Finally got out of the garage with the Factory Pro Star Shifter installed on my '14ZX14R. Only was able to evaluate on the 20m RT to work on local streets. I had posted recently that I though bike shifted nice and smooth with the Motul 300V 4T, so I actually didn't expect big improvements. My initial impressions:

1. 1st gear clunk - no difference at all
2. 1st to 2nd not much difference - maybe need more run in time to??
3. Upper gears seems a small bit smoother.

What I did notice is the much easier/smoother clutch less up-shifts. These were easy and crisp and smooth. These were so smooth I tried something I had never ever done on this bike - no clutch down shifts. These were also easy and smooth, almost the same as with the clutch - really could not tell the difference. I was blipping the throttle and down shifting on the off-throttle. Very nice. So I then was going back and forth between w/ clutch DS and w/o clutch DS and they seemed about the same.

In general, this bike had two shifting personalities; 1. the lazy driver crappy shift where the Kawi clunk is there in most gears and 2. the nice crisp snick snick shifts when the driver pays attention and is trying to execute clean nice shifts.

With the Factory Pro Star Shifter the overall shifting is smoother and cleaner. Was it worth the $275 mod cost, IDK. Do I like the mod - yes and I'm glad I did it.

Should get the beast out for a longer ride today or Sunday but with most of the local twisties on fire maybe not. As of today Malibu roads are Hell on Earth and covered with crap even if they are not on fire so ACH would have to be the choice for a lunch run to Newcombs Ranch on Sunday. That would be a very good evaluation run.

* Last updated by: cruderudy on 11/10/2018 @ 11:17 AM *

How was the install?

Good review Crude.

Install was pretty straight forward. I had not had the clutch out before so that worried me but I carefully kept track of how it came apart and laid it out in order to reinstall and it was easy. The actual star shift and new arm with the ceramic bearing was a little bit to fiddle with to make sure the stiffer pre-load spring was positioned correctly but with pic's from their web page it was pretty easy.

Of course I review Rook's clutch remove/replace write ups and they helped a lot - Thanks Rook!!

The shifting in my bike was noticeably improved when I put Motul 300V in. However, it seems that the
Motul wears out faster. The roughness soon came back.

Mad

Try PJ1 to calm down clunky shift.

Anything special about the boutique PJ1 snake oil that you know of that reduces the Kawi Clunk?