I have been trying to order an Arens Brothers brace for the shock tower on my Z400 for the past 3 WEEKS! John Arens keeps assuring me that they will be ready soon......

I have been afraid to ride very hard so not to have any troubles with my frame, but i can hold off forever!

Has anyone else had trouble ordering from Arens Brothers?

 

How hard do you plan to ride? Unless your certifiably racing, I'd go ahead and ride hard, if the frme breaks, let the warranty cover it and hopefully your frame brace would be in before you need a new frame. If it helps, I haven't had any problems with my frame yet, and I've bottomed out hard enough to shove the heel of my boot through the plastic heel guard, and bend the stock axle. I'd order a Lonestar lifetime warranty axle before a frame brace myself. And hopefully you have aftermarket handlebars already, the stockers won't survive your first hard landing.

 

I do ride on several tracks, and of course I have come up short a time or two. I already have a hair line fracture on the top weld on the motor side of the right hand side of the shock mount! I am going to get the crack fixed and was then going to add the brace afterwards. i just really don't want to spend $600 ro $700 on a gusset kit, i mean i ride the tracks but i hardly ever race.

I have been lucky with the axle so far, but i know its comming!

 

Hey jcole if your frame already has a hairline crack you should get with your dealer or Suzuki and get the frame replaced then get the brace kit on the new frame. I am not shure how you plan on getting the crack fixed but if you plan on having somebody weld it be aware that your warranty is VOID so look into all your options before busting out the welder.

 

My 90 days have been up for sometime. I bought it almost exaclty a year ago, I still talked with the dealer and they acted like they haven't heard of any such problems! Someone told me to contact suzuki directley but i figured the easy way out was just to purchase the brace. I have a good friend who fabricates for a living and can tig weld the crack for me. He even offered to put a gusset kit on and not charge me anything but i will still have to take it everything off the frame, (man that's a lot of work)!

John Arens from Arens Brothers assured me the brace would hold up under my riding conditions, the trouble is I can't get him to sell me the damn brace!

 

ps I was wondering out of those of you with 2003 models have you had any of the same problems? If so what did you do to fix it?

 

I didnt think they made a 2002 model Z, but I do know they fixed the frame six months after they released them. Also, for the price of the brace your talking about 600 to 700 dollars I believe Suzuki lowered their prices on the Z400 from from 1400 to 700.00 because of the problems they were having. As of now, I ride the beans out of my z400 and even rolled it down some dunes upside down and all and still have no signs of crackage.

 

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They didn't, new models are always ready sometime in Aug or Sept of the previouse year.

I called Suzuki yesterday afternoon, they want me to take it the dealer and they are going to send a rep. out to look at it. The guy on the phone gave the impression that they will probably just replace the frame with a new one. Problem solved!

 

Is it out of your 6 month warranty?

 

It is but they fellow that I spoke with at suzuki let me believe that they would replace it anyway. I sure hope so!