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Kawasaki ZX10R [GEN 1 Rebuild]

2405 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  Imperial.Deadstock, 
Imperial.Deadstock
Greetings Everyone,

Foremost, a big hi to everyone who contributed a lot to this forum. Have been in this forum for quite some time but did not create an account :grin2:

Well, I have been an owner of a Kawasaki ZX10R Gen 1 for 6 years. And, I have seen many great modifications here. Of course, I would like to have them done on my bike too!

There are things I want to do to my machine. As such, I need some help. It will be great if you guys could tell me yes or no. If yes, do tell me how to go about doing it.

I know some of the things I am keen to do have been done before in this forum. However, there are some stuff I am not too sure about. It will be good if you could show me the item needed, what year etc.

1) Swapping Gen 1 swingarm to Gen 3 swingarm
I have the swingarm only. Is there anything else that I might need? I have its paint stripped. But it looks half done. Damn :thefinger_red:

2) Newer generation front forks
Gen 3 or Gen 4 front suspension or others? My current ones are not straight and performing.

3) Newer generation triple clamps
Gen 2 or Gen 3...? Is it a direct fit?

4) Racing road fairings
I personally like the Sharkskinz fairings but there are no openings for the signal lights. Are they really good quality ones out there? I am totally not into China fairings. I am currently using the OEM ones but the tail is messed up. I guess I just want them new.

5) Brakes
I want to upgrade the rotors and calipers. Are there any recommendations? I am thinking of Brembo calipers with BrakeTech rotors.

6) What mirrors can I use?
Can the newer generation ZX10R mirrors fit my Gen 1?

7) Racing footrest
Are the Chinese ones good? They seem to look better and perform better now. The main reason is not that I am stingy. I like something simple and not too aggressive. And the Chinese ones are doing a good job in terms of looks. Any comments?

8) Racing tailboard?

9) Engine wise
I want the engine to be durable. Honestly, the bike is fast enough for me. But if I could make it faster without compromising the engine durability, I would really love to upgrade my engine. Any comments on this?

10) Tell me more.

Best Regards :hello:
Imperial.Deadstock
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M
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Hi! :hello:

Some answers that I know of below :)
Hope this helps!

Imperial.Deadstock said:
5) Brakes
I want to upgrade the rotors and calipers. Are there any recommendations? I am thinking of Brembo calipers with BrakeTech rotors.
Click to expand...
Calipers: 07+ ZX6R or ZX14R Nissin calipers. This will GREATLY improve the braking performance! Friend of mine went from these Nissin's to Brembo's (P4's) and has not felt that big a difference. So these Nissin's will do great.
Discs: personally I run Brembo 320mm oversize Superbike full floating discs. Also, great improvement over OEM.


7) Racing footrest
Are the Chinese ones good? They seem to look better and perform better now. The main reason is not that I am stingy. I like something simple and not too aggressive. And the Chinese ones are doing a good job in terms of looks. Any comments?
Click to expand...
PP-TUNING :) Great quality, great price.
Personally I wouldn't go for chinese stuff...
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TechX
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I have a Gen 1 bought it new 12 years ago. I don't know if its worth getting that radical and changing to a Gen 3 swingarm and forks. Mine is strictly for track use these days. I have a Gen 3 and 4 also. I'm an old school guy so I just went with Race Tech suspension front and rear. Really improved overall feel of the front and the rear soaks up bumps like their not even there. I did a 520 conversion chain and sprockets. IMHO the engine makes the best low and midrange torque of any of the Gen's. Since I went track only I put a Brembo Master and calipers on Galfer Superbike rotor's brake's are stupid good. I hear the Brake Tech rotor's are the bomb so you can't go wrong using those. If your not going to do a lot of track days then use a Brembo master off a late model R1 07 or later cheaper than buying one from Brembo and gives awesome power and feed back. Also Nissin calipers off a late model ZX6 or 14 will really give you amazing brake's. I left the engine alone no Power Commander or ECU reflash. All though I hear you can gain a little bit with the reflash. Our track has a sound limit so I use the stock exhaust its quiet and never trips the sound meter for other tracks I have a Yosh slipon. You can play with rear ride height but be careful to much ride height and the bike becomes unstable. Its a bit twitchy in stock form. I love my gen 1 is lighter than all the other Gen's and is slimmer the Gen 3 and especially the 4 seem to carry their weight a bit higher you don't notice it at speed but taking it off the kickstand and holding the bike upright you can feel the higher weight load on the 3 and 4. Just my 2 cents worth of owning a Gen 1 for 12 years.

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K
Hi, i have put yamaha blue spot calipers on my gen 1 with brembo master cylinder & 320mm brembo fully floating clubman disc's. The calipers need a 5mm spacer to allow for the bigger diameter disc & brembo pads to top it off.
Engine wise, i stripped the engine right down to it's component parts & had all the steel parts-crank,cams,gears,gear shafts (inc. the primary drive gear at the back of the clutch) super finished which reduces a lot of internal friction,all the valve seats re-cut,skimmed the head to raise comp.,factory pro velocity stack's in the air box,secondary throttle butterflies removed,power commander & a full akrapovic evo exhaust which equate's to 170wbhp & 81lb/ft. I have tried the gen 3 swingarm and found the following problems-1)the rear tyre fowls the end of the bellypan so you need to trim that down & 2) the gen 1 wheel spacers are slightly narrower (by about 2-3mm) so you will need wider spacers & you will need a shorter chain too.
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Imperial.Deadstock
Hey, thank you for the inputs....!! I will get some stuff when I am free. And I'll probably show the finished product.

But it will probably get a long time as im waiting for the repair manual to drop by ?
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