I know you've tried different gearing combinations on your 14. Yours is a gen 1. Stock gearing on the gen 1 is 17/41 with a 116 pin chain. Mine is a gen 2. Stock gearing on mine is 17/42 with a 118 pin chain. The extra 2 pins on mine makes the chain a little more than 2 1/2 inches longer than the gen 1 chain. I want to leave the stock 17t countershaft sprocket alone. Do you think I could put a 45t rear sprocket on mine with the stock chain or would I need a longer chain? I'm not worried about chain or sprocket wear by just changing 1 sprocket. I've had Kawasaki 500's, KZ1000's, a ZX12R, a 2006 ZX-14 that I drag raced and I did many sprocket changes on them without any ill effects or extra wear. I'd like to use the stock chain. I have a 43t on my bike right now. The chain adjuster marks are at a little over 2 from the front of the swingarm right now. 45t too much? Or should I go to a 44t? Any thoughts or suggestions?

17/42 -> 17/43 = -.17"

17/43 -> 17/44 = -.17"

17/43 -> 17/45 = -.33"

17/42 -> 17/45 = -.50"

According to gearing commander

https://www.gearingcommander.com/

Do you think I could put a 45t rear sprocket on mine with the stock chain or would I need a longer chain?...I have a 43t on my bike right now. The chain adjuster marks are at a little over 2 from the front of the swingarm right now.

I used a 118 pin chain on my Gen1 with stock sized 17 front and 45 on the back so that was +4 teeth. The chain is just about on the third mark from the front (maybe a little bit farther back than the 3rd mark). This is about the same mark the axle adjusters were at with the stock sprockets and stock 116 pin chain. My guess is that going with an extra two pins on the Gen2 would yield about the same results as it did for me adding two pins with my Gen1. SO--going to a 45T on the rear of a Gen2 with a stock length chain will probably pull the wheel forward halfway between the second and third mark but that is only a guess.

You will have a little shorter wheelbase and you will probably not be able to safely use a tire larger in diameter than 190/50. I know the Gen2 swing arm is different than the Gen1 but I would doubt if they designed it to admit a larger tire diameter. Probably they design zx-14 swing arms to be as short as possible to resist flexing under power.

I think you're going to have to try the 45T on there with stock chain to be sure the 1/2" the larger sprocket takes up won't pull your tire forward too close to the inside of the swing arm. Take tire wear into consideration. A fresh tire is probably about an eighth inch closer to the front, inside of the swing arm than a worn out one.

* Last updated by: Rook on 12/6/2019 @ 9:01 AM *

Thanks piken and Rook. That's exactly the information I was looking for. I understand about the tire rubbing on the front of the swingarm. On my 2006 14 that I used to take to the dragstrip, I had a flat slick on it. I put a bigger rear sprocket on it and used the stock chain. First time at the strip the bike took off like a rocket for the first 1/8 mile. The last half it wasn't hardly pulling at all, like something was really holding it back. I had a hard time breaking into the 9's and the mph was only in the 130's, most runs were in the low 10's. When I got home I was checking everything out and noticed the front of the inside of the swingarm was silver. What was happening was as the speed increased, the slick was ballooning up and rubbing on the swingarm. That's why it wasn't pulling on the top end. It was dumb of me not to check that out beforehand. I'm older but sometimes not wiser. Before I went to the dragstrip again I got a longer chain and it moved the wheel back quite a ways so the problem wouldn't happen again. This time it pulled hard all the way down the strip. The times changed quite a bit. 1/8 mile - 5.8 seconds @ 125.8 mph. 1/4 mile - 9.2 seconds @ 148 mph. Live and learn.
Thanks again both of you for the valuable information.

as the speed increased, the slick was ballooning up and rubbing on the swingarm. That's why it wasn't pulling on the top end.