Hi all,
Have been dealing with the dreaded 1st gear bang since i purchased the bike recently.
I have searched the forum regarding this topic and have read that it is normal for the most part and not an issue but i'd love to hear from some owners with older/higher mileage 14's that have grown accustom to the first gear bang since day one and whether or not it has led to any real clutch or transmission issues.
Background: 2014 ZX14R purchased in March. I'm a newbie to the 14R but not to motorcycles and have had other bikes that would want to do the same bang into first, in fact, my last bikes '13 Honda Fury and '97 Honda Magna would always do it on a cold start and so i learned to hold the clutch in for about 20 or so seconds before engaging first and never had issues. Unfortunately, i have tried this same method with the 14 but it persists and persists regardless of whether the engine is cold or warm, which i've never encountered before on other bikes.. so at stop lights i'm now starting to find myself wanting to sit at the light with the clutch in and in 1st instead of the normal in neutral and relaxed and am also considering starting the bike in 1st.. i tried that today actually and apart from the bike lurching slightly when starting everything else was fine.
The bike had oil changed last in Nov 2019 at 3k miles and now sits at 3700 and Mobil1 4T was used. I verified that it is sitting at the middle of the spy glass, so its not low or high.

Thanks for any advice.

i make it a habit to park the bike with 1st gear engaged, which seems to be a safe thing to do anyway...
when restarting the engine, leaving the gear engaged and pulling the clutch lever will avoid the clunk...

^^^^^^^^^^^

I always shift my 08 into N before I start it because it seems like the clutch plates re probably going to stick together a little and ad some resistance to the motor even with the clutch lever pulled. I just roll the bike forward a bit as I'm shifting from N to 1 and that softens it a lot. I have 50,000 miles on my clutch and the fibers need changing soon but no other problems. Normal wear on the basket and hub where the plates fit into the grooves. Nothing major.

Thanks guys.. i will be making starting the bike in 1st a habit to avoid the cold start bang.. but just to confirm.. are you guys also experiencing the bang to 1st when the bike is warm while leaving from a full stop as i do? Apart from sitting at the light with the bike in 1st gear and clutch in, not sure how to avoid that bang, unless i try taking off in 2nd? I'll have to try that, not sure if there is a bang from neutral to 2nd

Here's the action:
1. Frictions spin with the crank. These constantly move being locked in the big basket.
2. Steels spin with the back wheel.
3. Trans shafts have what is called, 'freewheeling gears' that do not spin with the crank. The only way to separate the moving crank is to run the freewheelers on the constantly moving main shaft.
4. Once the clutch lever is pulled, the main shaft goes thru the clutch center, or is moving with the steels.
5. Between the break of the plates, the drag of the oil between plates, being they are being lubed thru the main shaft, this spin slows down somewhat, if not stops, if say it was a dry clutch with no oil drag, you can watch a duc dry clutch stop spinning quicker... are the steels.
6. Steels stop, no clunk into the freewheeler. Since you are at a light, pull lever, stab the foot shift, there is no time for the steels to stop spinning, thus the clunk into gear which now stops the main from spinning.

You can see my MO in my vids. I do not let the bike sit and warm up, I just take off slow out of the neighborhood. Once at a light, I stay in whatever top gear, and coast to a stop. I just pull the lever in, kill the engine, coast to a stop, then with lever out, I keep moving the bike some so the gear mesh is easier to find 1st and now I wait with key off. Other side turns amber, I do not need to wait for the dash to cycle thru, the bike starts immediately = Clunk Eliminated.

My bike has 77k miles on it. Has always done the first gear bang. However, I found that on the first time I put it into gear after starting it cold, the bang is much milder for some reason. And having fresh oil seems to lessen the severity too.
I use Rotella T6

Mad

Mad - that is very reassuring, thanks for sharing
Hub - thanks for the technical breakdown, although i'd probably want to avoid using engine off/on (and clutch in for that matter) at every light as a resolution as i'm speculating that would add to other elements wearing down sooner rather than later, ie... fuel pump, starter, battery, etc.

* Last updated by: tknj99 on 5/27/2020 @ 9:28 AM *

You could go with Kawasaki 10-40 semi synthetic.Even V300(Kawasaki I think).I started using that last year.It's good oil.Cheaper pricewise than most others.That might help some.All 14's clunk.Some worse than others.Mine does pretty good actually.I also have an Evo shift star in there.I think it helps.Some.

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 5/27/2020 @ 11:50 AM *

Bah--that Evo shift star is exactly the same as the old OEM I replaced it with. It looks a little different but it I can't tell any change in anything. I was looking at the Evo shift star for the busa a few years back and it looked like it might improve that bikes shifting. I think it had to do with diameter. The diameter of the ZX-14 OEM shift star is about the same as the Evo shift star. I'd have to look at my tutorial. I'm sure I wrote my thoughts about this there.

* Last updated by: Rook on 5/28/2020 @ 10:57 AM *

from Rook's earlier post...
I always shift my 08 into N before I start it because it seems like the clutch plates re probably going to stick together a little and ad some resistance to the motor even with the clutch lever pulled. I just roll the bike forward a bit as I'm shifting from N to 1 and that softens it a lot.

I also have an '08, with about 16K. My experience is very similar. If possible I just leave it in 1st gear at a stop. If the stop is too long I put it in neutral and just live with the clunk when putting it into 1st.

Try pushing the bike forward s you are shifting from neutral to first.

It'll take out a lot of the driveline lash/slack and you won't have the dreaded clunk anymore.

At least that's what I do.

I've tried the walk method before engaging 1st but it still clunks, it may help slightly but not a silver bullet unfortunately

Install Brock's heavy duty spring set. This mod disables the factory slipper clutch.

https://brocksperformance.com/clutch-components/clutch-mods/?_bc_fsnf=1&brand=45
Instructions
https://brocksperformance.com/content/Instructions/ZX14/996421.pdf

Brock's clutch video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=610&v=_YFqq5kI-fw&feature=emb_logo

Lately im just starting her in gear from cold and at gas stations and that dramatically cuts down on the opportunities for the clunk

I don't see what the big deal is....I thought $99 of Kawi's $14,999 US MSRP on the bike was specifically to give us the "Kawi Thud".

Seriously though, all these elaborate ideas to avoid or reduce what is nothing but a harmless idiosyncrasy of the big Ninja seem way overthought. They all do it and always have. It is a non-issue, or should be for all of us.

* Last updated by: ManiZ on 6/5/2020 @ 10:26 AM *

True, maybe we are over-thinking things but if the conversation were instead about which oil or oil filter to use and one type of oil/ oil filter made the bike have a loud thud, bang or screech every day, i'm sure that oil or oil filter would be avoided like the plague ;)

Starter ~ Much cheaper to rebuild the starter clutch.
Clutch pack ~ Coast in the highest gear, when stopped, find N. No revs no gear bangs, means, no fiber wear, nor gear dogs wearing down.
Engine ~ Hours add up on a dead engine at a light. You have so much time to back the bike back and forth to find 1st with a clutch lever out, and dead engine.
Oil lube is already at the top end on a dead engine. It's still dripping off the parts, don't think like an old fallacy fart.

I've got around 27K on my 14r.Though it still has a bit of clunk,it's smoothed out quite a bit actually.I'm using Kawasaki semi syn.Sometimes just the Kawasaki 10-30 straight motor oil for our bikes.The 'clunk' changes during a ride,or I'm just paying more attention to it.IDK.But it's not really very pronounced.I also have an Evo Shift star in there.It MAY be helping some.Had that in there for many thousand miles now.One of the best solutions I think is to make oil changes around 4K miles.

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 6/5/2020 @ 12:22 PM *

I currently am running Mobil1 4T from the previous owners oil change and although this may be considered blasphemy on a few counts, will be switching to Honda Pro GN4 10w40 at the end of the year. I don't put more than 3k in a year and the Honda oil has always served me well on former bikes.. I'll report back in the future when i change it out to see if any noticeable difference.

* Last updated by: tknj99 on 6/5/2020 @ 1:50 PM *

I currently am running Mobil1 4T from the previous owners oil change and although this may be considered blasphemy on a few counts, will be switching to Honda Pro GN4 10w40 at the end of the year.

It's oil.

My 12R clucked for the 10 years I had it. The 14 clunked. The 14R clunks. Like a good beer, it's tradition...

I have an 06 with less than 2k miles on it, and no that’s not a typo. It clunks bad going into first cold or warm. I’ve had many bikes over 40 years. My Goldwings were/are the smoothest going into first. The worst and I mean WORST were my Suzuki M109R Boulevards (two of them). Makes you want to grit your teeth in anticipation of that huge clunk at stop lights. I replaced the entire clutch pack and springs for other endemic reasons associated with the M109 and it still did it afterwards. I now have a new 2019 KTM 1290 Superduke, and it’s not bad.

Hey 2stroke,

Don't see a lot of 14's with high rise exhaust out there, interesting.

Can you post a couple of picks of your bike?

I looked into purchasing an M109R in the past and instead went with a Honda Fury. During research of the M109R i was scared away by transmission issues that i read about that seemed to plague the platform and wanted to steer clear of that. Cool bike though for sure