Well , It must be a little more different then just the plastic!! If I buy a KXf400 and it says suzk on the side of the motor , then plane and simple i wount buy it!!

 

there are no stampings on the side of the z400 motor. in fact the only place the z400 says suzuki is on the gas tank.and another thing that should ease the mind of kawi lovers is that the only two things that are suzuki related on the z400 is that god awful swingarm and the motor ,other wise the the rest of the machine is totally engineered by kawi .

 

It is still sad no matter how you look at it. Kawi had the right idea with the mojave back in 1987. They had a liquid cooled twin cam quad valve engine while most companies had and still have air cooled basic engines. Why couldn't they have come up with some sort of Mojave X or super mojave with a 400cc liquid or even a 500cc engine. Why???? Then they got will yokley on some kx powered racer that gives every kawi fan a super hard-on when they see it. Why didn't they make some 2-stroke powered quad. Oh sure they talk of banishing 2-strokes but are they banished yet. Even if they would become extinct in the next couple of years kawi would of made a killing selling those quads. I am a loyal Kawi fan even though my mojave has kept me up swearing up and down some nights. They have let me and every one else down though. Honda has no fear of kawasaki. Honda will have some sportrax 650 or bigger in the next year or so, just watch. Honda has always been competitive and with all the new cannondales out there I'm sure there going to rock the atv world soon. If my kx powered mojave plan doesn't work out like I want it too I will sign out of the kawasaki fan "team" and join the cannodale or honda team where things are original.

 

Hey Killer, how do you know that? I mean about the quad minus the swingarm and motor being real Kawasaki? I'm not being conescending, I really would like to know. So does that mean that the Suzuki Z400 is made of a suzuki motor and swingarm and kawasaki chassis, a-arms etc.?? If that's the case, then it really isn't totally Suzuki. It would be a real joint venture quad. Tell me that's the case and I'll feel better. I've had time to calm to calm down now. I saw that brochure early this afternoon at a dealer.

And SUGARHEAD, Andretti's has another dealership up in the Scranton area. Actually, I didn't even know that had one is Nazareth. But I guess it makes sense since they live there. hahaha.

Sorry for my outburst of disgust guys. But if any of you were in my shoes looking at that brand new brochure, you'd have reacted the same way. admit it. Looking at Kawasaki BLATANTLY pawn off these well known quads like the z400 and lt80 as their own with green plastic just made me sick. But as I was discussing it with my brother this afternoon we did realize that there are things like jet ski's that may be put with a suzuki label as well as, yes, all those industrial products (but that really doesn't interest me. hahaha). So I guess it will go both ways. And yes, the rumored Kawi 650 sport quad DID cross my mind but at that moment all I could say to myself was: "f%#k! Kawi's gone! they sold their powersports label to suzuki!! how pathetic!! LOSERS!" But hey, instinctive reaction from life long Green rider.

 

I sure hope Suzuki didn't pay much for that Powersports Label...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

My thoughts EXACTLY, MENTALMOJAVE! I mean, what the frig have been doing the last 15 years since the Mojave came out???? besides making one prairie after another...


And this still raises the question then...

where is kawasaki's 4 stroke 400-440 motocrosser??? are they making one or, I hate asking, are they gonna get an "RMF" prototype? ....or least build it together.

By the way:

this new pseudo-kawasaki ATV line up is KFX. I didn't read it long enough to see if they're sticking the "Tecate" name on it. I hope not.

 

well as it goes kawasaki was in the development stages of a new machine.and they are working on a new 4 stroke terror as we speak,but they wanted to get a new sport machine into production and the motor wasn't and isn't fully developed as of yet.so they decided to go ahead and tweak the drz400 motor and make it work in the new z400 and with plenty of tooling and dies left over from the late lt 250s they cam eup with a swingarm instead of tooling a whole new design.that swingarm has proven strong and reliable in the past so why not use it again. i really wished they would've built a new swingarm with concentric adjusting on it ,but they didn't and once again economics came into play and the availibility of parts to get this machine out and steal a piece of the pie in the sport quad market.
so yes it truly is a joint venture.the only thing i wish they would do is ,if they are going to share the same machine platforms at least change the styling on the plastics to set them apart.

 

yeah. very true about the plastics. If I was color blind, I'd have thought I was looking at a Suzuki brochure. I mean...they didn't change ONE DAMM THING! ON ANY OF THEM.

Well, it's good to know that they're working on their own motors and quads. I was worried kawasaki was just giving up the offroad scene and letting suzuki build their stuff for them.

 

kawasaki is actually the powerhouse here and they will be calling the majority of shots as far as manufacturing and designs go.

 

How is it that the Z400 is engineered by Kawasaki killerkx327? You say the motor is Suzuki and so is the swingarm but the rest is Kawasaki? I some how don't believe that. The Kawasaki version of the Z400 is going to have a Suzuki motor, maybe the same swingarm and I suspect Kawasaki is going to make the frame with a few adjustments. Unless that is what you meant to say? The way you said it makes it sound like the Z400 minus the motor and swingarm are Kawasaki made.