I have a 2008 ZX14 with 13,000 miles on it and my forks have started making a creaking noise when going over speedbumps and stuff like that, has anyone else experienced that problem?

Welcome!I'd check your pinch bolts(lower part of steering unit[forks]) and upper triple tree clamp bolts.

check your pinch bolts(lower part of steering unit[forks]) and upper triple tree clamp bolts

Here's something that I find VERY WEIRD.Okay....sometimes when I'm ridin,when I put my hand over the handlebar clamp(that round piece that mounts to the top triple tree)...just kinda sit it there....I could swear I feel the clamp/top fork "flexing" or something.Really...it feels like it's somehow moving.Not loose or anything...just moving with the feel of the frontend.I KNOW it's not possible to have it move when it's tightly bolted down on the triple tree...it can't,right?There's no force on the bar when I'm just resting my hand on there.It's strange though.Probably my imagination.Whatever it is....it somehow got my attention.I've checked my clamps and pinch bolts and all...everything feels okay.I KNOW nothing's wrong...but.... When I move my steering when she's parked,you know,locked...and try to move the bar(s),I can't see or feel anything moving right there....so...IDK...maybe I'm losin it!

Someone here try it next time yer out.See if you can feel the fork somehow flexing at the triple tree clamp top.Only seems to do it(if it IS doing it)when I'm cruisin in a straight line down the road.Kinda let yer fingers grab at the clipon clamp/forward side of the triple tree there where the clamp mates up to the triple tree.Hold on right there.Palm/hand across the clamp top,where the adjuster is.It's NOT an up and down feeling,like the fork tube is going up or down.It's more like it's moving forward and backward right there.I can BARELY feel it when it's doing it.Wouldn't normally notice it either.Just happened one day to rest my hand on there....and there it was?IDK...koo koo is as koo koo does

When I'm holding the bars...nothin.Don't feel it doing it.And it's NOT the wheel moving right or left...this is in a straight line.

It doesn't feel like MAYBE the steering head bearings are loose either...they're not.Only at the clamp..not the steering head.

* Last updated by: blue07 on 6/4/2011 @ 6:40 AM *

Stab a shovel down into the dirt-Pull it straight out. That is your X = UP&DOWN... Your balls will rock the same way as if you pulled the frame up and the front end stayed there until that gap came up is X direction.

Bad news you keep wheeling that bike and now stab that shovel in the same hole to take up the X knock. Pop that frame down on the ground, hit a curb, and fill a Kruz'is post here's a post! Here is where the Y-factor is the shovel moves on every wheelie pop.

You keep popping wheelies and this begins that move as if you installed a set of steering bearings, where the ball hits and indented the race as if taking a hammer over the ball and just whack it. Keep thinking how you have that shovel blade in the ground and now push the dirt with the blade. See how that gap is at the X that was tight at one time? Now that Y is all forked up is it knocking there?

That is how you think the bearings are tight and not it. Gotta be a bearing race knock in the frame or the lower stem taking the hit, KRUZ! So, you have that shovel shoved that neck brace that might be the case.

I'm going to take someone's abstract and Dr. Diesel power the fuck it up someone's ass if I said the bolts are loose and every time I come down on the brakes after I wheelie, did the forks move UP! Like, UP YOURS! with the loose ass a goose bolts.

I'm going for the throat now.

* Last updated by: Hub on 6/4/2011 @ 10:42 AM *

Your dick is safe wit me, blue... You and your loose bolts are neck gonna cut that theory all UPa yo ass, boy! Where is your ass thinking this time? Don't tell me you're sitting on it! And you have a disagreement with my pooperations we go rock climbing?

No, not today, blue. I have too much on the plate. I'm so stuffed waiting for Kruzie"Kins to quit fucking around and take that ride in 200 feet or less.

Front end? Loose bolts? I'm going to check you for a loose rear end!!! Bring that chicken feed theory here... Pecker Head!

Okay...I solved the mystery.Had a sweet ride today...Just awesome.Did the little "hand thing"...you know..as I mentioned.SHI$ man!!!!!There aint a friggin thing NOT right.She's fine.No moving.It WAS my imagination.Musta had one too many Coreg's that day.(and the others...and the others....and the...oh,nevermind .)Only one thing bums me out today.The last leg of my trip,it was warming up some,I was feelin that Starbucks Double Shot....and my trusty peppermint candies.Got railin on some Big azz curves...the same ones I "regularly" ride.That new Diablo...she justa grippin and holdin like no tomorrow.SWEET TIRE.My revs were up around the 7,8 range throughout most of those bad boys.Upshiftin and downshiftin like a Madman.Rollin fast baby.WAY illegal...that's fer sure.I'm about to kick myself now...cause I'd have to say...today was THE best I've punched through those turns.And I put my camera in my jacket pouch.Friggin STOOOPID... .

God willing....I'll see about tomorrow.

Just an aside....I ran that tank down to .3 today...unintentionally.Town I was gonna pass through(and did)....idiots didn't have ANY fuel.None.Zero.UNBELIEVABLE!!!!Limped my way to the next town(empty warning deal flashin like crazy all the way)55 mph...that's all I could trust.Got to the station....WHHHEEEEE>>>>>>she took 5.5 gallons.

That new Diablo,180/55....she's scrubbed in good an proper NOW.WooHoooo!!!Just for the heck of it....just this once...I might just try to see how fast I can go through a brand new tire.If nothin else...it'll be a killer blast(hmmm,maybe I shouldn't word it quite like that )

* Last updated by: blue07 on 6/4/2011 @ 2:39 PM *

Running in the rpm range you did, blue, above 7,000 will definitely eat gas.

I don't get to do that when I ride with a group but getting to the meeting place I do. Like going to COG events which are often pretty far away. The fuel bars fall away pretty fast riding like that.

When I got back around 5pm today (we left at 10am) my fuel gauge is down to 2 bars, so I'll have to gas up before doing the charity ride to the VA Medical Center in Martinsburg WV, 12 hours from now. There is going to be about 1,000 bikes going from Greencastle PA to Martinsburg WV with police escort.

Anyway, obligatory on-topic comment, last riding season my front fork creaked sometimes under compression (braking, bumps) but it was not a loud thing. For some reason its not doing it this season. I'm with you blue, sometimes my imagination makes me see or hear things the bike does, which it really isn't doing.

Like it sounded different today. Maybe its the new earplugs I'm wearing. LOL.

* Last updated by: privateer on 6/4/2011 @ 10:29 PM *

Thanks guys, I'll check those pinch bolts. I had already retorqued the steering stem bearing nuts, but that didn't do anything.

Probably IS the earplugs Pivateer.I know my plugs...those silcone ones...I hear all sorts of strange sounds when I'm ridin.I
I'd swear....sometimes I hear a siren behind me!

You guys ever be cruisin along and out of nowhere...perfectly smooth,clear road,SOMETHIN hits ya in the foot?You know,like a smack of a bolt or rock or something?I get that on about every other ride.Perfectly nice road...then ,outta knowhere,..."ping!"Not some teensy tiny "tick" either.Whatever it is...it's gotta be pretty good size.Friggin scares the SHI$ ouuta me everytime it does it.Had to stop yersterday and make sure I didn't loose any frontend bolts or anything.That's exactly what it felt like...like a bolt came off.I never see anything in the road.All the bugs were "smallish". My bolts were all there.Strange I tell ya....just strange.

* Last updated by: blue07 on 6/5/2011 @ 1:57 AM *

I'm using a pair of fairly good earplugs I got from the Earplug Superstore -

Motorcycle / Musician QuietEar Plugs