Hey Y'all, I just passed 30K on my 2012 ZX14R. I got the bike a few years ago with 11k on the odometer. Bike runs great, no major issues so far. I change the oil every 4k miles or so (full synthetic), I might let my spark plugs go to 10k since I don't ride that hard anyways. How many miles do you have? Anything I should be looking into so this baby can last to 100k?

I would change the plugs right now. I waited 44,000 miles to change plugs on my Gen1. The bike ran just fine as far as I could tell but the plugs were deteriorating. There were melted balls of metal on the electrode, who knows what kind of wear that might have put on the engine. I'm sure it would have been running great today but I crashed it really bad in 2022. It was motor was running like new at that time.

http://zx14ninjaforum.com/messages.cfm?threadid=759E7173-0E24-22A8-81F439F41CBC0995

I changed the plugs around 8k miles ago. Do you keep to the 7.5K spark plug change interval as stated in the manual? I don't ride too hard and thought that 7.5k miles was excessive. I also don't want to damage anything either though.

Had I not crashed the bike, I would have changed the plugs again after about 7000 miles. I doubt if extending the use of the spark plugs by 500 miles makes a big difference.

Eeek, how'd you crash Rook, if you don't mind me asking? How many miles were you at? Is there any other major maintenance I should be looking at? Did you get your valves checked? I haven't done that yet, but I've been hearing conflicting information about when people should do it.

Yeah, Matt, plugs are iridium with a toothpick size center electrode. Sharp edges send the spark to the side electrode well. But then again, they will last for many miles, but this replacement number is for Ideal Performance.

Valves are a must. 30k is too long. Usually about 15 -22k for valve lash. You can set them loose and prolong the interval a few miles farther. Say .008" to .010" where .010" is the max loose and set those there. I used those numbers as a reference an not necessarily the factory numbers.

My 06 is just shy of 85,000 miles and running like a champ. Fresh spark plugs and fork seals this year along with an APE manual cam chain tensioner. I gave up checking the valve clearance at 62,000 miles because nothing had changed.

Mad

Eeek, how'd you crash Rook, if you don't mind me asking? How many miles were you at? Is there any other major maintenance I should be looking at? Did you get your valves checked? I haven't done that yet, but I've been hearing conflicting information about when people should do it.

It was about 5300 miles. I was doing about 70 on a county road. The speed limit was probably 35. I came up over a rise and saw a deer on the road. I probably could have stopped but that would have been some radical braking, it was only my third or fourth ride that year. I braked for a second. I could see nothing was in the oncoming lane for a quarter mile so I steered over there. The deer decided to trot across and there was no avoiding it at that point. It was a downhill slide half on the road and half in the weeds. 240 feet. The bike flipped at least one and a half times. I had some bad road rash on my fingers, calves and knees but no broken bones. I had on a helmet of course and a textile motorcycle jacket. I'm lucky both my shoes stayed on.

I checked my valve clearances at 28,500 miles. I adjusted all of the exhausts and one or two of the intakes. I checked the clearances a few years later and they were all as I had adjusted them. I'm sure it's safest to check the valve clearances according to specced mileage but I've heard numerous times, they will probably continue to tighten after the first scheduled check and after a certain mileage, they just stay the same.

Chain lubing is a good practice. I changed the rear sprocket three times in 50k miles and the chain and front sprocket twice. I changed the coolant every couple years. Oil every 2500 and it was Rotella synthetic but I would start to miss shifts between 1st and second if I went much longer than 2500 miles. Rotella costs about the same as conventional oil so I stuck with it. You can use most synthetics a long time but I'd rather have fresher oil more often. Air filter of course. Change that as recommended or sooner if you ride in the rain. It's good to replace the clutch and brake fluids every couple years but that doesn't need to entail more than sucking out what's in the reservoirs and refilling. I did quite a few tutorials on this in the past years. They pertain to the Gen1 but most of them probably are helpful for the Gen2.

I'm at just over 38K on my 2012. Did the valves at 24k.
I changed the plugs at 21k, they were like new and there was no discenable difference in running with the new replacements. These engines run very lean so virtually zero fouling or carbon build up like the engines of decades ago. Changed the fuel filter around 200 miles ago. The old wasn't givng any running problems even though it came out looking like an old tea bag!
16 oil changes, 14 filter changes so far and still runing sweet.
Fork service at 28k and 2 brake/clutch fluid changes so far.
An auto chain oiler takes care of chain lube and massivley increases chain/sprocket life IMO.
3 changes of coolant including the one at 9k along with a new rad (+ rad guard), the old one holed by a stone. Should've fitted a guard from day 1. A hard £600 lesson. Bastard !

The maintenance schedule in the owners manual is just a guide and should be adjusted to suit your riding style and enviromental conditions etc.

I was able to get my valves inspected and adjusted, spark plug replacement, and oil change for 1,100. They were supposed to do my air filter as well, but they said I didn't ask for it, which is ridiculous since they are the ones that recommended it. So now I have to do the air filter myself. Which I hope is not a difficult job? Well, I'm glad I had all that done, bike seems to be running a lot cooler (temp)! Next I'll have to do tires/brake fluid/brake pads, but I still have a bit of time before that.

The air filter is simple to change if you remove the side fairing and probably the fuel tank fairing too. I have a tutorial on Gen 1 air filter element removal that should help but the fairing removal will be different. It's a good precaution to vacuum off the air filter guides but there's no way the shop would have bothered to do that. You can even open up the air box doors and place a piece of foil under the filter to catch debris but now you're talking some work. I like messing around with stuff so I'd do it but no shop would take the time to do that.

I crashed my ZX14R right after this service. Hit some sand a gravel taking a turn down the mountain (where I live) and we're I've made thousands of trips down. Broke my collarbone, can barely walk, I don't know how my bike is as they towed it somewhere. horrible day.

I heard. I am so sorry to hear about the crappy luck you had. This sucks really hard but Life goes on and bikes go on. I'm still riding the roads but I will not be going as fast nearly as much as I once did. Time to hedge my bets. You too maybe? It's like investing man, the older you get the lower the risks you take.

I will def be taking lower risks, even though what got me wasn't so risk avoidant, just some bad luck. But I get what you are saying.