Hi all,

Girard,PA area.

Been browsing this forum a bit here and there and I found an 09 burnt orange and black 14 slightly used with only 1700 miles on it. I have been out a couple times and I just love this bike.

Tons of great info on this site - so far the bike is stock (as far as I can tell) and I will probably wait to do anything until after this riding season is over.

Crix

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Welcome to the forums Crix. My uncle lives not too very far away - Evans City. I'm all the way down here in North Alabama. I think you'll find the '14 has lots and lots of ways to separate you from your money. How long have you been riding and what bikes have you previously owned before this one? I was on a '94 Yamaha FZR600 back in '95. Ride safe!

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Crix,

To the best ZX14 forum there is.

How far are you from the New York state line? Good luck with your new 14.

To Loadedmind - I have been riding street legally for a year :) been riding something my whole life though.
I previously owned a 2008 650r - nice bike but i needed something a bit heftier and couldnt be more pleased.

To Black1 - I am probably 25 minutes from the state line not to far at all.

To All - thanks for the welcome

Crix

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I have been riding Kawasaki motorcycles for over 30 years. I currently have a 98 ZX-9R, and two days ago became the proud owner of a new 09 ZX-14 Monster edition. I have a very stupid question to ask. How do you get the seat off of this thing? I have tried everything the owners manual says to do, still nothing. I turn the key in the side lock, pull, push, yell, nothing is working. I can't see any other way to get to the underside of the seat to see if a release cable or something has come lose. Any suggestions? I hate to take it back to the dealer for something like this.

Ah Geeezz!Put key in the rear fairing lock,above yer pipe there.....turn gently.....Push slightly DOWN on the seat center,and lightly lift up on the rear tip.OR.....just turn the key,HOLD IT TURNED,and lift at the rear tip. DEFINITELY DON'T WANT TO LET YER DEALER/MECHANIC know you can't get the seat off!!!!!!!!!!Bad owner,Bad owner!To lock,just remove key and insert two front "loops"(on seat pan) over the fuel tank stays(front of seat/tank).Slide forward snugly,push down on center of seat,and at the rear as well to lock the latch mechanism.Make sure when installing that the front of seat is NOT coming up from it's position(in the two loops).It won't if they're in there correctly.

* Last updated by: blue07 on 4/1/2010 @ 9:28 PM *

That's exactly what the owners manual said, and as I stated in my first post, already did that. The seat on my 98 ZX-9R releases the same way and I have never had a problem with it since it was new. Anybody else want to tell me to try what I already have. God forbid it might actually be something wrong with the bike, or put on incorrectly from the factory or dealer. Geeezz!

Lightly load the key, then smack the passenger strap with your hand. The key should turn all the way. Hold it there! Take the back of the seat and lift up and pull back and away from the tank. But first do this. Go to the front of the seat, pull the lip out that hugs the tank. It either is out and can flap or hugs and is tight. That might be your problem, but I doubt it.
So, if there has to be some tang moved to dial both locks that open together on the twist, you can watch the same system like the 9R and match how both either sync or lag in sync. Once the seat is off, you can look around to see who/what is loading the seat to rise up against the receiver pins. When you smack the seat down, this lowers the pins off the sliding tangs, the locks fly to full open; you can get the seat off that way to find either a load or either cable not extending the full throw at the key fob.

* Last updated by: Hub on 4/2/2010 @ 9:08 PM *

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Hub, first I want to thank you for your honest, non-sarcastic response to my post. It took a couple tries to get the right pressure on the top of the seat to get it to release enough for the seat to lift off. After removing the seat I could see that one of the blades was not quite moving far enough to allow the pin to get past it easily. A slight adjustment later and the seat is coming off with no problem. Love the bike and am amazed at how smooth it is at speed. My ZX-9R was a fast bike, but this thing is like a locomotive. Thanks again.

Hub, first I want to thank you for your honest, non-sarcastic response to my post.

Darn! I hate when that happens. Your welcome, timer. When it comes to bulletproof, I don't mess around. You blow on my seat and it locks down. That is how that seat should go back on, you line up all the pins and hoops. But, I didn't move mine from stock. That is how well assembled my bike came.

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Welcome I think I was talking to you at Street Track and Trail a few weeks ago my buddy and I went down there to see an orange and black 14 but it was sold... You should get together with us sometime to ride

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Welcome Oldtimer....I wasn't bein sarcastic...just havin a chuckle(w/ ya).Yer not the first one that couldn't get er off.

Thanks blue07. I was so frustrated at not being able to get the seat off my new bike I just got a little snippy. I've been riding for over 40 years and felt like a dope by not getting the seat to release. Once I got the seat to come off, I only had to get the locking blade to move another 1/16th or so and it works great. I am learning a lot about the 14 from this Forum.

Yep...there are a lot of little "qwirks" with our 14's.But I'll say...I've yet to actually kinda "question" "why did they do it like that?"...as I did on my first Harley!Case in point...my first Harley-beautiful bike.2000 Heritage Classic.New engine..88B.Sweet ride for sure.Riding along the Ventura Freeway at 3:00 in the morning...uh oh,sputtering,then my oil light comes on.Okay.Get er off the freeway-she's running "just enough" to get me to a Hotel.Cool,kinda.At least I'm not stuck on the freeway Thank God.They come all the way from Riverside and pick my baby up the next day.Cool.Point being...they KNEW that the cam bearings would fail from the git go.So instead of correcting the problem before releasing the model,they ship em out with these defective bearings...7000 bikes affected..so they KNEW which ones had the bad bearings..What were they thinking?Certainly NOT customer safety or what might happen to someone.Point two.Okay....same bike...all fixed and doing fine....UNTIL....the front cylinder case begins leaking oil at the base(where it connects to the case).Their fix?Replace it with "the" copper gasket.We're talkin a 19,000 dollar motorcycle.Still under warranty.WHAT were they thinkin?They KNEW it was gonna fail before they released them to the public.Later I go and take it to the dealer cause I'm having some wiring issues.Shorts somewhere.Okay...they replace the COMPLETE harness...over a thousand dollars(which I had to pay at this point)...she was "just" out of warranty.I go and pick er up-wohoo,my baby's back!So I back er out of the work stall,and turn on my right blinker.Nothin.Nada.I was so pissed I didn't even take er back in and say anything.PLUS...a nice long scratch on the rear fender where the "seasoned" mechanic failed to CAREFULLY remove the pillion and allowed the fastener bolt to scrape across the top.Which he denied doing.First thing happened when I got home with er...brand new...friggin oil pressure switch started leakin at the place where it mounts up to the engine case.I mean,c'mon,they wanted the bike for like two weeks to "fix" it...all it needed was a bit of teflon tape on the threads...I fixed it myself!Kawasaki did an EXCELLENT job in creating this bike.Mine has 30,500+ miles on er,and not ONE engine problem,aside from the valve cover gasket seal leak...which was easily corrected.But other than that-she's run faithfully,and trouble free.Best bike I've EVER had.You'll love er Bro!That REAL bright side of all of this was......when she got stolen(again,Thank God)the insurance paid me over 19,000 dollars(she was at this point around 4 years old).Bought me my first "sport bike"...a zzr 1200.It was on then!I'll say...I had a lot of fun with my Harley.But the "dream" got tarnished with the ongoing issues.It got so I couldn't even trust it anymore.Weird shit started going on with it.Then the theft.That was it for me with Harley Davidson.Got me a REAL motorcycle

* Last updated by: blue07 on 5/9/2010 @ 9:22 PM *