Amen Brothers - I must agree![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

I will say this much. Polaris makes some very nice quads. Nice enough for me to own one. I have never had a single issue with my Scrambler that required me to return it to the dealership. Its now the "Wifes" quad. I went to buy a new quad with the intention of Polaris having to loose my business. After riding the 700 I thought it was a nice quad but I was hoping for a bit more. I headed down the rode for my local Yamaha shop and left with the same thoughts, nice quad but not enough to justify the price difference from something like a 500HO. I've never been a big Kawi fan but as long as I went this far. The 650 was exactally what I was looking for. I was impressed with power, ride and the sporty feeling. To be fair the IRS which is a major selling point to some was a deterent for me. Its just not my style.

As far as reliability, I have only need to make an adjustment to the shift linkage and get those worthless POS tires off of the quad. I have had my 650 in seat height water numerous times and not one problem. It jumps surprisingly well for a big quad. Sporty trail rides are great with the solid axle. I guess what Im saying is I would buy one again without hesitation and thats probably the best compliment I can give.

 

Check out the topic called "service calls"
Here it is in a nut shell:

I have kfv650 with 11500 km on it and in the last year I had to deal with:
overfilled with oil from factory, replace Carbs, 4wd sensor, and control box, the front right brake bolts missing from factory and boot ripped from factory, numerous clutch work , rear shock (I had to pay for this at 10 months and 8100kms -$1500.00CAN) , swingarm bearings, new brakes, overheating rad cap, and thermostat, rear axle seals, front diff seals, ball joint front left, choke cables and springs, Rear axle recalls, Clutch recalls Also now every 300km I am adding 600ml of oil, the engine brake is making weird noises, I had 6 belts on it (and now it's a belt/shem a weekend).

I have about 600 hours on it. Everyone else that have 650s are not having these issues, I'm wordering if I'm alone out there? Mine is in the repair shop more than it's on the trail. I love the bike and I don't want to get rid of it. Am I the only one out there with a "bad 650"? People that don't ride 650s think I nuts keeping it.

BTW all work has been done by three different kawi dealers only, the whole clutch was just replaced and I'm still have belt problems

I got the extended warrenty even before it was available here in canada but the thing is I'm getting tired of taking it in... ALSO THAT REAR SHOCK IS NOT COVERED UNDER WARRENTY It's now back in today for the right ball joint and an new engine braker (and of course they are taking the last shim out of the new clutch/belt). I also talked to the local rep and Kawi canada and got nowheres, I plan on calling Kawi USA.

My 400 KVF was a rock, I only did the small stuff to it ... like add gas

 

A great big "OUCH" to that last post. Man-o-live, if that had happened to me I sure wouldn't have the good attitude you have.

My own experience with the 650 has been pretty much good. Got the machine in December 01, now has 3000+ miles, and has been a good rig for the most part. I get tired of the belt squall, but am getting to the point that I can do some of the work myself, I guess. The plastic ain't as tough as I'd like, but then it isn't so expensive to replace either. Am on my second belt, do quite a bit of slow utility work, but am not immune to punching the loud button either.

Sorry to hear of all your troubles.

 

Kawi650, please tell me you arent having your service work done by FREEDOM CYCLE cause that would explain all the problems!!!

 

Troubles are the small stuff... All have good and bad.... I had mine serviced by lots of different dealers including ones in NFLD and NB and the dealers is not my problem. My main dealer is PJ and Freedom and both are very good, we just have a lot of bugs to shake out. Keep in mind my milage is VERY HIGH. BTW you will not believe what Freedom has in store for mine... wait and see what's in the future for the 650 (and yes it comes with optional airplane wings).

 

Kawi 650, I would not let Freedom Cylce work on my lawn mower!!!!
I took it in for the replacement choke cable problem which I found out about from this forum. They gave me the bike back running far worse than when I brought it in. They said that they had to balance the carbs and adjust the pilot jets but when I took it back to Roy Dougays they found that the choke cable was the problem. Dougays also informed me that the front pilot was out 1 and a half turns farther than the rear and that it was nowhere near balanced thanks to Freedom of course. The worst thing was that Freedom claimed that this was not covered under warranty and charged me $200.00 bucks for the labor to make my bike run worse. Dougays refunded my $200.00 as per kawasaki due to the fact that my bike was only a month old as was covered.
Kawasaki also said that they had numerous other complaints about Freedom Cycles incompetence.
Freedom also tried to give me regular 80/90 weight oil for my rearend even though I argued with their mechanic that it was the wrong stuff.
This was enough to make me willing to travel 200 kms for far superior service. Dougays will even let me watch as they service my baby and give me alot of useful tips as to how to keep it running great.

 

Love mine so much betterhalfs picking hers up monday

 

Praire dust... (I'm not standing up for any dealer...)
I think a lawn mower would be very dangerous with a 650 vtwin engine in it... I know it still wouldn't cut grass fast enough for me. Where did you buy your ATV from that's where I would take it to. With dealing with the problems I'ved had too; to expect any one dealer to fix anything on the first signs can be very tough. May be the choke cable on yours was bad... how about the springs on the choke? I took mine to PJ's for a simple tune up before I headed across NFLD and when I got it back I hardly got the thing off my truck and it died... So what did I do... I took it back to PJ and got him to fix it. With the amount of atving I do I talk to a lot of people, with good/ bad stories about all bikes and all dealers, including Roy Dougays that wouldn't mean I wouldn't take my bike to Roy if he was closer. I also would let Eric at Freedom know how your experience at Freedom and Roy's. I'm a business man and that's what I would expect from mine clients that was not happy with mine services to talk to me, and don't worry about getting anyone fired over it because that doesn't happen that way. From my past experience a lot of things can cause problems with the 650 chokes to act up and you have to take it in sections. IE when I had carb problems I pulled mine from freedom and it took PJ about additional 2 months to fix it 100%. You want to talk about a person that been dealing with Kawis for more than five years talk to Kevin at PJ, and he did the work on mine himself. I also would watch the choke springs... the kawi ones are not as strong as other ones you can get in there. BTW I just got mine out of Freedom and it runs better than it ever ran.

 

Kawi650...Wow, what a lemon. I have 600+ miles with no real problems. I also have 3 good friends with 650's and none of us have had a major problem. All of our 650's are great!!!