Well if you go kawasaki, you HAVE to go with kawasaki green haha, at least my bike is. Although I really like the blue color of the ninja250. I guess it will depend on what the dealer has in their inventory. The only thing I would avoid is a black bike, they make it harder for cars to see you.
Its funny that you want the ‘skuureeeoooooooo” sound more than the rumble of a cruiser! One of the reason I like v-twin sportbikes so much like the sv650 or the Honda Superhawk is because they have that rumble but also still look like a sportbike. To each their own I guess. You may have to wait a few months for some of the aftermarket manufacturers to make some slipons for the 08 ninja, but i’m sure they will make some soon and then you will be able to get the sound you want.
I personally have a Shoei helmet, but before them I tried on a scorpion helmet which rocked. Unfortunately I have a ‘shoei shaped head’ so after about 30 minutes the scorpion left some read marks on my forhead that were pretty painful. The size up was too big, so I just had to switch to a shoei. I haven’t tried an HJC but I hear they are pretty good. The main thing is you should wear the helmet in the store for 10-15 minutes and see if you get any red marks or if it hurts your head at all. You want it to be snug, but you don’t want to squish your skull. Plus the padding should conform to your face after a couple rides. Make sure you buy it from a store with a good return policy, because if you don’t like the helmet after a couple rides you are going to want to return it.
As for jackets I really like Shift Racing jackets. They are super comfortable right away, and they have good armor and good leather. Icon is a good brand too, they have really thick leather, but their prices are a bit high. Alpinestars is good, and Joe rocket can be good, but generally they are a little lower quality than other companies. A good thing to do is to try a jacket on in the store, to see what fits (you want it snug as well that way it doesn’t slide around when you are sliding on the pavement) and then try and find last years model on ebay. Thats how I got my shift jacket brand new for 140 dollars. If I were to get it in the store it would have been around 250-300.
Also make sure you get gloves and pants. A lot of people forget about riding pants, but I find that when you crash a motorycle you are going to be sliding on your ass/knees as much if not more so than your cool leather jacket. In fact when I crashed one of my motorcycles the only damange I had was ripped leather gloves (but my hands were fine!) and torn riding pants in the knee. My jacket was 100% fine because it never even touched the ground. Thankfully my firstgear riding pants absorbed all of the impact of the pavement and the only thing that ripped was the waterproof outer coating, not the abrasion resistance inner coating. It was pretty cool.
Anyway, I’m rambling a bit. Let us know what you decide!
Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin