I have a 2020 zx14r, I am 6'5 325lbs and have issues with the bike just not feeling planted. Anyone have experience upgrading the suspension on this model or have a recommendation for me?

My Gen1 had very floaty forks. The rear shock was fine. I switched to Ohlins front and rear and the float in the front was gone. I have't put many miles on my Gen2 yet but I haven't noticed the floaty forks the Gen1 had. I'm a hundred pounds lighter than you.

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I have a 2020 zx14r, I am 6'5 325lbs and have issues with the bike just not feeling planted. Anyone have experience upgrading the suspension on this model or have a recommendation for me?

I'm not well educated with suspension, so I don't have a clear answer,
but maybe a couple of things to consider;

I believe most factory set ups are set up for a 165lb + - rider;
rider sag, static sag, spring rate, and the spring rate or stiffness
of the springs has a bit of a range, but it's not quite one spring fits all.
At your weight the ride might be improved by the next 1 or two
spring rates up. And as @rook says, a third-party shock set up
might be in order.
I can't be exactly sure what 'not planted' feels like to you,
but in my case , when I got my 2013 it also felt 'not planted' to me,
and a bit frightening, this unplanted feel was that the bike
would feel like it was bouncing in fast sweeps, and not tracking
well. The tires were ancient, way beyond there serviceable life,
stiff, almost rock hard. When I changed out the front the improvement
was massive. I also fiddled with preload, compression damping and
rebound, I think that helped quite a bit too.
I had to watch a ton of videos and read tons, in order to
get a fair grasp of what suspension setup entailed, it's still
pretty fuzzy to me in some respects.
I'm guessing in your case, if you haven't changed the springs to
a heavier set yet (front and rear), setting 'Preload'
to max vs min, would be in order and maybe looking into
the compression and rebound settings.
There is a free PDF manual, that is pretty good online, that
explains how to set up suspension with a chart for different
kinds of riding. The PDF is not the best imv, but is useful.

Welcome to the forum.

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My Gen1 had very floaty forks.

I think 'floaty' is a good operative for what I was
experiencing as well, had you gone through a 'setup'
before giving up on OEM and switching to Ohlin?

Yes I did a DIY solo suspension tune and there is a tutorial on here. Unfortunately, one where the pics are shut of right now. The suspension tune didn't cure the floatyness of the forks. The rear shock was the real problem. It was set for carrying a passenger since I had a wife when I bought the bike. The rear wheel flew off of bumps with just me riding. I relaxed the preload and probably hit the dampings too. I couldn't ask for a whole lot more from the shock after that. I had become used to the slow reaction of the forks. It was all I knew in sport riding at the time and it was fine, just weird to see the camera view drop and slowly rise back up again in my videos...and coud feel it too but I got used to it. I can tell the Ohlins's were a better suspension but they didn't improve my riding at all. I'd still get them because they're cool even if the Gen2 suspension seems to be working just as well for me. High priced bling but a must have on a ZX-14.

I kind of feel the same about light weight wheels. Yes, you will feel it, most of us won't be able to go faster because of it although the bike accelerates a little quicker riding in a straight line. The most important thing is you do mods that you can feel what they're doing even if you can't do it. There were a few that made no difference compared to OEM so I don't know who is benefitting from them even if they have the skill to use them for what they were supposed to do ...but they don't.

* Last updated by: Rook on 3/13/2026 @ 4:25 PM *

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I kind of feel the same about light weight wheels. Yes, you will feel it, most of us won't be able to go faster because of it although the bike accelerates a little quicker riding in a straight line.

I like Blue anodized rims, light and look so good, but buying them would be about 1/2 of what
I paid for my bike, and I'd have to integrate some blue into my overall graphics scheme.

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I had a Diablo Rosso II installed on the front a couple days ago,
it's a lot less than the IV'S and I'd read that they were very
nice handling.
I did a semi shake down on it this am after having 26 miles on it,
in a couple of sweeps, the bike felt great, I was thinking it
felt better than the Pirelli Angel in one familiar sweep,
it seemed to track extremely well.

I was very happy with my Carrozzeria rims and have hope they are still serviceable after I crashed that bike. They're blue and the anodizing is exceptional. Carrozzeria is CoreMoto now and that's exactly where I'd go for forged aluminum rims again.

Te problem with blue is that so me other anodized parts you might buy are a much different color of blue. Stick to high end parts and the blue will almost always be very close to CoreMoto. You can stuff re-anodized all the same color if you want. I had planned to do that someday. Pazzo levers, Pro-Bolts, Hyper-Pro damper all matched pretty well. The cheap Chinese grips and Lightech gas cap were way off. You can almost count on Chinese stuff to be an off color in anodizing.

The color problem is avoided if you can go with black as a color option.

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I was very happy with my Carrozzeria rims and have hope they are still serviceable after I crashed that bike. They're blue and the anodizing is exceptional. Carrozzeria is CoreMoto now and that's exactly where I'd go for forged aluminum rims again.

Looks like about a 6 lb weight savings, I found these
CoreMoto rims on ebay, good heads up on the color match issue.
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Great looking Busa, on that trailer platform build.
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I found yesterday that in one 'quick' (70mph)sweep
that is bumpy, my bike felt like it wanted to go wide, was kind of
hopping outward, this is a sweep that I hit fairly often
so I'm familiar with it, then a sweep right after it
is smooth, and at the same speed I don't notice the hopping outward
characteristic.
I need lighter springs for correct sag but am stuck with what I have
right now for a while, I have preload as loose front and back as
it can go, and set compression and rebound to 'factory'.
Any idea on improving that hopping characteristic, with faster or
slower comp or damping?
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Going on a ride today, Az up to Utah, supposed to be wind and
heat, but should be a pretty epic ride, other riders have Cardo,
I need to order a kit.

Looks like about a 6 lb weight savings, I found these
CoreMoto rims on ebay

My Carrazzerias weigh 19 lb, 11.8 oz as a set (7 lb, 5.5 oz front; 12 lb, 6.3 oz rear). That's with all parts except the brake disks and sprocket. I dropped another couple ounces by going with BP valve stems and titanium and aluminum bolts. You didn't use the rear wheel spacers which shaved another two ounces. I never weighed my front OEM rim but the rear was over 19 lb without brake disk and sprocket. The Carros I have are Tri-R which was discontinued for the Hayabusa and ZX-14 at the time I ordered them. I honestly think mine were the last set ever made. Advertising the availability of ZX-14 Tri-Rs after being discontinued was an oversight by the supplier and I believe the Carrozzeria guy agreed to carved out one last set to satisfy the order. Then the ad on 58cycle disappeared. They weren't available from anyone. It took two months before I got the wheels. The problem was, the Tri-R wasn't considered strong enough for the weight of the 14 although adequate for liter bikes. I had no issues with the Tri-Rs and I did wheelies all the time, a couple of them quite high by accident. I also hit a monster pothole at least six inches deep doing about 25 mph, no damage.

Great looking Busa, on that trailer platform build.

Thanks, that was from your other recent thread. Yup, the Hayabusa wears orange and black extremely well, the black and orange 2023 Gen3 is an absolute stunner. The 2026 I'm getting is drop-dead gorgeous too but I must admit, the B/O Gen2 and Gen3 take the prize for looks. There's no topping them.

I found yesterday that in one 'quick' (70mph)sweep
that is bumpy, my bike felt like it wanted to go wide, was kind of
hopping outward, this is a sweep that I hit fairly often
so I'm familiar with it, then a sweep right after it
is smooth, and at the same speed I don't notice the hopping outward
characteristic.

I'm not surprised by that, especially having a smooth curve right after to compare the bumpy one with. One inherent difficulty with suspensions is that they work less well in a corner when you need them the most. I'm sure that's true with cars too but they have four wheels which tends to prevent them from falling.

Any idea on improving that hopping characteristic, with faster or
slower comp or damping?

The preload is the main thing but being that you're a jockey, going with the softest preload is the right idea. As for compression damping, I would think the softest would be best for you. Rebound is where you fine tune it. If you set the rebound soft, the suspension jumps back up with the soft preload. I would try a slower rebound damping. It's been many years since I fiddled with my suspensions but I believe what I just described applied to me at my weight too, just I had a spring that was appropriate for my weight. That's the thing I remember from these conversations, the spring is the key.

Going on a ride today, Az up to Utah, supposed to be wind and
heat, but should be a pretty epic ride, other riders have Cardo,
I need to order a kit.

I'm jelly! A) we have no group rides around here. B) if we did, my riding style would cause some weird conflicts. C) my riding style actually is kind of not very safe around here with all the wildlife. D) I should add a nice cruiser to the fleet so I can fit in with the group a little. I know a guy who has a beautiful V-Rod for sale. He wanted the upgraded version with increased displacement. I could use the slower one for going slow.

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It's all about click adjustments, or maybe a spring change in the forks and rear shock.

I'd start with the compression settings. Has to be some sweet spot to chase. Becomes hard, then adjust the rebound as in one click at a time.

The next would be to call a suspension company, talk to tech and describe what you feel and see if they can help. Another place to try is a club race, or track day at a track near you, and see if there is a guy tented up to adjust suspension setting and try him.

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I'd start with the compression settings. Has to be some sweet spot to chase. Becomes hard, then adjust the rebound as in one click at a time.

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

I suppose a better way for me to ask my suspension question
as relates to stability and maneuverability might be;

Common knowledge is that OEM set up is smarter overall,
for general street riding,
than using lowering links and raising forks to
get the bike lower,
what I'm trying to find out is that now that I've lowered the
rear by 1.25'' and raised the forks by 3/4'', did I
make a mistake by raising the front forks 3/4'',
or should I raise them less etc?
And for sure, must suspension techs will say never
use lowering links or raise forks, use appropriate
rated springs to match rider weight etc...
But yeah, my bike is lowered and it's going to be
that way for a while.

Side note; I'm noticing right noW after a couple of
long 500+ mile runs that both front and back have
flat spots in the center of the tires, I was running
about 28psi in both tires, as I figured I needed it for
twisties, but maybe I should have pulled off and lowered
to 28 (or) when we got to those sections, then I'd need to carry
a portable compressor though, and hope I don't hold up the
group too much...... Summary; To avoid that center flat-wear,
should I inflate to 32 or 36 for the freeway stretch, and then
lower to my 28 , or just change my 'standard' psi to 'X'PSI?
I guess one thing I overlooked also which is that it was hot for
most of my long distance riding, though the am's were down in
the 40's .... I need to be mindful of the extreme temp changes
as well.

what I'm trying to find out is that now that I've lowered the
rear by 1.25'' and raised the forks by 3/4'', did I
make a mistake by raising the front forks 3/4'',
or should I raise them less etc?

That sounds like you probably lowered the rear more than the front. If so, you increased rake (made it less vertical). I don't know how much more you can lower the front to achieve the stock rake. You probably don't want the bike too low or it's more likely to scrape over a bump. In corneringing, the lower fairing is what seems to scrape first. My experience is a full exhaust with fatter pipe scraped first but there is probably some variation according to the design of the pipe.

Check if there's a limit to how much you can safely raise the forks. Do they hold securely at any height? Obviously, you have the front fender clearance with the inner fairing to consider. That's already pretty close without raising the forks.

To avoid that center flat-wear,
should I inflate to 32 or 36 for the freeway stretch, and then
lower to my 28 , or just change my 'standard' psi to 'X'PSI?

The center flat wear is inevitable. ...not necessarily flat but less round, lower at the center. I always used to inflate the tires hard for a long trip to hopefully reduce center wear. Lower the pressure for the twisties when you get there, air 'em back up at some gas station on the return trip.

* Last updated by: Rook on 3/22/2026 @ 9:11 AM *

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