I am very anxious to get a new bike next week and have gone to take a look at the 14. I sold my Busa and Gsxr750 late last year and I hate not having a bike.
My question is, do the 08 and 09 14s exhibit the same issues as the 06 or 07. I mean things like the engine running very hot, electrical issues such as grounding, fuel cap hiss, or the one I worry about most, the bottom end knock where it seems that the #3 main bearing has some issues.

I really would appreciate any info or difference in maintenance that is required for the different model years.

James

* Last updated by: jaschil69 on 5/1/2009 @ 10:35 PM *

My 09 runs hot - the fan comes on at some longer stops but other than that not noticable unless in bumper to bumper traffic which sucks anyway. The other issues don't sound familiar.

-Dennis

Got me a 06, now has just about 15000 miles on it and really almost no issues. The popular misconception of the bike running hot has been dis-proven with some investigation. Using a aux temp gauge someone found the temps completely normal up to the high end of the scale. My bike has the original coolant, gonna change it soon, and never had to add any. I don't drag race it but flog the crap out of it on a regular basis. It runs better than ever no noises or oil usage etc.

Get replacement pipes, a good PC III map, and maybe even use some Water Wetter in your radiator and you will never have any hot running problems. The only bikes that ran "kind of hot" and that is relative to mappped ones and ones with aftermarket pipes are bone stock bikes.
Do not let this issue be a reason not to buy.

Excellent info guys! I am glad to hear that it isn't everyone having the issues. Just want to be sure that I'm not stuck in the middle of nowhere because of something stupid that I should have known about. I like to do some long rides and it felt like it had a good riding position.
I have found a lot of 14s with a very reasonable price tag so I thought I would jump on one soon.

James

They usually run a little hotter during break-in and then they're fine. The grounding issue is usually a PCIII installation issue. fuel cap hiss ... I've had it a couple times when it was really hot out when it was new, nothing since and no bottom end issues (the clutch is a little noisey) but nothing to worry about. go ahead and poll the trigger ... you wont be sorry.

Are the frame busting issues removed from the fleet? I haven't heard any of the inspected bikes breaking. So, was that just a run of bikes that were addressed?
Piston knock was addressed but that is not a tune or drive-ability issue, but a customer complaint sort of noise my quiet bike down and that too was addressed.

You have subtle improvements that are not shown in a brochure. But figure going in, you are buying a more refined 14 the more the years pan out for that model. I would be chasing the freshest year for all the updates alone.

jaschil69

I am very anxious to get a new bike next week and have gone to take a look at the 14. I sold my Busa and Gsxr750 late last year and I hate not having a bike.
My question is, do the 08 and 09 14s exhibit the same issues as the 06 or 07. I mean things like the engine running very hot, electrical issues such as grounding, fuel cap hiss, or the one I worry about most, the bottom end knock where it seems that the #3 main bearing has some issues.

I really would appreciate any info or difference in maintenance that is required for the different model years.

James

I have only seen mine about max, once, for 30 seconds, in the first 300 miles of ownership, other than that, it's temp runs just fine, now with about 8K.

Electrical issues/Grounding is not so much an 'issue', when you understand that the frame itself it not always the best place for grounding, largely due to the frame metal (non ferrous). Seems that Kawa made some special areas for making good and reliable ground connections, and the rest of the frame nope. You can always roll your own.

No fuel cap hiss.

Knock.. not yet that I can hear.

* Last updated by: JDC on 5/2/2009 @ 11:19 AM *

Do what I did, ignore any problems that anyone writes about and if you concentrate on how good it runs and how much fun it is, soon you will forget all about "real" or "imagined" problems.

I have had no problems with my 2007. I do now run M4 pipes and a PCIII and the only thing the bike give me is perma grin!