Thinking of buying used concours, got some questions

[fjod]

Hello forum members! Sorry for my english in advance.

I am from Russia, I think I'm ready to start saving money for next bike, hopefully I will have enough on the next august-september. I have 4 years of experience riding FZ6, it is also sport-touring bike; I liked riding it so next one should be from same category, but more about tourism than sport. So I found several suitable models and GTR looks better than others. I have several questions about techinical problems that I managed to google around russian internet community and youtube videos, but I want to know if they are present outside of Russia too

(ordered as they are concern me from most at the top)
1. Air filter is "loose" in the case, or the case is "loose" in it's place and sand can go around filter and get inside engine. Guy in the video talked about some custom air filter gasket and recommended looking at air intake to check if there is sand on it.
2. Cylinder cover gasket leaks oil and has to be frequently replaced. I read about using special copper washers and that if you change big gasket, you also have to change several smaller gaskets; and it leaks on regular basis.
3. Timing chain tensioner is operated not by spring; but by oil pressure. I googled a lot about it, so what is the result solution? Change it to spring-based one (whats the pros/cons)? Do not care about sound on engine start? Is there any  fixed mileage when timing chain should be checked/changed? Shoud I replace timing chain guides too? Could you link example video with sound of "chain needs to be changed" ?
4. KIPASS system. I heard that it mostly reliable, but I'm not going to buy new (or even recent) bike; so what about maintanence of this system in used bike? Let's say, it was made in 2008 and I am buying it in 2022, what should I check/replace?
5. Does it have fuel filter? Is it replaceable?
6. Is there any web-site or any other resource with photos of stock GTRs, listed by year and color made ? It is very suitable when checking the condition of used bike.
6. Tyre pressure sensons, is bike fine without them working? (I found how to fix them already; just what about when they are not working at all)
7. I had trouble finding crash bars (engine/frame/cowling) protectors or even crash sliders. Bike is heavy, I'm afraid of falling on ~0 speed and braking all cowling, which costs much money. Does it have central stand by default?
8. One guy said that wheel discs are soft, he bent both discs in one year and had to fix them. Roads in Russia are very bad, so I think its 50/50 (bad luck)/(getting in big pothole on speed).
9. I saw front brake discs from Aliexpress on several used bikes, it's wierd for me. Usually it's a signal that bike was in a crash and was fixed with cheap parts. I think it's hard to estimate how long brake disc will last; but on general estimate, do people change front brake discs often?
10. General advices what should I check on used GTR 1400 when looking on it; are there some unique things? I heard about weak subframe(underframe? back piece that that holds cases and 2nd rider); if it was already broken and then welded back, how bad is it? Should I take off front cowling to check frame/engine condition?

Regards, Michael

[Boomer]

Hi Michael, and welcome. 

Your English is WAY better than our Russian! 

1. Never heard of this. Sounds like an issue on one bike only. Possibly someone who rides in a desert often?

2. Common issue, normally caused by the o-ring seal on the camshaft position sensor on the front of the engine. Fixed by using a thicker o-ring. Can also be caused by not fitting the rocker cover rubber gasket correctly.

3. The oil driven tensioner works fine. It makes a little noise for a few seconds until the oil pressure rises, then goes quiet. I don't know of anybody that has changed a camchain yet and we have several C14s that are over 150 000 miles (240 000km).
Some have fitted manual camchain tensioners. With those you need to check them occasionally to make certain that the tension is correct. Overtightening of a manual camchain tensioner will stretch the camchain.

4. KIPASS works well. Make certain that you get both keys when you buy the bike (08-09 will have 2 KIPASS fobs, 2010- will have a KIPASS fob and a credit card RFID only key). There are known issues with the ignition switch sticking, especially on earlier models.

5. Yes, built into the fuel pump in the fuel tank. Replacement is $10 and about 1 hours work.

6. Google for stock photos. Colours vary from country to country.

Other 6. If you have the TPS sensors fitted and the batteries are low, the warning will override other functions on the display. Either make sure that batteries in the sensors are good, or replace them with normal non-TPS valve stems and forget about the TPS.

7. Centre stand is standard. Crash bars can be had from various places. In Europe these are R&G and there was a place in Poland, but I can no longer find any details for them.

8. The OEM rotors have known problem with the bobbins getting stuck. This leads many owners to believe that their disks are warped when they are not. Clean the bobbins with brake cleaner until they rotate easily and the problem goes away. Not a problem with most aftermarket rotors.

9. My OEM front rotors lasted 42000 miles (68000km). I replaced them with Chinese Arashi rotors and those are still good at 75000miles. Most have used EBC rotors and a few others use Galfer and Brembo.

10. Just the usual general checks. Check the motor temperature with your hand before you start it. It should be cold so you can see how it starts from cold.
I always warn the owner that I will do this before I start it. If I arrive and the bike is already warm, I walk away.

The rear subframe is not weak, but it all depends on how the previous owner treated it. If it was broken, then I would suspect it had been crashed. I am 190Kg and my pillion is 110Kg and my subframe has survived at least 5000 miles with that load on it plus another 70000 miles with just me on it.

The C14 is a road bike, so if you have really bad roads then you need to expect things to break. If the roads are really that bad, you may be better off with a Dual-Sport (Trail) bike.

Good luck in your search 

[Freddy]

1. That is a problem with K&N filter, not Hiflo or genuine Kaw air filter.2.
2. The Exh cam sensor O ring may leak.  Fit a slightly thicker one if it does.  The valve cover gasket may also leak very slightly.  Fit a copper or fibre
    washer under as many of the cover bolts one at a time as you can get to in order to compress the rubber gasket a little more.
3. No problems with the original chain tensioner and the chain will last the life of the bike.  Leave them alone.
4. Kipass is virtually trouble free, though a very small number of the very early bikes had a problem with the activation switch under the knob getting stuck
    so that the dash display would not activate.
5. Yes inside the internal fuel pump. Not hard to replace and cheap aftermarket ones work very well.  Allow 3 hours.
6. There are early and late sensors.  The early ones are easy to replace the battery in - later ones not so much.  If they do not work at all - so what?
7. Centre stand is factory fitted.  T-Rex Racing for crash bars.
8. Discs get damaged only during tyre changes - otherwise all good.
9. It depends on how hard you ride the brakes.  Some will last the life of the bike; others will wear thin.
10. There are no frame or engine problems although a very, very small number of early bikes developed a cracked frame near the centre stand mount due
   to rear engine mounts being overtightened at the factory (first identified on ZX14 bikes which have the same arrangement).

[jwh20]

The leaking valve cover gasket situation worries me.  One thing that some owners do is to try to stop leaks by tightening the bolts that hold the cover on.  This will almost always result in stripping the threads that the bolts screw into and now you have an impossible problem.  The gasket itself rarely leaks as long as it's replaced when the valve cover is removed.  The pressure on the gasket is determined by the thickness of the rubber seals that go onto the bolts, not by the amount of torque used on the bolts.  So tightening them doesn't help.

Unfortunately, getting to them to check involves quite a bit of work since you must remove the fairings and a number of other parts to get in there.

It's a fairly involved process to fix the stripped out threads on the cylinder head if that's what has happened.  I can't imagine doing it without pulling the cylinder head.  I'm not sure if that's possible with the engine in the bike or not.

Nothing about the C14's frame is weak.  So I agree that a broken rear subframe is a sign of collision damage not loading the bike.

[fjod]

Thank you for the thorough answers!
I googled about BMW K1300 and found out it has problems with reductor(cardan shaft - rear wheel transmisson). Some bearings need to be changed every 20k kilometers or so; and it's hard to properly change them, so people on russian forum have a big discussion about it. Then I thought about GTR, it has same type of transmission. When bike uses chain, it's simple - swap it and sprockets -> problem solved. I googled about similar problems on GTR and found only one topic when there was some oil leakage from reductor; so some gaskets or o-rings have to be replaced (though it's not easy; but it's not like I have to spend 20% of bike cost on such small thing). In all other "places" people simply say something like "change oil in reductor each 5(10)k kilometers and thats it". Please tell me your experience about this part! How can I check reductor condition on used bike?

[maxtog]

The shaft drive in the C14/GTR is really reliable.  In fact, the whole bike is very reliable.  As for the valve gasket, I have never seen a post confirming a leak; it is always that stupid sensor O ring that leaks.  But when I adjusted my valves, I replaced the gasket along with installing an oversized O ring.  The cost of the gasket is very minor compared to the tons of work getting access to all that stuff.

[Tylerkaz]

As for the crash / tip over bars t-rex racing still has front and some for the saddle bags not sure if they ship outside of usa.

[Kman]

The things that I would look at carefully on a used GTR are:

1) Have the brake and clutch fluids been changed regularly?
2) Has the coolant been changed per service recommendation with PROPER coolant?
3) Underseat rust spots
4) Fork seals

The thing I would check for or add for poor roads would be a radiator guard.

Generally speaking the GTR is a rock solid bike! Good luck with your purchase!

[maxtog]

The things that I would look at carefully on a used GTR are:

You missed- last valve adjustment date/mileage.  That is, by far, the most complicated thing on this bike.