Green gremlin strikes

Neutral light issue is annoying despite bike’s sterling service

It’s taken 12,000 miles and seven months of riding, but I’ve finally found a fault with Kawasaki’s brilliant allrounder. Well when I say ‘fault’, what I really mean is ‘minor glitch’. 2000 miles ago I was sat in the fast lane of the A1 happily cruising along in top gear when I noticed that the neutral light was glowing green. It started as an intermittent issue, but over time it became more regular. At its peak last week when I began my journey at the start of the day I selected first gear but the neutral light stayed on, shining bright. This lasted for the first 20 miles despite me going up and down the gearbox as you do in the normal course of riding on the road. Although there are no other symptoms related to the light staying on, I contacted Kawasaki to see if they could comment on the situation. After discussions with the workshop they believe they know what the problem might be, but want to get the bike in for an inspection. Clearly it’s nothing to worry about and Kawasaki’s attitude is the right one, they don’t wish to speculate, but they do want to see the fault with their own eyes and you can be sure anything they do find will be fed back to factory engineers so it won’t happen again. The recent cold snap, which resulted in heavily salted roads has taken its toll on some of the small components on the Versys. There’s furring on a number of bolts and on the underside of the foot rests, but I guess this is inevitable unless you’re an obsessive bike cleaner – which I certainly am not. Winter is also a time where you appreciate good rubber. The Pirelli Angel GT tyres I fitted over 5000 miles continue to perform brilliantly. They somehow seem to find grip on seriously cold, wet and slimy roads making them the single best change I’ve made to the bike so far.