Well, after a couple of weeks working on the '16 as time allows, I have changed my mind regarding the gen. 2 fairings; I used to really dislike them and avoid them whenever possible..... how I despise them. Truly awful arrangement with all the soft rubber edging that folds, spindles and mutilates into the bike's engine to seal them. [...]
Yep, they look great, perform great, but are a royal pain in the *ss to assemble and disassemble. Try having those AND crash bars and it is enough to make you go crazy.
I bought BMW sport grips thinking that the grips on the '16 were covers but they are the actual heating element molded in with the grips and wiring. So to change them, I will have to remove the wiring and get an earlier throttle tube to put the right grip on. So I will hold off on that for a while but I really do dislike the straight, hard
Like many people, I put some "grip puppies" over the stock grips. The stock ones are pretty hard and having a sleeve over them helps a lot. Mine are the kind without velcro, they are one-piece. Were difficult to get on, which I suppose is good so they don't slip, but have lasted all these years without any issue (amazingly).
The '16 also has the evaporative fuel system so I suppose Kawasaki got tired of making two different C-14's for the US market, one for CA and one for the other states. Not a problem though it does steal a little room under the top / right fairing as well as behind and under the fuel tank.
You can remove it if you like. Mine didn't have it and it is where I mounted the air horn stuff.
The plumbing and wiring on the bike is considerably better than it was on the '08. A minor point but it is nice to see progress there.
There were a lot of changes between gen 1 and gen 2. Most of which were good. Far more changes than one would expect after just 2 years, but the C14 was based on the ZX-14 which had been out years before. So I think they were ready to make changes on the ZX-14 and many of those just flowed over to the C14, where compatible. I think the other changes went through due to some critical reviews.
And the tires are PR 5's, not even scrubbed in yet. No experience with this tire though I did really like the PR2's and PR3's.
Wicked! I hated the Bridgestone OEM's, LOVE the PR3's, so that is one headache you can skip (assuming the PR5's are as good or better than the prior models, which is likely).