Hi Guys,
Im at 27'000 kilometres and i was quoted this for a service and tyres,
what do you think and whats the preferred tyre?
The Ecu tune is to override the speed limiter and tune to the exhausts.
Thanks lots Maddy :-)

Tyres
Pilot Road 4 GT - 120/70ZR-17 $235
Pilot Road 4 GT - 190/50ZR17 $310

Fitting $55 on pair of tyres.

Other tyre options are:

Pirelli Angel GT "A" - 120/70-17 $205
Pirelli Angel GT "A" - 190/50-17 $310

or

Bridgestone T30 "GT" - 120/70-17 $205
Bridgestone T30 "GT" only available in a 190/55-17 $315

ECU Tune
Tune $595
Cable $ 60

Major Service including valve clearance check/adjust
Labour $550
Parts:
Oil Filter $25
Brake Fluid (if nec) $12
Fuel System Cleaner $9
Oil (approx) $68
Air Filter (Genuine) $88
Spark Plugs ($29 ea) $116
Shims (if nec) $8 each

hiya Maddy!...glad yer still with us;)...let's see...you're in Oz,right?yeah,some prices there seem a bit high.the shop you're considering,they're getting those items for you?that's ONE thing.They're gonna overcharge you if they can.nothing wrong with buying those items yourself FIRST,(except the shims)and having them do the rest.HOWEVER...the things like oil change and filters,that YOU could do quite easily.save some right there.i just looked again there...almost all of the big price items you can get cheaper from a tyre source online.

I would say,for the money,the Angel GT's are a good buy.Used em myself several times.

so you have over a thousand bucks for this service,yes?that ecu tune is gonna kill ya.WHY get that?you don't need that.you can easily take that out and send it to a flash guy and have em raise the limiter and flash for your exhaust.Romans might even do it for ya here.I don't think he'd be charging 595+'60' for a 'cable'...what the heck is that anyway.

also,you say 16,000 miles.well...my opinion on that is....not necessary.I'd pass on that job there.course,it's totally up to you.maybe have em checked at say,24,000 miles.somewhere in there.i haven't heard of one zx14 that had valves out of adjustment at 16k.I had mine checked at 24K,they were perfect.but,maybe i was lucky?idk.

anyway...you can save a lot of cash on that shopping list right there if you'll buy the items online at a parts company.maybe Partshark,or someone like them.well...good luck Mads...good to hear from ya!

Maddy,

Opinions on tires and oil for motorcycles is like asking a group what the best religion/political party is, everyone has a different opinion depending on their personality and needs.

As for the tires, IMO, go for the Pilot Road, 4CTs if you ride in the rain a fair bit, 2CTs if you don't. I've been running the PR 2CTs for the last several years and love them, can get about 20,000-28,000 Km per set of tires and I think you do a lot of commuting, touring and 2 up riding, which you will want a harder compound in the middle of the tire.

You definitely want to do the valves if you haven't done them yet, I can pretty much guarantee that almost all of them will need adjustment by this point. I did the check/adjustment myself using the service manual however Rook did a great write up on this but looks like the pics are missing so... paging Rook :) https://zx14ninjaforum.com/messages.cfm?threadid=D659042A-D56B-84E2-1C5A7BC825184613

After this adjustment I wouldn't worry about them for a long time, I've checked mine a couple of times afterwards (40 & 60k) and they were still spot on.

As Grn14 mentioned, easy things like oil, brake fluid, spark plugs are very easy to do yourself and I would encourage you to give it a try. Otherwise the prices for those items are reasonable, the labour actually seems pretty low, but shop rates here are typically $100+/hr and the valve adjustment isn't overly hard but takes several hours due to the amount of stuff that needs to be removed.

As I aim towards the best street performance/feel for all seasons and rain with a rare track day, I've never run GT tires. Dunlop Q3 has been my choice since 2014 and a previous love affair with most models of the Pilot Power 2ct line.
Pilot road 4 GT- $370
Pirelli Angel GT "A"- $340
Bridgestone T30 GT Evo- $298
Granted that those are US prices for a set from a dealer who doesn't ship tires outside of the US... but EBay maintains identical prices if not better. So in comparing those with your numbers, it could save you well over $100 depending on shipping/import tax (if any) to where you live.

In looking at the ECU tune- for that price a Power Commander V [5] and Speedohealer can be had for less.
Benefits?
-If you swap to a different exhaust, you won't need to pay for a full reflash tune.
-Different tuning maps for seasons (I run a winter tune for temps under 35° and a summer for up to 90s)
And that's just based on the lower initial price. Further adjustments will result in a greater price savings overall.
Speedohealer will remove speed governor OR correct any speedometer errors if you decide to change gearing.

Very clean ride you have! Never would've known there 27,000k on it.
If you take on and learn the easier wrenching as meticulously as the cleaning is done then you'll save a ton of money in the long run. None of this is to sway your plans for upgrading, just hope the the route you take follows a well informed option.

* Last updated by: GIXXERCON on 3/23/2017 @ 3:46 PM *

I would also suggest synchronizing the throttle bodies after the valve adjust, that should be a component of a major service at this mileage. Make sure this shop knows how to do the TB sync correctly, if not I would look for another shop.

You can get the ECU flashed in the future. We've seen your tool box, why aren't you DYI? Save $$ and know its done right. I just don't trust any of the shops to work on my vehicles.

You can get decent tires in the US for a little over $300. $500 would be something really special like some of the more popular race oriented street tires.

If they're like shops in the US, they won't be happy unless you buy the tires from them....but really, they hould be pretty competitive with prices online in OZ.

ECU flaash is around $350 here and they do everything. I see no reason to get a partial flash unless you're paying a low price.

To me it seems that valve check is low priced if they actually need to adjust some. I'd grab that IF ---if you are certain they actually do it. Seeing is believing. See the parts removed see the feeler gauges going in.

Parts seem about right. Plugs are a little steep but not bad.

I can't believe they would do all the work they are describing for $500 labor. This makes me a bit leery.

Tboddy sinc--yeah do it after the valve adjustment. From my own experience, it is next to impossible to tell any change in the bike's performance after all the work is done and that is why it is an easy rip-off for unscrupulous shops.

Best to get new head cover gasket, ring-os and spark plug well gaskets if the head cover is removed.

If Maddy is from Australia this would make more sense as to the prices.

USD 1.00 -> AUD 1.31

You guys are all Guru's in my eyes, That information is great, Sorry i forgot to mention, yes im Aussie :-)

I just spoke with the guy and he said throttle bodies are inclusive, because you have to take so much stuff off to get to anything its just easy to do it, he said, a lot of the labour is removing all the panels and stuff.

Agree tyres are a bit of choice , I work in Sydney 2 days per week and my journey is 85 kilometres, 60 of that is on the freeway / motorway.
I bought the bike with road pilot 4 tyres but they weren't the GT for heavy bikes, now they have big flat bits at the middle.
I will go with the road pilot 4 GT only because it had rd pilots on it before, my zx9r's have Brigstone battlax and angels on the other, but at the end of the day if you are snappy on the gas it doesnt matter what you have, she will still step out.

I am competent with my zx9r , i can remove and refit an engine if need be but the zx14r monster scares me, its huge.

You guys are correct with trust issues, especially when they see a girl coming they rub there hands together.
The mechanic guy said pretty much what you guys are saying here, I trust you's and if he says the same then i think he is genuine.

With the ecu he said he is going to get rid of the speed limiter, take away an oxygen sensor which will make the throttle control on the freeway better and he will program the computer throttle bodys to open a little sooner.

The zx14r is the best, when i ride to sydney i do in rain or shine, it sits on the road with no aquaplaning and feels beautiful.

I thought my zx9r was the best till i got my 14, dont get me wrong, the 9 is fast, but the 14 is fast and feels awesome.

Love you's all, Thank you xoxox

I am competent with my zx9r , i can remove and refit an engine if need be but the zx14r monster scares me, its huge.

If you can pull the engine out of a ZX9R, I have no doubt that you can perform any of the services you listed on the ZX-14R except perhaps the tire change unless you have a tire-changer.

What's with the $600+ for "ECU Tune" here? Is that a private flash that this shop is offering or what? Might be good money after nothing.

I also am skeptical about ANY dealer doing valve check/adjustments services. It's my opinion that they can't make a profit on it if they do it right so they cut corners. It's one of those services that you really cannot know that they did anything unless you do it again yourself. And what's the point of that?

Rook's HOWTO here will lead you through the steps and the Factory Service Manual has all the other details you need. The biggest issue with valves is the shims. Here in the US, dealers NEVER have them in stock, which is another reason why I suspect they never actually adjust valves. But there are some options. These are standard 9.48 mm shims and are the same between Kawasaki, the Yamaha FJR 1300, and some Honda models. So Honda and Yamaha dealers MAY be an option. There are also 3rd party shims, Hotcams and Pro/X. I like the Pro/X because they also make the "in between" sizes like the OEMs.

Here in the US Jake Wilson has both the kits and the individual shims. You might check around for a AU retailer. I have a shim kit but every time I do an adjustment I end up having to order more. The kits come with 3 of each size, I'm just finishing up a Concours 14 and I needed 7 of the 2.220 mm shims and 5 of the 2.175 mm! It never fails!

What about shelling out for a shop manual = $ Front tire change.
What about an eye beam torque wrench for the cam towers = $ Rear tire change.
What about finger nail polish on a tooth to chain on the first roll to 8 valves = $ from service.
What about cleaning those marks off for the next 360° and paint those again so you roll out one cam at a time until you get your required gap = $ money left over from the estimated servicing.
What about those shim kits being in the tool box or say the required shims per X to Y in the book = $ still left over.
What about you being ready to service your own bike. It's time.
What about timing the drive chain to a sprocket tooth so the chain and sprocket to not find a new wear pattern.
I rather you remain stock and send that money off to the next bike waiting in the wings. The flash is more a zippy hack, but if you want all around, that stock ECU seems to seat of the pants beast the shortorquer.

* Last updated by: Hub on 3/24/2017 @ 7:08 PM *

I also had a ZX9 before I got the 14, while there are some major differences between the bikes (ie, fuel injected vs carbureted) the thing I have noticed while working on different bikes and vehicles that I've owned is that the concepts are all the same, proper fuel/air mix + properly timed spark + compression = power. If the fuel is provided by injectors or carbs, its still fuel, timing by a points or transistor is still timing, coil sticks vs distributor/wires is still spark.

If you felt comfortable enough to remove/refit the engine in the zx9 then I doubt there's much you couldn't do on the 14, a service manual fills in the model specific pieces to the general concept of a gasoline engine (ie, what the torque specs are for a specific bolt, wiring diagrams, etc).

I wish Haynes made a service manual for the ZX14, the factory service manual is huge, expensive and geared more towards a professional mechanic than a home mechanic. The Haynes manual I had for the ZX9 was fantastic!

What's a kilometer?

Hi Nightmare, I love your enthusiasm and support hunny but my reasons are that my bike is mint, if they scratch it they fix it.
I will be doing simple services on her for sure, changing sprockets or chains, air filter etc, I want to update my bike hoist, it groans a bit when lifting the 14.

I agree the zx9r manual is fantastic, I can work on my 9 simply by following instructions, typical woman, alike building a table from IKEA except you need more that just an Allen key, lol.

Hagrid 27'000 kilometres = 16777 miles

Rook, blown me away with your wisdom as usual lol ;-)

Thanks guys xox

but my reasons are that my bike is mint, if they scratch it they fix it.

... but my reasoning goes like this. Strip the bike down. I use blue paint tape and reinstall the hardware back into their holes or I'll forget. No scratches, sans the gas tank, nose and tail section. That's time off your labor setting the valves.

Say: "I specifically want the valves set to spec, a new valve cover gasket and the throttle sunk afterwards.' 'I do not want any other work done to the bike, please.' 'I want a copy of the spec sheet of the before and after numbers.' 'I want the most competent mechanic in the shop to do the work, not a journeyman, period."

If they don't agree... walk. Your bike has to be so clean, so greased at every lever pivot, foot pegs, chain soaked, tire pressure, as if, 'who does she think she is' and when they look your bike over = RESPECT!