Just wanted to take a couple of minutes to 'formally' introduce myself to the community. I have been a member here for about 4 years after buying my first ZX-14 ('08 Metallic Midnight Sapphire Blue). Been a sportbike rider for over 30 years, mostly Suzuki - more precisely Hayabusas. Liked the competition between 14s and Busas, but always believe both bikes have a place for different riders. My timing for buying wasn't the best as it was at the beginning of Covid, my retirement from the Army and transition to a new career, and buying a new house. Riding fell off more than expected.

Anyway, things have settled down and starting to do more riding this year. Took some work to get the '08 14 (named Jinx) running right after a fair amount of sitting. Got to the point of thinking it had a bad motor, but liked the bike and the color so much I bought a second '08 14 to either replace the motor or the complete bike. Turns out it was just a bad ECU. Then I got the urge to try a Gen2 14R and bought ninjavin's '23. Been a busy summer, but all 3 are running great and helping me feed my riding appetite.

Probably won't see me post a lot, just wanted to say thanks for the great forum and hope to contribute in some small way.

* Last updated by: BigBS on 10/7/2024 @ 9:24 AM *

Welcome to the forum, BigBS.

Beautiful bikes! -bg

Thanks, bg! Again, thanks for this forum.

I just love that Midnight Sapphire Blue Gen1, both of them! The M-4 Retro Drag fits any of these bikes really well if you ask me. One of my favorite exhausts. Since you have the opportunity to ride them back to back, what's your opinion on the Gen1 v the Gen2?

Thanks, Rook! My initial thought for comparison is that the Gen2 is definitely more stable and comfortable than the Gen1. Haven't done a direct power comparison since the Gen2 is still in brake in. I will update soon as I am quite interested, as well.

* Last updated by: BigBS on 10/8/2024 @ 1:50 PM *

Same here on the comfort factor and I think it has most to do with the updated seat. It's not just rounded and flatter, it must be longer too because I fit on it without sliding my rump up on the edge of the seat cowl. My Gen2 was lightened up so much, it's hard to make a judgement on stability. I will say this, the stock Gen2 feels just about the same in low speed corners as my modded 08. One interesting experience was that a WOT pull in second gear felt the same as the old Gen1 until I hit about 6000 rpm, maybe 7000. I left the TC on 1 and I think it was intervening in the lower revs because it took off like a bullet evn though it was accelerating awful quick already. The the stock exhaust actually became audible through the wind noise. It will be interesting to see how the bike behaves in another run like that with the TC off.

I won't be able to do a stock for stock comparison of power because the Gen2 has had the ECU flashed. The 2nd Gen1 has also had the ECU flashed, so that will be an interesting comparison.

I would really like to ride the same bike with and without a flash back to back. I think Vic did something pretty close to that. He switched ECUs or something. He had video. All I had was the time on the videos and the pause button to compare speed and acceleration. That's not exactly a stopwatch and it's not real life observation but from what I could tell, there was no big difference. I'm still going to try Woolich with my Gen2. I will need to tune for the pipe so might as well try playing with everything, then flip back to stock and make a judgement from experience.