Author Topic: This thing RIPS  (Read 9008 times)

Offline ThrottleJock

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This thing RIPS
« on: August 30, 2017, 03:48:54 PM »
Okay so fng here, I've only had my space shuttle for a month or so. I've been busy disregarding and unraveling khi's exhaustive engineering (other thread - Muzzys system, PCV, ZX throttle bodies, nitrous) and commuting to work on the bike, but other than a couple of highway pulls I'd not ridden the bike in anger before this weekend.

Short version... I'm an ex-roadracer and maybe hang it out there a little farther than most when it comes to wheeled things. I decided to join the boys on their sportbike ride up to mountains this weekend and was curious to see how big piggy did in the right stuff. I'm very impressed. It took a little while, a tire pressure adjustment and an increase in rebound damping to learn to trust it, but god o'mighty this big bastard hauls all kinds of ass when you ask it to. And I do mean ask... on rock hard sport touring tires it takes deliberate, appropriately forceful but sometimes very light inputs to get 'er to dance. Won't be setting any cornerspeed records on this thing and it'll wear your legs out thru the transitions, but it's surprisingly good under braking (track-out sbk-style slides in no problem), takes a set well and is hilarious on exit. That motor. That pull. I'm not quite comfy rolling big powerslide corner exits on it yet but I think it's achievable.

At any rate, I left those sportbike guys for dead.. WITH the bags on. And then adjusted my windshield up, stuck it in 6th and digested the hour of boring straight roads home like a dude sitting in a lounger. I love this bike.

Offline maxtog

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2017, 03:55:02 PM »
 :goodpost:

See, it is more of a pre-made "sleeper" that you thought it was.  The Concours is big and heavy, but it surprises most people who keep an open mind and push it.  Flash the ECU in that sucker and get on the road and enjoy something that is not only comfortable, convenient, quiet, reliable, and refined, but can also perform very well.  I think of it as one of Kawasaki's best-kept secrets.  Don't you wish you had discovered it sooner?  :)
Shoodaben (was Guhl) Mountain Runner ECU flash, Canyon Cages front/rear, Helibars risers, Phil's wedges, Grip Puppies, Sargent World seat-low & heated & pod, Muzzy lowering links, Soupy's stand, Nautilus air horn, Admore lightbar, Ronnie's highway pegs, front running lights, all LED, helmet locks, RAM Xgrip, Sena SMH10, Throttle Tamer, MRA X-Creen, BearingUp Shifter, PR4-GT, Scorpion EXO-T1200,etc

Offline jimmymac

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2017, 03:58:20 PM »
Yep, Connie can hang.  I throw mine around like a dirt bike, sliding that bitch around like nobody's business. Of course I've owned it for over 7 years now.  8)
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Offline rcannon409

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2017, 04:21:44 PM »
Yes, and the fun does not end when you have a passenger. It still handles great, and the brakes and suspension still work.

Offline jimmymac

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2017, 05:11:46 PM »
Yes, and the fun does not end when you have a passenger. It still handles great, and the brakes and suspension still work.
Mine does even better two up, just because I set it and left it there. I'll throw a shower of sparks with the "passenger" back there. Didn't want to offend anyone with a sexual orientation. I'm sure nuts to butt work too. ::)
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Offline B.D.F.

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #5 on: August 30, 2017, 09:03:23 PM »
Yeah, it will perform, even stock. Playing with kids on sport bikes is great not because you can win (with any turns or a lot of very low speed accelerations you cannot) but because they cannot win.... by nearly as much as they should be able to!

This one day, my wife and I were on the way to the local dealer when I pulled up behind a pack of four kids on sport bikes at a red light. We were all waiting to take a left, and I eased up to the two front gentleman and said hello. My wife is saying 'Don't..... don't..... DON'T!! in the headset when the light turned green, and the three of us (front line) took off. I was outside the curve and so the two kids were in front of me but both hit it, and so did I. The road was a small, two- lane road through the woods with a speed limit of 25 MPH and a death rate of 35 MPH (two 90+ degree turns that are quite sharp, neither one blind though). When those kids got to the stop sign at the end of the road, I was with them and we all crossed to the dealer together. All four of them were crowded around my C-14 because they could not believe an old man and woman, on a bike with saddlebags could not be shaken and left behind. I told them I might have done a bit better but had baggage with me.... and saddlebags too. :-)  One kid too a C-14 for a test- ride that day 'cause he complained that now that he was 26 and no longer a kid (I have warts older than that), he could not take the sport bike position for a long ride and all of them had just returned from NC (about 1,000 miles).

It is not a sport bike and will not run with a sport bike, at least not the fast ones. But again, it is close enough to be utterly amazing, especially considering how much the old cow weighs.

And then it will carry you for an hour or a day in relative comfort too boot. Yep, nice bike!

Brian

Okay so fng here, I've only had my space shuttle for a month or so. I've been busy disregarding and unraveling khi's exhaustive engineering (other thread - Muzzys system, PCV, ZX throttle bodies, nitrous) and commuting to work on the bike, but other than a couple of highway pulls I'd not ridden the bike in anger before this weekend.

Short version... I'm an ex-roadracer and maybe hang it out there a little farther than most when it comes to wheeled things. I decided to join the boys on their sportbike ride up to mountains this weekend and was curious to see how big piggy did in the right stuff. I'm very impressed. It took a little while, a tire pressure adjustment and an increase in rebound damping to learn to trust it, but god o'mighty this big bastard hauls all kinds of ass when you ask it to. And I do mean ask... on rock hard sport touring tires it takes deliberate, appropriately forceful but sometimes very light inputs to get 'er to dance. Won't be setting any cornerspeed records on this thing and it'll wear your legs out thru the transitions, but it's surprisingly good under braking (track-out sbk-style slides in no problem), takes a set well and is hilarious on exit. That motor. That pull. I'm not quite comfy rolling big powerslide corner exits on it yet but I think it's achievable.

At any rate, I left those sportbike guys for dead.. WITH the bags on. And then adjusted my windshield up, stuck it in 6th and digested the hour of boring straight roads home like a dude sitting in a lounger. I love this bike.
Homo Sapiens Sapiens and just a tad of Neanderthal but it usually does not show....  My Private mail is blocked; it is not you, it is me, just like that dating partner said all those years ago. Please send an e-mail if you want to contact me privately.

KiPass keeping you up at night? Fuel gauge warning burning your retinas? Get unlimited peace and harmony here: www.incontrolne.com

Offline roy826

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2017, 01:06:52 PM »
Yes it goes pretty good. It is big without a doubt. Power is smooth and grunty. It corners pretty good until you run out of lean angle which I find that pretty quickly. Good tires are a life saver on it. If I could get past the $hitty linked braking system I could get a lot more comfortable with mine and do it much easier. I am a current active roadracer in WERA C class now but pulled 4 years in WERA A class both at the expert level. I like to do my own braking and the C14 linked brakes just do not work for me. I tried to order up all the de-link parts a month ago and that cross over line from the 08-09 bikes is all but unobtainable from Kawasaki. It is back ordered with no ETA given. I gave up on the idea and will just slow down on the thing for now until I can sort out the linked brakes.
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Offline mikeyw64

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #7 on: August 31, 2017, 01:09:33 PM »
Or go look either for a scrapper 08/09  or an 08/09 as a rider :)

Other than the eco mode there's no performance difference that I'm aware of


Yes it goes pretty good. It is big without a doubt. Power is smooth and grunty. It corners pretty good until you run out of lean angle which I find that pretty quickly. Good tires are a life saver on it. If I could get past the $hitty linked braking system I could get a lot more comfortable with mine and do it much easier. I am a current active roadracer in WERA C class now but pulled 4 years in WERA A class both at the expert level. I like to do my own braking and the C14 linked brakes just do not work for me. I tried to order up all the de-link parts a month ago and that cross over line from the 08-09 bikes is all but unobtainable from Kawasaki. It is back ordered with no ETA given. I gave up on the idea and will just slow down on the thing for now until I can sort out the linked brakes.
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Offline B.D.F.

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #8 on: August 31, 2017, 01:13:20 PM »
If that is the part of the bike that bothers you the most, I have great news- You can defeat the linked brakes w/out any kit. There are instructions for how to do that on this forum; I have an '08 myself so never paid much attention but basically, it is a matter of 'straightening out the hydraulics' so that there is only one hydraulic circuit for the front and one for the rear and poof! the 'link' is gone. Do a search, or wait for Max to chime in ( ;D ) and you find enough info. to take care of this on your own bike.

Brian

Yes it goes pretty good. It is big without a doubt. Power is smooth and grunty. It corners pretty good until you run out of lean angle which I find that pretty quickly. Good tires are a life saver on it. If I could get past the $hitty linked braking system I could get a lot more comfortable with mine and do it much easier. I am a current active roadracer in WERA C class now but pulled 4 years in WERA A class both at the expert level. I like to do my own braking and the C14 linked brakes just do not work for me. I tried to order up all the de-link parts a month ago and that cross over line from the 08-09 bikes is all but unobtainable from Kawasaki. It is back ordered with no ETA given. I gave up on the idea and will just slow down on the thing for now until I can sort out the linked brakes.
Homo Sapiens Sapiens and just a tad of Neanderthal but it usually does not show....  My Private mail is blocked; it is not you, it is me, just like that dating partner said all those years ago. Please send an e-mail if you want to contact me privately.

KiPass keeping you up at night? Fuel gauge warning burning your retinas? Get unlimited peace and harmony here: www.incontrolne.com

Offline maxtog

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #9 on: August 31, 2017, 03:54:41 PM »
Or go look either for a scrapper 08/09  or an 08/09 as a rider :)

I was going to suggest that.  It should be getting easier every year to find used parts now from scraps.

Quote
Other than the eco mode there's no performance difference that I'm aware of

There are no performance differences other than the gen2 had a top-speed limiter placed on it (which is easily removed with a reflash).  There are lots of convenience differences, though.
Shoodaben (was Guhl) Mountain Runner ECU flash, Canyon Cages front/rear, Helibars risers, Phil's wedges, Grip Puppies, Sargent World seat-low & heated & pod, Muzzy lowering links, Soupy's stand, Nautilus air horn, Admore lightbar, Ronnie's highway pegs, front running lights, all LED, helmet locks, RAM Xgrip, Sena SMH10, Throttle Tamer, MRA X-Creen, BearingUp Shifter, PR4-GT, Scorpion EXO-T1200,etc

Offline maxtog

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #10 on: August 31, 2017, 03:57:52 PM »
If that is the part of the bike that bothers you the most, I have great news- You can defeat the linked brakes w/out any kit. There are instructions for how to do that on this forum; I have an '08 myself so never paid much attention but basically, it is a matter of 'straightening out the hydraulics' so that there is only one hydraulic circuit for the front and one for the rear and poof! the 'link' is gone.

But that hack will lose ABS on the rear brake, I believe.  Not a HUGE negative, since the rear brake ABS is only a fraction the importance of the front brake, but something to be aware of.

Quote
Do a search, or wait for Max to chime in ( ;D ) and you find enough info. to take care of this on your own bike.

I should start charging as a service :)
Shoodaben (was Guhl) Mountain Runner ECU flash, Canyon Cages front/rear, Helibars risers, Phil's wedges, Grip Puppies, Sargent World seat-low & heated & pod, Muzzy lowering links, Soupy's stand, Nautilus air horn, Admore lightbar, Ronnie's highway pegs, front running lights, all LED, helmet locks, RAM Xgrip, Sena SMH10, Throttle Tamer, MRA X-Creen, BearingUp Shifter, PR4-GT, Scorpion EXO-T1200,etc

Offline deepseamdv

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #11 on: August 31, 2017, 06:22:06 PM »
Yeah that rear ABS isn't important, except to newer ish riders on this heavy beast. Just ask the one who slid the rear into a lowside. Fortunately my 09 C14 has non of that stuff.


To the OP. If you think this bike is a blast now just wait until you get Steve's ECU Flash. Then put on some really good suspension. She will fly with most of the fighter jocks and beat lots of them.
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Offline roy826

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #12 on: August 31, 2017, 07:48:34 PM »
If that is the part of the bike that bothers you the most, I have great news- You can defeat the linked brakes w/out any kit. There are instructions for how to do that on this forum; I have an '08 myself so never paid much attention but basically, it is a matter of 'straightening out the hydraulics' so that there is only one hydraulic circuit for the front and one for the rear and poof! the 'link' is gone. Do a search, or wait for Max to chime in ( ;D ) and you find enough info. to take care of this on your own bike.

Brian

That was what I was attempting to do. I've read all the threads.
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Offline roy826

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #13 on: August 31, 2017, 07:55:30 PM »
FWIW I have a fix I'm just waiting for winter to hack up the braking system on my bike. I have a brand new cross over line off my latest racebike a 2015 GSX-R 600 front line I believe will work just fine. I just need new line washers, the 2 cross over fender clips and plug that right caliper line and I'm good to go and the abs will still work as designed.

The Kawasaki cross over line was the unobtanium part I attempted to buy. That's when I realized I had removed cross over lines on my GSXRs for years to add dual front lines for racing. They'll work I just gotta do the work.
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Offline ThrottleJock

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #14 on: September 02, 2017, 07:30:47 AM »
To the OP. If you think this bike is a blast now just wait until you get Steve's ECU Flash. Then put on some really good suspension. She will fly with most of the fighter jocks and beat lots of them.

Yeah that's what I hear, I can't wait. I just installed the ohlins shock yesterday so I'll work on dialing it in today. Going to do ak20s in the forks eventually. This bike has 44mm zx14 throttle bodies without secondaries, an unobtanium single-side full muzzy's system and power commander so it's pretty healthy. Still need to get the ecu flash to remove the 186mph limiter, Lee Shierts (stock body bike record holder w/260+mph busa) is going to tune/flash it. Not much except for my buddy's s1000rr gets away from it as is, so it should be pretty hilarious when fully dialed.

Offline ThrottleJock

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #15 on: September 02, 2017, 07:38:10 AM »
... It corners pretty good until you run out of lean angle which I find that pretty quickly. Good tires are a life saver on it. If I could get past the $hitty linked braking system I could get a lot more comfortable with mine and do it much easier. I am a current active roadracer in WERA C class now but pulled 4 years in WERA A class both at the expert level.

Agreed re: the linked brakes. I'm a non abs non linked kind of guy as well, that stuff is good for mindless commuting maybe but not when riding hard. I'm an ex WERA guy too, from back in the Ben Spies days, but I never really had the budget for toadracing. Most of my time has been spent on trials bikes and in the dirt. I used to be pretty talented and rode with a lot of big boys but my wife got tired of the version of me that's recovering from knee and shoulder surgeries so it's all mountain bikes, vintage bikes and touring bikes for me these days. Still a ton of fun. :)

Offline roy826

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #16 on: September 02, 2017, 07:55:21 AM »
Agreed re: the linked brakes. I'm a non abs non linked kind of guy as well, that stuff is good for mindless commuting maybe but not when riding hard. I'm an ex WERA guy too, from back in the Ben Spies days, but I never really had the budget for toadracing. Most of my time has been spent on trials bikes and in the dirt. I used to be pretty talented and rode with a lot of big boys but my wife got tired of the version of me that's recovering from knee and shoulder surgeries so it's all mountain bikes, vintage bikes and touring bikes for me these days. Still a ton of fun. :)

Cool! Yea I've been in and out of it so many times I lost count. I to am into dirtbikes, love them more than racing. Luckily for me my wife has been pretty tolerant of me growing up lol lord knows I've been busted up plenty of times. This years racing season was a bust for me, new bike, new class, to many irons in the fire and my head wasn't in it. I'm done for the year, no GNF but I will do a trackday or two before years end. When I bought my Concours back in June I refound something I'd been missing, enjoying a motorcycle out on the open road. Just me and the bike. Life's to short to focus on one thing. That's why I can't own just one motorcycle lol
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Offline maxtog

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #17 on: September 02, 2017, 11:10:51 AM »
Agreed re: the linked brakes. I'm a non abs non linked kind of guy as well, that stuff is good for mindless commuting maybe but not when riding hard.

ABS can be useful for any kind of riding.  It is a wonderful feature for anyone.  Linked, not so much so, really depends on what you are doing, I think it just needed an "off" setting and that would cover everyone.
Shoodaben (was Guhl) Mountain Runner ECU flash, Canyon Cages front/rear, Helibars risers, Phil's wedges, Grip Puppies, Sargent World seat-low & heated & pod, Muzzy lowering links, Soupy's stand, Nautilus air horn, Admore lightbar, Ronnie's highway pegs, front running lights, all LED, helmet locks, RAM Xgrip, Sena SMH10, Throttle Tamer, MRA X-Creen, BearingUp Shifter, PR4-GT, Scorpion EXO-T1200,etc

Offline rcannon409

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #18 on: September 07, 2017, 06:12:26 AM »
Max, I agree with you on abs.  Hate the idea, hate it being there, but it is very good.

Even my older gen 2008 model.  It wont get in the way of hard riding. When the front activates, you can hear that front tire screaming from a block away....

Offline jimmymac

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Re: This thing RIPS
« Reply #19 on: September 07, 2017, 08:33:19 PM »
Max, I agree with you on abs.  Hate the idea, hate it being there, but it is very good.

Even my older gen 2008 model.  It wont get in the way of hard riding. When the front activates, you can hear that front tire screaming from a block away....
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