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Well, I have good news and I have bad news. The bad news is that the suspension on the Ninja 1000 is just not up to handling the demands of a 6'4", 290lb rider. Honestly, given the softness of the rear, I would be surprised if it handled a 200lb rider. How so? I was able to easily, without any significant effort, bottom the rear suspension from the read handrails. So, this needs to get corrected. Bad news #2, the Ninja 1000 and its kissing cousin the Z-1000 are so new that no suspension parts exist.
So, Lauren contacted Traction Dynamics outside Atlanta. We are getting them to rebuild my suspension, front and rear.
Now, for the good news. The bike, after only 27 hours in my name and 25 hours in the house, is in pieces. The challenge was that the Service Manual doesn't even exist in the U.S. yet. Seriously! It is still at the printers. It will ship from the printers in "early December", where it will be shipped (literally, by ship) to the Kawasaki warehouse in the U.S. It doesn't even exist at the dealers. I did get the part number for the Service Manual after spending time on the phone with Kawasaki directly. The part number is 99924144231. Ask for it, by name. ;)
So, we (collectively, Lauren and I) worked our way through it. The fairing comes off in just 2 pieces, left and right. It was easy to remove. A little scary the first time, but quite easy. We measured the "approximate" distance of the rear spring (it is 14" center bolt to center bolt). The top of the rear suspension is 1" wide, and the bottom is approximately 1.5" wide. So, I created a tenon on one end of a scrap piece of 1.5" x 1.5" wood, cut it to 14", and Lauren drilled slightly offset holes in the ends. Lauren was the genius behind this technique, I just did a little woodworking. We then used the wood tool to replace the rear shock once it was removed.
The front forks dropped with just 2 sets of 2 pinch bolts, mid and handlebar level. Being so new, they dropped very easily. Removing them was a cakewalk.
As a note for future work, the headers are easily accessible. I want to remove them, and take them in for high-temp powder coating ... probably black, but red might look bad-ass or it could just look bad. ;)
Traction Dynamic hasn't even seen a Z-1000 or Ninja 1000 suspension front or rear yet. So, they are excited we are bringing it to them. We are bringing it up. I will keep you posted, but from all I have heard about them I expect outstanding results.
We don't have torque specs on any bolts. So, that is a little scary, but I think we can approximate from the bolt size. This is going well so far, stay tuned for more.
So, Lauren contacted Traction Dynamics outside Atlanta. We are getting them to rebuild my suspension, front and rear.
Now, for the good news. The bike, after only 27 hours in my name and 25 hours in the house, is in pieces. The challenge was that the Service Manual doesn't even exist in the U.S. yet. Seriously! It is still at the printers. It will ship from the printers in "early December", where it will be shipped (literally, by ship) to the Kawasaki warehouse in the U.S. It doesn't even exist at the dealers. I did get the part number for the Service Manual after spending time on the phone with Kawasaki directly. The part number is 99924144231. Ask for it, by name. ;)
So, we (collectively, Lauren and I) worked our way through it. The fairing comes off in just 2 pieces, left and right. It was easy to remove. A little scary the first time, but quite easy. We measured the "approximate" distance of the rear spring (it is 14" center bolt to center bolt). The top of the rear suspension is 1" wide, and the bottom is approximately 1.5" wide. So, I created a tenon on one end of a scrap piece of 1.5" x 1.5" wood, cut it to 14", and Lauren drilled slightly offset holes in the ends. Lauren was the genius behind this technique, I just did a little woodworking. We then used the wood tool to replace the rear shock once it was removed.
The front forks dropped with just 2 sets of 2 pinch bolts, mid and handlebar level. Being so new, they dropped very easily. Removing them was a cakewalk.
As a note for future work, the headers are easily accessible. I want to remove them, and take them in for high-temp powder coating ... probably black, but red might look bad-ass or it could just look bad. ;)
Traction Dynamic hasn't even seen a Z-1000 or Ninja 1000 suspension front or rear yet. So, they are excited we are bringing it to them. We are bringing it up. I will keep you posted, but from all I have heard about them I expect outstanding results.
We don't have torque specs on any bolts. So, that is a little scary, but I think we can approximate from the bolt size. This is going well so far, stay tuned for more.
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