Been lurking for the last couple of weeks in anticipation of buying a new to me 2012 black ZX14r. Used to ride a ZX-11 back in the day and coming off a 2001 Busa for the last 10 years. Had to drive 140 miles to get the bike. The bike had 4.3K miles and had right side fairing damage from being dropped when loading when purchased. The previous owner adapted a set of Voodoo shorty duals on from his previous gen ZX14 and ditched the stock exhaust. This thing is too loud. My ears are still ringing from yesterday's ride back home.
The tires were worn, the rear having a flat strip down the middle and the front looked out of round. Negotiated the price based on all the above. I test drove it and it handled like a pig, especially at low speed. Up until now, I had never thrown a leg over a ZX14 and didn't know what to expect. I asked the owner if he checked the tires recently and he confirmed he had inflated them to the max pressure listed on the sidewall about a month ago.
He said he had it dyno tuned with a PC 5 and showed me the dyno sheet. It read 163.4 hp and 100.0 lbs of torque AFTER the dyno tune. No pre tune dyno measurements were shown so I don't know what the improvements were if any. The readings look uncorrected (92 degrees F, 26.9 in Hg, 8% humidity, STD:1.13, elevation about 4000 ft). Do these readings look low under these conditions?? Voodoo shorty duals robbing power?
The ride home was a little scary. The bike handled like a truck. Didn't want to turn, and when it did, it fell into corners. I didn't bother opening it up going home. Fuel economy was horrible. It took almost 5 gallons of gas tank to get home (140 miles). Couldn't figure out why it was handling so badly and getting such poor mileage so after I got home, I immediately measured the tire pressure and guess what? Each tire had just under 20 lbs of air, HOT. No wonder it handled so badly. I put air in the tires this morning and it handles like a completely different bike. Instant fuel economy went back up to 35-50 mpg on the freeway per the bike's computer.
I am going to get a new set of Dunlop Q3s for it tomorrow. Can't wait to open it up to see what it will do with good tires on it. Found the best rate for insurance from AAA. $400 per year for full coverage with a $1K deductible. Glad to be back in the Kawasaki fold after a 10 year absence. Enjoyed the Busa but am ready to move on to bigger and better things. Sorry for the long post and rant.
* Last updated by: arizcowboy on 6/5/2014 @ 6:39 PM *
