my dad has a p650 and my brotherinlaw took me through the forest and smashed it off.(black plastic) Not impressed.

 

Ive barely got 20 hours on my 02,and the black crap is already comin off.(ok that might have sumpthin to do with rollin it over backwards)

 

I traded an 02 650 for the 03 650. I replaced every piece of the black plastic on the 02 because of breaking them, some pieces more than once. I have not had the breaking problem with the 03 and have put it to the same stress and abuse as I did the 02. I rolled my 03 650 the other day, and didn't break the plastic. I don't know if they have changed the polymers of the black plastic on the 03 or not but my 03 sure is holding up good.

 

I'm running a '02. I've had it since Dec. '01 and have not had a problem. I don't abuse it but I don't baby it either (even rolled once).
A friend I ride with ('02) has had the same results. Maybe different batches of plastic used in trim are more brittle?

 

See, that is what I am thinking. Maybe they changed something with the '03 models.

 

The '03 plastic might be a different compound. Mine STILL is intact, after 300 mi. of winter woods riding.

 

Kawasaki put cheap plastic on the prairie in effort to save weight. The probably took the weight savings too far.

 

btt

 

After hearing you guys with the o3s that didn't seam to have as much problems with your black plastic I had to see for myself, I went over to the showroom and removed a nice new peice of trim plastic off one of the new 03 650s in the show room and tossed it outside, (it warmed all the way up to -22 yesterday) figured this would be a prety good test. After a couple of hours outside my test began.. first I tried to break it by bending it, it didn't break it but it did put a nice big kink in it that wouldn't come out, next I took a 3/8s punch to it, the punch went through with a few light tapps but didn't shatter it like I thought it would. At this point I thought, hey mabe these guys are rite, it does seem a little tougher. My final test was a real let down. I held the trim peice in one hand and gave it a tap with the ball end of a hammer and bbblllaamm all I had in my hand was about 3 inches of crap, the rest of the shrapnell flew all over the place!! The peice I used was the narrow flare on the front fender I my experiance with the 02 plastic these were the toughest peices due to thier narrow width. As far as I could determine from my little test the plastic on the 03s is the same junk as the 02s, however this isn't to say that different baches of the plastic are better or worse but as for as I could tell the 03s we have are the same junk!

 

Interesting test. All I know for sure is that mine flexes fine at subzero temps. What happens with the plastic off another brand with the identical test? I would be interested to find out on that.