I'm having a set of BST's installed on my 14R. They are 13-14 lbs. lighter than stock. If anyone has them on their 14R, did you need to adjust front/rear compression and/or rebound? Thanks.

You shoulda weighed them!

The 14R must have some very light wheels already. If the difference is only 13 lbs for both F/R combined, I would think the suspension will react fairly similar to them as the stockers. No suspension changes when I went to Carrazzerias and those combined were about a 16 lb difference from the Gen1 wheels. That's a guess. I still haven't weighed the stock Gen1 rims.

Wow, those Gen 1 wheels were heavy. Not sure about "only" 13 lbs. When it comes to wheels (rotating mass), 13 lbs. is HUGE. That was the difference when I put them on an RC51. The effect was dramatic. I almost rode off the inside of a corner the first time I rode them.

Can't wait to try them.

I even noticed a huge difference going with Carrazzerias. BSTs are a lot lighter.

Rook, the OEM wheels on the Gen 2 ZX-14R ARE indeed much lighter than on the Gen 1. You can even SEE the difference in their appearance when you look at them from the side: the spokes are REALLY thin.

I was actually disappointed when I saw the REAL (not imagined) weight difference between the BST wheels and the Gen 2 ZX-14R wheels. A lot less than I had expected.

That's the bad news. But the good news is the lighter OEM wheels don't cost several thousand dollars like the BST wheels cost here in Canada.

Jim G

I’m curious. How much lighter did you think the BST’s were over the Gen 2’s?

I did not keep the weight data fro the bSTs versus the Gen 2 OEM wheels, but it was only about 8.5 lb lower (total for both wheels combined) as I recall. I initially LOOKS like you'll get more of a weight loss, but after you compare apples to apples (bearing type used, sprocket mounted, brake rotors mounted, etc, the true net reduction is only about 8.6 lb. This was pretty disappointing to me because on the Yamaha R3 I modded before the ZX-14R, the weight reduction for the BST wheels was 11.5 lb.

In addition, the BSTs are frightfully costly in Canada (over $5000 Canadian after Federal and provincial sales taxes). Even the BSTs for the little R3 cost close to $4000 after taxes.

I don't want to rain on anyone's BST parade, but these are true numbers, and you know I am a fan of lightweight wheels when you hear that I bothered to spend the money for BSTs for an R3 whose Canadian price brand new was $4500 plus taxes.

Jim G

* Last updated by: JimGnitecki on 8/25/2019 @ 6:14 PM *

Jim, I had the wheels installed. We weighed them. Total difference including sprocket was 12.3 lbs.
Yes, they are costly. But what a difference on the 14R. It is a different bike.

Rook, the OEM wheels on the Gen 2 ZX-14R ARE indeed much lighter than on the Gen 1.

Thought so.

Jim, I had the wheels installed. We weighed them. Total difference including sprocket was 12.3 lbs.

Thanks for weighing them!

Gen 2 wheels are 3 lbs. lighter, per reviews when it was released in 2012.

An expensive weight loss for sure, but good bang for the buck. Noticeable effect on acceleration, better braking, and, of course, the main event........the handling and quick steering.

That "3lb lighter" for the Gen 2 wheels does put them in the right ballpark to support what I had found at the time I did the research.

This lighter Gen 2 design is manifesting, in different sizes in some cases of course, on other recent Kawasaki models. The "retro" 900 model for example. You will recognize this new design easily when you see a bike with these wheels, as the "spokes" are SO thin when viewed from the side. This is an important visual feature on the retro model.

Jim G

I find that when I'm cruising over 170 if I hit some minor bumps in the road the front wheel wants to bounce off the road and my bike is lowered quite a bit. At over 200mph it really gets your attention when the wheel bounces LOL

bobk how is your rebound dampning set? may be able to turn it up a bit to stop the bounce.

If bobk is serious, that would probably be a compression issue. That’s what I experienced. I backed off a 2 clicks front and rear and that solved the issue.

Oh I'm serious!

Just cruising along at 185 mph.