Hey everyone! My name is Trey, I’m looking to get myself a zx14 but I need some advice! Originally I was planning to wait a few months to save a little money and get myself a good deal on a used zx14, just today however, a listing popped up and it seems like a great deal. A 2008 ZX14 for only $3250… now I don’t post this in hopes one of you might snag it before me hahaha, but there’s a couple caveats to the bike. The bike itself has just over 29k miles, but it just had a brand new motor it in. An engine off a 2011 with only 1k miles on it. All the work was done by Kawasaki which seems good. My question is, should I worry this bike was beaten, or not well maintained? Will there likely be more maintenance in the near future? Should I wait for something a little less miles for much more money? It’s quite a drive for me, so I want to make this all worth it. Thanks I’m advance!

-Trey

29K miles isn't a lot, if the bike was well maintained, even if ridden hard, that sounds like at least a fair deal unless the body's rough. If it was beaten and not maintained... hmm.

If I dare speak for our general consensus, a normally ridden and well maintained 14 should have no issues running 100k miles if not more. That's not babying it, proably not beating the shit out of it either.

If the replacement engine legit has a 1000 miles on it, that's sound as a pound. 29K on the frame, unless it was wrecked, or there's hidden frame damage from a lot of hard set downs from bad wheelying, other than maintenance the chassis is probably fine. Might use a fork/shock rebuild/replacement. Also probably due for a steering stem bearing maintenance (grease, possibly replace if needed).

Seems like a pretty good deal to me. If the mileage on the motor is questionable, I'd at least listen to it very carefully for valve ticking. Now if you're NOT familiar with these motors, they usually are fairly ticky...you just have to kind of know what's normal. I'm only sayig this, because with 1000 miles the motor should sound new.

Look at the fork seals for leaks. I'd check the brake pads for wear, and brake fluid. MIGHT give you an idea on how keen the owner was on maintenance. Brake fluid should be CLEAR like water. Yellow, greenish, thick, etc are all signs of VERY OLD frake fluid.

$3200 isn't a lot. So I'd expect the bike to be rougher. But a little TLC you could probably sell it for more than what you paid, so you could probably put a little into it without losing everything.

@VicThing that’s all great advice. I guess my only real concern then would be the ticky motor. I have no clue what I’m looking for there. Any advice?

i don't know what a bad tick sounds like but my 08 made a soft tick since new. Some ZX-14 motors have lubrication issues that can lead to the motor self destructing. If the bike has a new one, that's probably why. It would be very unusual for a 14 to have a bad motor and then get a replacement that also went bad. If you like it, buy it. $3250 is a good deal.

Ticking are tight valves. Piston slap going up and then tick on tick on the down transition would have lost material off the piston skirts and seized already. That's my non-hearing guess.

I'd look at it this way. IT's $3250. If you get 30k miles out of it and it becomes worth literally 0 you got your moneys worth.

Hopefully the body's in good condition, might just need a little TLC a little touch up here or there or a couple replacement panels and you could have a really nice bike. Myself, I'd probably be willing to put a grand into it with out worrying about the value. $3250 seems low but that's probably for a reason (probably condition).

Obviously there's no guarantee on anything, the bike could blow up riding it home, it could run for the next 20 years.

I don't think as long as it's running the next couple years you shouldn't have much of an issue getting your money back out of it.

The beauty of an aluminum frame is they don't bend, they break apart. Very easy to see a crack line at the base of the welds, or cracked off of the frame itself.

https://www.kbb.com/motorcycles/kawasaki/ninja-zx-14/2008/?pricetype=tradein&vehicleclass=motorcycles

trey, if you didn't buy it yet here are my walk/buy list of the walk-around:
Buy: Dropped, ever so slow scrapes, no bar ends ground flat.
Walk: Broken off handle bars, smashed fairing parts, blown out a crank inspection cover, fell on the stator side, possible bend crank ends.

Buy: A neglected serviced bike with engine ticks, Cloudy Dot3 in the rez.
Walk: An engine knock, strange noises, general neglect.

Buy: Walk up to a cold engine, start and stop it within 2 seconds. Feel every header pipe near the head.
Walk: Start/stop engine. Feel any cold pipe.

Buy: Stand in back of the bike, owner starts engine. Puffs no smoke upon startup.
Walk: Bike starts, puff of smoke and clears up. Worn valve guides dripping down a valve is burning oil.

Buy: A sitter. All there, nothing off the bike, assume the owner lost interest, no time, etc.
Walk: Sitter has parts sprinkled all over is matching the purchase price to get it back up and running is break even, meaning, could have bought a running bike than getting it back up and running with parts alone, not adding labor if farmed out.