lie2me

Please take a look at the front fairing support bolts on the neck of the frame. I was riding the bike to work, noticed my windscreen start to shake, looked down an noticed one of the two bolts was gone. I was on the freeway, so I thought I would just slow down and hold onto it. I went to make a U-Turn and the bike went in a nearly straight line. The second castle nut had come off and fell between the tab on the frame and the center of the tree---I was not able to turn the bike to the left.

I know someone on a 14 forum had mentioned these bolts before, but I blew it off. I run thru 4 round-a-bouts and 3 long circular on-ramps every day. Luckily, I was doing a short u-turn when this happened and not a higher speed on-ramp. My steering was definitely impeded enough to cause a wipe on the long sweeping ramps.

Swapped out the lost bolt and loctite on both of them. I also wound up with several of the small fairing screws that worked their way almost all the way out due to the shaking.

I'm 'that guy' that didn't take the advice of other members & didn't pull over to inspect my bike once I noticed a problem.

L2m

lie2me

lie2me

I have two missing fairing screws that seemed to have worked their way out to the highway. Both of them looked just fine, and I had tightened all of them before I left the dealership. My guess is that with all of the shaking from the missing fairing stay bolts, they were loosened up enough to fall out? They were not sticking up at all, looked as tight as the day I picked it up at the dealership. This goes to show you that they need to be checked. Those two fairing bolts are my fault...so the cowl has two less bolts for now. Rechecking the entire bike before I ride it again---and going to stop being lazy about checking them.
Anyone ever try a small piece of teflon tap on the fairing screws? I'm not sure this would help, might make it a pain in the ass with those brass/rubber grommets on the backside. Just a thought.

Green

Acorn nut

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goingtoscotland

castle nut

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Green

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Ninjawarrior1244

3000 miles on my 14r, the bottom bolt and nut were missing when I was riding with a group. The bottom bolt had almost worked it's way all the way out...the nut had fallen off but found it on the bottom of the pan....whole fairing was shaking badly......scary.....

Mentioned it on another zx site and everybody was laughing........you should not have to go around with an out of the crate ZX14r with 3000 miles on it and re-attach the front fairing....get rid of cap headed nuts, use loctite......just do it even if yours aren't loose yet!

I sent a note to Kawasaki customer service about it and got an answer back in less than 24 hours....so everyone else that has this problem do the same thing.

Ninja

dogszzr

Yes, this happened to me after 800 miles on my bike. Locktite and yes I know to check periodically.

chads_mustang_cobra

Wow nice info..may need to check mine...bike runs smooth up to 120mph but when it hits 130 the front fairing shakes like hell...wonder if im having the same problem as u guys...my old 14 never done this so i was kinda shocket the first time it happened and figured the rim and tire needed to be balanced ...i will definitely be checking those bolts and all other bolts tomorrow ...thanks for the info!