All of that is fixable, in fact, easily fixable, including the chain drive.
But the part that is not negotiable, the engine, chassis and major components, are and excellent, known quantity with a huge aftermarket support system. And if the C-14 goes away, and let's be honest, at 1,000 units a year I believe that is highly likely, there just are not many replacements out there. The C-14 was as big and bulky as I wanted, maybe even 50 lbs. overweight, so that tosses the BMW 1600 out the window. The Feejer is definitely in the slot, but I have not really cared for past models mostly due to vibration; nothing terrible, just more buzz than I want to sit on for a lot of hours at a time. The Triumph is under- powered, overpriced and does not have either the dealer or aftermarket support I would like to see. So we are running pretty low on options. Of course I did not even bother to mention entire lines of bikes I would not consider: cruisers, any 'V' or 90 degree twin and so forth, anything that even resembles sitting in a gynecologist's "chair" (legs forward and spread, spine back, you know, all ready for Dr. Coldfinger).
My wife and I, and it is mostly me, are too big for a liter bike; they are just not long enough (Easy Girls!).
The only other thing might be something really different such as a Honda 1200F, but the last rev. of that is downright fugly IMO. But the underlying bike has potential, although it is rather expensive and farkles are even more so so that is not really likely to happen.
Sport tourers and full- tourers are a tough market. Over the years, a few have come and gone, and some other bikes claim to slide into that slot that are really not (read: all the big V-twins on the planet in their 'I have a top box' mode). And some were really interesting and had a future but because they have never sold well, there has never been and drive to flesh out models and really allow them to mature, with a very few exceptions such as the FJR (still working on that) and the Goldwing (a fantastic bike, it just does not 'float my boat').
I will be sorry to see the C-14 go, if it does, but in a way, it is already gone: very sluggish sales, very low used prices and a very soft market and worst of all, a very soft new market with two and more year old 'brand new' bikes being sold by dealers. That is just not tolerable and the whole thing seems to be getting worse, not better. So there are three choices as I see it: 1) the model hangs around another year or two and fades away, 2) the model is discontinued after or even during this next model year (both options are really about the same) or 3) Kawasaki makes a serious, concerted effort to make the bike much more salable while at the same time holding the sale price down low enough to be reasonable compared with the FJR.
Brian
Wouldn't do it for me at all. There is no way it could be made comfortable- bars wrong, pegs REALLY wrong, no electric windscreen, etc, etc; and I am way beyond chain drive.