available. My E9 (2002 model) -which this review is based on ...
tomsmith500 21.01.2004 (09.08.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Kawasaki GPZ500s
