Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Hi, I am new to ZRXs, only had her a couple of months, I have had many sport bikes in the past and thought the Rex would be more comfortable while still having power and grunt in my old age.
I would like to quicken up the steering and on previous bikes I have raised the forks thru the triple clamps. It seems you guys do the same thing by rotating your concentrics 180 degrees? Does this achieve a similar result? Pros cons of each method?
I would also like to liven her up a bit. I am happy with the power and grunt, my bike has a full Muzzy syastem but would just like to be a bit more responsive. I will drop the front sprocket to 16 teeth.
Any thoughts on this or advice experienced riders can give regarding settings on standard suspension would be much appreciated. I weigh 90 kgs
Regards Rob

You'll get plenty of help here mate. I expect Phil or Marty will be along very soon. I've had a Rex for 8 months now coming off a ZX10 and it was the best thing I've ever done. I haven't done much to mine other then fitting a set of Gazi Shocks with height adjusters. Rising the rear ride height makes it steer a bit quicker and the Gazi's are much better then the stockers. problem though is that it makes you realise the front isn't so good.

In terms of settings for the front I've pretty well got everything about one or two steps off maxed out and that seems to be as good as I've found it. I think the general opinion is that you can only go so far.

You'll probably get mixed reviews on the concentrics. Marty has done his i think and is pretty happy with it. I've heard that it can make your chain touch the swingarm so I've been too chicken to try it..


Next step for me is something with the front forks but I don't know what.

Good luck with it.

If you have standard length shocks, flip the eccentrics. Flipping the eccentrics, with a standard length shock will not change the swingarm angle enough to start chewing through to top of the swingarm chain guide. Nor will having the eccentrics flipped with a set of Gazi shocks fitted. I hve Gazi's with the longer bottom eyelet plus the eccentrics flipped and no chain chewing issues.

As for the front, I have an S not an R model, so my front end is completely different to yours. Thus I have nothing to offer you at the front end, except for geometry suggestions, as my spring and damper rates are different to your model. I run about an additional 10mm of of fork tube showing above the triples than standard. Plus longer shocks & the eccentrics flipped and it will give any modern litre sports bike a run for it's money on the road. I have never (Apart from when I tipped it over) touched a footpeg or anything else while cornering and I like to crank it waaaaaaaaaaay over!!!

Rear shock settings I can help you with. Crank everything to Max. You weigh 100kgs, I weigh 76kgs and I ran mine on full everything until I replaced them with the Gazi shocks. (About $800 of the best money you can spend on a Rex)

I run my eccentrics flipped but my chain has touched the swingarm. If I was to start again I would opt for the shock extensions rather than flipping the eccentrics but you do need to lift the rear to get a ZRX to tip in a bit easier.

I also run a 16 tooth front sprocket but you will need to order one with a spacer as no one makes a ZRX specific one. The place to order one is through Dave Ditner on http://www.zrxoa.org/forums/index.php . His Paypal is cbxdavey@Gmail.com You will probably need to join zrxoa to get to see the pages but it's worth joining as there is so much info about a ZRX on that site.

To improve responsiveness you can also put an ignition advancer in. I have a +2 which gives it 4 degrees of advance which feels much crisper. http://www.zrxoa.org/forums/showthread.php?t=240170

Have a look in here and get the credit card ready. http://www.zrxoa.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=292 There are plenty of good bits that you may start to need after you see them.

Unlike Strika, I have touched a peg down but that was before I flipped my eccentrics and when I was running standard weight springs and I'm 120kg. Since flipping the eccentrics and fitting stiffer springs in the front and rear I have no issue with clearence anymore.

As for settings, the rear shocks are rubbish and the late model forks like ours cannot be re-valved so if you push it, you will most likely want to replace a few things. There are a few of us running Ohlins rears but Strika and Glen are happy with their Gazzi shocks. A couple of us with late model bikes like yours will most likely be looking at replacing the cartridges in the front forks soon to get the front end to work as well as the rear aftermarket shocks so if you are interested we might be able to get a group buy happening.

Bit of good reading here>>>> viewtopic.php?f=32&t=30741

Hi Rob.
I am in Brisbane & have a 2002 ZRX1200s .
With the Std suspension & my weight is 95kg will all my riding gear
Forks 4 lines showing for preload, maximun rebound & 5 click out for compression
Rear shocks 3 preload. 3 rebound & 3 compression.
In my opinion this is as good as you are gunna get with the std suspension,
I am with the other guys on the gazi's . When you can afford go for some Gazi rear shocks.[ massive improvement] & flip the eccentrics.
You have the later model forks so i am not too sure about them maybe some springs & new oil.
The REX is such a versatile bike
Cheers

Good to have another senior motorcyclist on the forum WELCOME MATE!!!....

As an ex ZRX lover I have one word OHLINS enjoy your Rex