My C14 has been out of action since April 24! After several hours of reassembly I finally took a test ride (in the rain) today and all is good. Short version:
1) Installed new 2010 ZX14 forks with custom damper valves and springs by GP Suspension/KFG Racing.
2) Seth Laam seat.
3) PR4 front
5) Replaced failed TPS replacement battery.
Long version:
I got in on the COG group buy with GP Suspension in December but waited until warm weather to send in my forks because none of my three other bikes are much fun to ride in the cold weather. While the bike was down for forks I sent my seat to Seth Laam to be customized and installed a new front tire and replaced the failed replacement TPS battery. MY solder joints had not failed as I suspected, the new battery was just dead. I probably managed to short it out with my ham fisted reassembly job.
Back to the forks. When the GP Susp. tech opened my old forks he found one was badly worn and starting to crack. I am not sure exactly where but plan to find out. A new OEM fork tube was $400 and GP offerred to acquire one for me, but I did not like that idea much as it seemed one new tube and one 120,000 mile tube was not going to make a matched set. I found a zero mile ZX14 front end on Ebay for less than $400 and had it shipped directly to GP Suspension. It took 7 days to get there (Georgia to Oregon) but the shipping was free. Then there was a bit of a delay in getting my valves made, waiting for parts from the machine shop. I was starting to get very anxious because the wife and I are scheduled to attend MSTA sport touring association rendezvous (STAR), in Rapid City South Dakota, departing on June 5. I have been calling GP every other day or so for the last two weeks. I finally got confirmation that the forks would be ready to ship 5/28. UPS ground would have them here by June 4! That was cutting it way to close. I am a decent mechanic but very slow and still occasionally make boo boos like stripping bolts, etc. No way did I want to be installing the forks the day before departures so I paid a small fortune for UPS second day air and the forks arrived last night (May 30). The installation went smoothly but I also had to re-install all the fairings as I had rounded the head of one of the lower fork clamp bolts and had needed to remove the upper fairing the extract the buggered bolt.
Could not really do much of a test ride in the rain with a new front tire but the forks seem to work much better over sharp bumps and the TPS is now working and the Seth Laam seat feels good. Ready for a ROAD TRIP! :great:
