Customer Reviews

Clymer Kawasaki Concours 1986-2004

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Clymer manual is a good general purpose repair manual and provides sufficient photos and technical information essential for the shade tree mechanic to do the majority of repairs himself. I purchased an "on-line" manual for the Concours prior to purchasing the Clymer and the Clymer was much more informative and illustrative.

Like most Clymer products, this lacks a usable table of contents -- there are no page numbers within the major topics. Thus if you want to look up, say, adjusting the valves, you have to flip through pages to find it, because the contents lists that it's within a major topic (routine maintenance) and what order it's in there, but no page number.

Also like most Clymer products, Clymer has a bizarre ritual of putting all torque values into a table at the end of the section. If you are reading along in adjusting valves, and you need to know how much torque to apply to the valve cover, Clymer doesn't tell you -- they simply say "torque the valve cover" and make you flip to the back of the section to see what to torque it to.

And the section on spark plugs and what the color says about the fuel-air mixture is bizarre. The pictures are black and white, making it appear that spark plugs are supposed to be grey. Uhm, no, they should be tan. Somebody cheaped out on the color photography and made this section utterly useless.

That said, despite these quirks, it is a usable and valuable reference and I do not work on my bike without it. In particular, the color circuit diagrams at the end of the text are far better than anything in the factory manual. And they even have a few tidbits of info not in the factory manual (not much, though -- they're basically the same info, re-organized into Clymer format). It's just irritating at times to run into the familiar Clymer flaws mentioned above... flaws that should have been fixed years ago.

I don't know what to say, it is the Clymer for a Connie. I have an '03, and it is nice, because the bike in the book is the same color as mine. I really use the wiring diagrams a lot. I wish I had the factory manual too, but this is the one that I found on Amazon.

You need one of these if you have a Kawasaki C10 Concours, unless you can find someone else to maintain your bike, and afford to pay them. I have this manual, the Kawasaki Service Manual and the Kawasaki Owners Manual. This one gets the most use and if I was only to buy one it would be this one. Using this manual and reading tips/instructions from the great online Concours owners forums you can keep these bikes running a long time and save your money for trips and other fun stuff.

Received my copy and performed my first oil change the next day. Clear and simple directions and diagrams were very helpful. Information and tips not included in owner's manual were a plus.

I am using this manual in conjunction with online forums to complete my own repairs and maintenance on a 23 year old motorcycle. I have no formal technical training or mechanical experience, but this book takes you step by step through each of the processes. It also has great parts diagrams and handy specification tables. This book is a huge help. I would recommend that anyone who has basic skills with a wrench and a screwdriver get one of these books. It is a great way to get to know your motorcycle, and to save lots of money. I have already saved over $200 in tune ups that I am doing myself, and having fun while doing it.