Kawisaki Ninja 250R discussion

[TruckHyperMiler]

Its been 7 years, and I don't want to upgrade yet...

I do sometimes wish I could afford the new version of the 250, with its fancy looks and catalytic converter.

I can accelerate 0 to 60 in under 6 seconds. Why would I need more power?

I used it for a year on a 50 mile (each way) commute, would regularly hit 100mph (I was young) and still get 60+ mpg.
When I take passengers for rides up in the hills and ride it hard, I get at least 55mpg.
When I drive slow highway miles ducked under the windshield I get 70+

Plus (in CA at least) you can drive between lanes in rush hour traffic. Idling wastes an awful lot of gas. I pass people on large powerful touring bikes and Harleys because they aren't light and maneuverable enough to safely drive between lanes

[alvaro84]

Originally Posted by korax123

Odd the worst mileage I got with my 250 was 67mpg. That was hard canyon riding and a lot of 78mph freeway.

I was looking for Ninja250 results in the garage, but all I could find was worse than I expected - but finally I found yours. When I was looking for a commuter vehicle (120kms per day, mostly off-city/freeway) I took the little Ninja into consideration too. Funny that it was its price that scared me away, the mentioned 2k and 3k are very-very far from what I could've get it for... in Hungary it's almost $7k at today's exchange rates, a year ago it was even more expensive and I couldn't find any second hand back then (no wonder, it was a new model). Finally I bought Teresa much cheaper, and I don't regret my choice (I get similar FE, I just can't get the same flat graph line of yours ). Still I'd like to try a lil Ninja once. Now we have a different 250, it's a Hyosung GV250 (my girlfriend needed a cruiser fitting her height) which potentially could do the same gas mileage, I think we should get its carbs synchronized soon because I could never do better 3.4l/100km (69mpg) with it, and it was at winter, with way too low tire pressure and some city rides. Something's not right here... someone at the Hungarian Hyosung forum could get 78mpg at his first ride...

[GasSavers_Clayslayer]

New here. Hi. Got that over with.

I have to toss my vote in for the Ninja 250 being one of the coolest bikes of all time. I would love to tell you that I've ridden them for years but that's not the case. I've been trying to get my wife to ride one for years with no luck. Even offered to buy her one, she didn't bite. I need to have her head examined.

I started out on a Ninja 650 and don't regret owning that bike for a heartbeat. That bike, when ridden at 75-85mph on my 100 mile/day commute would consistently knock down 50-55 miles per gallon. I did like the bike, it was what I like to call "pathetically" reliable. It was smooth, comfortable, looked decent... It was a bit scary in the canyons though with it's crappy non adjustable suspension. Granted I hit them a bit harder than what is considered by most to be....sane. Still the bike is an EXCELLENT starter bike that won't really grow old over time. The parellel twin engine is outstanding. She gave me 7,800 trouble free miles in one summer.

I traded the Kawasaki off on a 2007 CBR600RR. Many of you here cringe at hearing of a 'supersport' bike. I don't care. It has just a tick under 110 horsepower at the rear wheel and when ridden reasonably will still get well over 50mpg. Granted at interstate speeds in the 85mph ballpark it gets mid to high 40s. Took a bit of a hit on mpg compared to the 650 but not that much. I replaced the suspenson with Ohlins bits (pricey, don't remind me...) and the brakes are top notch. The handling on this thing is superb. The performance was more than worth the small drop in economy. I am confident that if I so choose I can beat well over 99% of the cars on the road and most of the bikes for that matter with a twist of the wrist. Or I can get great gas mileage and save money. Best of both worlds. 8,000 miles later it might as well be new. Except for the tires, they don't last too long.

I also have a 1996 Harley Road King. That thing is a two wheeled lumber wagon. It's also about the most comfortable abomination I've ever ridden. It's fuel injected, reliable, comfortable, has it's own character, and oh yeah, get's damned near 50mpg too. Go figure. Some say that Harleys are horribly unreliable but this one has 35K miles and I'd bet a paycheck that it'll triple that before I have to put it out to pasture. A few guys talk about Harley sportsters. I have to somewhat agree: the sportster is a good quality bike but no matter what you do to it, it's still a sportster. I've nothing against those who ride them but you couldn't run fast enough to give me one of the newer stock looking ones. XR1200 maybe....but that's it. A sportster will get good mileage but believe it or not so will the "big" ones. Just avoid the ones that've been customized by a previous owner, cringe at the word "rejetted" and run for the hills if the seller mentions "Power Commander". This rule is for all bikes in general.

I also have a 2002 VW Jetta TDi. 45mpg on that on a bad day. Best I've gotten to date was 56mpg. Can't complain there. 286,000 miles and so far I've replaced a clutch that didn't need it (don't get me started) and a few timing belts.

Also have a 1977 Ford F150 that I transplanted a 4BT Cummins into. It gets an honest 20mpg at 75mpg. Doesn't sound that great but realize this is a full size pickup that actually gets 20+mpg. After I get the overdrive put in it ought to get over 25. I'd like to give a great mileage number here but it's not completely done yet. I only have about 2,000 miles on the conversion so far.

There....put that in your pipe and smoke it.

[Project84]

Nice to see someone bringing this back from the dead.

I back burnered the idea for a long time because that friend I mentioned in the first post, the guy who let me ride is 600.... he broke both his legs riding it a few weeks after I posted this topic. Sort of convinced me to ignore the impulse to buy for a while.

But now...

I just bought a house and it'll be tax return season soon! With the Gov't giving me $8k for being a first-time home owner, I'm back in the market.

Now though, after talking to a few people about other bikes, I'm also looking into SV650's. I think they're sexy and for some reason they are pretty affordable ($2,500-3,500 for a 4-5 year old bike). I still don't want to over-do it. I'm a very rational person.

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Originally Posted by Project84

Nice to see someone bringing this back from the dead.

I back burnered the idea for a long time because that friend I mentioned in the first post, the guy who let me ride is 600.... he broke both his legs riding it a few weeks after I posted this topic. Sort of convinced me to ignore the impulse to buy for a while.

But now...

I just bought a house and it'll be tax return season soon! With the Gov't giving me $8k for being a first-time home owner, I'm back in the market.

Now though, after talking to a few people about other bikes, I'm also looking into SV650's. I think they're sexy and for some reason they are pretty affordable ($2,500-3,500 for a 4-5 year old bike). I still don't want to over-do it. I'm a very rational person.

Don't let little things like broken legs stop you from riding, if that's what you want to do...I broke one leg (and an arm) while riding, and, as soon as I could get on a bike again, I got another one.

But the prices they go for today...2.5k to 3.5k...for a 4-5 year old bike! The most expensive bike I ever bought was $3500...and that was for a Brand New GoldWing!

I'm rather amazed at the performance I've been seeing people claim for Ninja 250s...110 mph? My Yamaha XS400 (1978) was doing good to hit 75mph! But I did get 60 MPG out of it...

[alvaro84]

Originally Posted by JoeBob

I'm rather amazed at the performance I've been seeing people claim for Ninja 250s...110 mph? My Yamaha XS400 (1978) was doing good to hit 75mph! But I did get 60 MPG out of it...

Good to see this thread again. Still haven't tried the little Ninja, but got better with the BMW F650CS and the Hyosung GV250. Now I regularly do in the 70s with the latter and 80s with the former - my best tanks are 82 and 98 mpg respectively So I can only recommend the fuel injected BMW F650s (CS, GS and Dakar) for those who want very capable bikes with good FE (CS is the most streamlined of them, being pretty low seated and not having the GS 'beak'). I still only can beat her FE in the winter with the GV250 (which has carburetor).
As for their top speed, I've heard it depends on their firmware: Teresa has her rev limiter set to 7000 so her top speed is 109mph by the tach (tried on an empty freeway in a nice spring dawn ). Someone at f650.com wrote about versions that allow for 7200 or 7500 rpms an I think the engine totally has the power for a bit higher speed.

[sprale]

Still plugging away daily on the Ninjette, I'm up over 31k miles and counting. Still hovering around 65-70mpg in city commuting. New luggage recently doesn't affect economy or handling. Tall windscreen still gives a comfortable riding position. I'll probably just keep riding it until there's nothing left. It's very inexpensive to operate; cheap insurance, low octane fuel, cheap parts readily available. If I had to pick a good first bike over again, I'd still choose the first gen Ninja 250.

[Project84]

Bit the bullet today.

2004 Ninja 250R
5,300 miles, 3 previous owners, been laid down a time or two but has clean title.

Silver w/ black/orange graphics.

Needs rear brake disc.

This will be added to the garage and hopefully rack up some miles this summer!!

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Wow....5.3 k miles, and it needs a rear (?) brake disk?

Guess my riding style was different...I've had several bikes of all different sizes, and have never had to touch the brakes on any of them. Tires, on the other hand...

Enjoy it! Looks like you may have some nice bike roads to the south of you...

[theholycow]

Not knowing anything about motorcycles and having read JoeBob's post, I'd recommend thoroughly checking the brake system to make sure it's not dragging the rear brake or anything like that.