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250R or 650R?
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Here’s my story.
I originally was wanting a Blue Yamaha R6. Then I read this site and books, and found out that it wasn’t a probably good idea to start on a 600cc sportbike like that, especially since I didn’t know how to ride at all. And I would have had to take out a loan for it. Seemed silly to take out a loan for something until I was sure I actually like riding at all.
Then I lusted for the Green Ninja 250 08. Especially when I saw the price tag of it new, compared to the R6. But everyone on Craigslist wanted way too much for them IMHO, thinking that I would help them with getting cash so they could get a 600. I had under 2K to work with.
So, I spent months and months hunting on Craigslist.
My favorite was the kid in Cincinnati who had a black Ninja 650 who kept lowering his price by $200 a day in the end of winter on Craigslist. I think at one point, it was down to $2600. I wanted to jump on it, but a) I hadn’t taken BRC yet, and had no clue how to ride, and b) it was still outside my budget, even though I could have just as easily traded it in the spring for a nice 250 and some cash.
Most of the bikes in my budget limits were some serious learner bikes that had the dents in the gas tank mysteriously about the limit of the handlebars and Monster Energy graphics on the fairings (to cover up the drop damage.) Yes, I wouldn’t have minded starting on one of those, but people still wanted way too much for them. Then there was the Ninja 500 that a guy was selling that in an earlier life was swapped around in some girls sportsbike club in Cincinnati and needed work. No way.
The search continued.
Until I found my EX250F. It was a guy a few miles out of town. It was nice. Blue, not green, but blue works too. I remember looking at it. It was damn near perfect. It was too nice, I kept thinking to myself. The only thing that stuck out was that the previous owner didn’t ‘dig’ the Nike swoosh stock graphics, and pulled it off clean. But there was still the tip of it on the gas tank, under the clearcoat. It was garaged. The wife’s bike. She hardly ever rode it, he did most of the miles on it just to give it a workout once in a while. His kids were too young for a streetbike.
He had an awesome supersport in the garage, and seemed to know a lot about bikes. Answered my questions about how it was stored for the winter before I even asked. Seemed to know what he was talking about. And he even came down to my price range for his lowest offer. Even trailered it to my place, so I wouldn’t have to ride down the 55 MPH highway to get it back in town (and at that point, I don’t know if I honestly had the skills to have pulled it off.) By the end of the week, it was sitting outside my place, and the keys were in my hand. And his kids were excited about the dirtbikes they were going to be getting.
I remember taking it for that first clandestine license plate-less ride around the apartment complex. Hearing myself breathing so heavily in the helmet. It rode like a dream. The shifter was very smooth. The controls were smooth. The bike was really easy to control. All the hours I spent reading reviews were right — it didn’t punish you for making mistakes, but it let you know that it disapproved.
I remember telling my buddy that I honestly couldn’t believe I got such a nice bike in my budget. I felt a little guilty. A little overwhelmed. The thought of my first bike being “oh, well, if I drop it, who cares? It’s a POS anyway” was completely gone my my mind.
So, my EX250F might not be the hottest looking bike on the road, but it’s mine. And I love every minute of riding it. I promised to treat it right and it returns the favor. And that’s the way it’s going to stay as hard as I can try.
1) The 08+ models are MARGINALLY less powered than the previous models. At this level, nobody really cares about that. Gary Jaehne, 250 enthusiast and author of this site’s 250R review had this to say:
“It’s still only a seat-o-the-pants dyno impression at this point, but based on having run the new bike on the same combination of twisty backroads (including some with steep uphills) that I’ve sampled for the last 80K miles on my old-generation (2000) Ninja 250, I suspect that in stock emissions-legal trim, the ’08 model is putting out just a tad less peak HP.“
That’s peak HP, anyways, and what you’re missing in that statistic is that the fourth gen Ninjas (08+) have a much more balanced midrange, meaning there’s more power available to you in the RPM range you’d normally ride in.
2) On that note, the ’08 250R is a speedy vehicle. It supposedly gets to 60mph in 5.5 seconds with a good rider, and that’s a helluva lot faster than most cars. Plenty of sports cars can’t touch that. What you may not have figured out yet is that the 250 (past and present, but your past generation even more so) needs to be ridden in a higher rev range than larger bikes. All of the power is available high up. If you feel like it’s sluggish, but you’re not keeping revs above a minimum of 6-7K rpm at all times, you aren’t using the power delivery properly.
Back to the actual thread: I’m going to vote 650R
though I think you’d be perfectly happy on a 250R. You’d probably be happier on the 650R.When I first was shopping insurance (went with Geico, as they insure my auto), the Vulcan 500 LTD was $270/yr full coverage.
The Ninja 650R jumped to $540/year for full, but I figure what’s an extra $25/month for a helluva lot more fun? My car only has liability because I really stopped giving a f**k about it once I got the bike, lol…
BTW, I know you’re going to pick the 650R, and you’ll gonna LOVE it…
It really was hard to get used to at first. Even now, when I really start pushing the bike into its upper rev range (11k+) it still takes a certain amount of restraint to prevent the downshift. It’s just so noisy!
But yeah, that’s where all your power went
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