Ah gotcha. Yes I have noticed some threads here do have a fair bit of banter, not in a bad way mind you. The light heartedness can be refreshing at times. I chose to post my build on this site vs others because I am interested in the vast opinions of others here who are not tied to the same bikes, ie KZs, CBs, Triumphs, etc.
Thanks man. Ya these builds are a lot of work, my girlfriend knows this too! The ole "so what's your plan this weekend?" question when every week even though she knows at least one day is in the garage! :-X ;D I am going to be in buying mode now as I prepare for some time off in xmas and when my contract expires Mid January to focus on my bike building while I'm in between contracts.
In my kz build I ventured into unknown territory grafting 07-10 R1 components. It was a fair bit of work compared to some of the more proven or easier swaps due to the excessively large swing arm and all the complications from that and because of the fork offset is hitting my rather large Bimota gas tank.
It's always another gamble not knowing what the stem length is going to be so I could end up with having to get a custom stem made any-ways but I am taking a chance with the 08 gsxr because it does have an unusually long fork length compared to most new sport bikes out there including previous gsxrs, so I'm crossing my fingers the stem will be longer based on that.
In this build I was looking to simply the swap a bit more to move the build along faster so I was limiting myself to options that I can use bearing conversions for. ZX's were not on the list, but I did investigate why. I'm thinking because of the wider diameter steering stem in the zx 55mm vs 48mm not leaving a whole lot of room for the bearings to fit in the xv neck. Yes I could make a spacer to swap the xv steering stem into the zx triple but doing that with my R1 conversion I was super jealous of people getting away with just bearing swaps. So I decided I would gamble.
The zx wheels are definitely a step closer to the spoke wheels than some of the other rims out there and I did consider that swap. Like you mentioned I also not that big of a fan of the YZF wheels either just the deal was super cheap. The GSXR wheels are also 3 spoke but they are much cleaner as the spokes thinner and not so swept. After already doing R1 swap I also wanted to stay away from r6/r1 5 spokes.
There is also an option of after market wheels for the gsxr suspension. Something I am considering because my supplier only has the rear wheel at the moment for 275 with rotor. These are the wheels I am thinking I might go with if I don't go with the stock gsxr wheels. These are are probly around 1600 where as stock it will be around 600-650. Going aftermarket would eat into my FCR carb budget for sure! lol. But the wheels are significantly lighter than stock so that is worth roughly 3 whp there.