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Kymco People Series – 50 / 150 / 250
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dcJohnParticipant
When I heard about the more forward lean of the 2008+ Ninja 250, I was dubious. I’m not tall (5’8″), and really wanted a standard, not a sportbike, riding position. I just recently bought a new Ninja (one of the 2009s that are beginning to trickle into dealerships), and I’ve been happy to find that it’s still very comfortable. It may be a bit more like a sportbike’s riding position than earlier (2007-) versions of the bike, but only slightly.
dcJohnParticipantThe place I was looking at (found on the web) is Cowboy Harley Davidson of Austin.
September 16, 2008 at 6:13 am in reply to: Should u learn to drive in a car and then get a motorcycle? #12230dcJohnParticipantCount me in as another vote for learning first on a car. And, since you know you’re interested in getting a bike down the line, learn on a manual transmission. Really put some effort into getting good at driving, and maybe consider eventually taking a performance or autocross driving class. All the talk you read here about the benefits of the MSF course, well I’d say the same goes for a good performance driving school. The stuff you get in a basic driver’s ed class and that’s required to get a driver’s license really falls short on teaching you how to be an excellent driver.
dcJohnParticipantFor whatever it’s worth, I totally get those marital politics. I nearly ended up buying my dream “second bike” first because of them, and one of the reasons I opted for a new Ninja 250 (versus an even cheaper used beater bike) was because I knew that upgrading would be a tough sell and a new Ninja 250 can keep me happy longer than many other beginner-friendly options.
I’m glad I went small to start. And because my wife gets the safety advantage of this, ultimately she knows that an upgrade will eventually be down the line. Still, your situation is what had me seriously considering Versys and FZ6s right out of the gate.
dcJohnParticipantThanks for the advice. I read over the article, and it makes sense. So, if going with the plan of working the bike (high rpm acceleration and then deceleration) in lower gears (2nd-5th), what do you think are good target RPM’s for reving up to on the Ninja when breaking it in this way? All the way to redline, or more like 9-10,000 rpm and back?
Fortunately, I’ve got plenty of good roads to do this on, and the Ninja’s smaller engine should make it manageable. I revved it up a few times today to 8,000 rpm because I’ve followed similar recommendation for breaking in performance car engines, and figured that at least a few RPM flexes probably wouldn’t hurt, might help, and certainly were all kinds of fun.
Also, forgetting breaking in the engine for a moment, what’s a common RPM to bring the engine up to when accelerating?
dcJohnParticipantOk, with a whopping 1 weekend/70 miles under my belt, I’m a complete noob weighing in. But, since the more the merrier, here’s the perspective of a new rider on a new Ninja 250:
So far the Ninja 250 has been a joy to learn on. The transmission is a breeze and forgiving. It’s nimble but still feels very stable to me at higher speeds (well, just 55mph so far, since as a brand new rider I’m not spending much time at highway speed). In two days I went from never riding a bike to comfortably doing slow-speed, tight figure eights and medium-speed (30-50mph) driving through faster, twisty back roads. I don’t think there’s anyway I’d be learning as quickly on a more powerful bike. Moreover, I can see where constantly trying to be careful of a larger bike’s power would already be leading me into all sorts of bad habits. No matter if/when I might move up to a more powerful bike, I’m confident I won’t ever regret that this is the bike I’m learning on.
As for gear, I’d recommend visiting several local stores until you find a place that has a good selection you can try out and has someone knowledgeable to help you. If I’d just ordered online, or gone with the advice of the first store I walked into (young kid who didn’t want to spend more than 5 minutes with anybody), I’d have ended up with a helmet that was both the wrong size and that wasn’t a good match to my head size.
dcJohnParticipantDid a good two hours of riding in this morning. I spent the first 30 minutes working on slow-speed maneuvers in a nearby parking lot, and then I got a bit more adventuresome and took it out of the neighborhood, driving on 40mph back-roads and sharing the road with some traffic.
It was… awesome! Riding is even more fun than I’d hoped it would be. The little Ninja sure has to row through gears quickly to get up to speed, particularly with trying to keep the RPM’s modest during the break-in period, so there was plenty of practice with shifting. There’s a nice series of S turns not far from my house that I dove through a couple of times. Counter-steering is a lot more intuitive than I thought it would be, and I’m getting in the habit of rolling on the throttle as soon as possible through the turn.
I passed four other motorcyclists during the ride, and everyone waved. I gave a low wave back to everyone…. is there a “proper” motorcycle wave?
dcJohnParticipantThanks for the advise on checking the coolant! It was right on the “low” line when I looked, so I added some coolant and went out for a good 2-hour ride in 90+ degree weather. No temperature warning at all, and when I got back home the coolant level was still topped off.
I’m glad they added the fuel gauge to the new Ninjas, but it’s too bad the temperature gauge got sacked in the process. It’d be nice to have more heat feedback than just an idiot light when things get serious.
dcJohnParticipantHi folks. Well, today was a very good day . The new Ninja arrived at noon, and the guy delivering it spent a good forty minutes with me going over the bike and answering questions (of course, tipped heavily for the extra help and crash course).
Here’s the thing… I’d never actually sat on a Ninja 250 before. They’re impossible to find around here, and I had to jump on this one while it was still in the delivery crate. I just trusted all the great reviews here and elsewhere, and I wasn’t disappointed. Very comfortable, light, great seating position, and looks fantastic.
I was feeling good about knowing how to ride ride “in theory” — poured through Proficient Cycling, Twist of the Wrist 2, the manual for my upcoming MSF course, and everything I could find online. Moreover, a lot of what I learned from autocross racing seemed to apply to the advice on motorcycle handling. But knowing how to do something in principle and actually doing it can be miles apart, so I figured at most I’d just do some starting and stopping today.
Well, several hours and miles of riding later, and I’ve just got an ear-to-ear smile. I never stalled the bike. Road all around the neighborhood and some slightly faster surface roads. Did doughnuts and fairly tight figure eight turns in parking lots. All good! I’m still working on getting a better feel for smoothly matching revs when downshifting, and I never went faster than 45 mph, but all in all a great time and am feeling a lot more confident (don’t worry, I know I have a long, long way to go).
I had a small technical glitch: at one point while practicing doing lots of stop and go, slow-speed tight turns, and figure eights, the bike’s temperature warning light came on. I decided to gamble on it just being all the slow speed work and started riding home at a good steady pace, and the light went out. When I called the dealer, they said that it wasn’t anything to worry about, and that it just was from the slow-speed practice work. When I road it later in the day, the light never came on again. (Do you guys agree about it not being something to worry about?)
So, a great start! Folks asked about pictures, so here are some shots I snapped right when the bike arrived:
dcJohnParticipantI think that, whatever our opinions might be on its beginner-appropriateness, we can all take a moment to gaze happily at the purty, purty bike. That’s a very nice looking ride.
dcJohnParticipantAndrew, thanks, Ninja250.org looks like a fantastic site! And yep, the first thing I’m going to do is start working on learning the friction point. I’ve always driven manual transmission cars, so at least I get the principle of it and what I need to get a feel for (I hope).
dcJohnParticipantMegaspaz is right. I paid MSRP, which was bumped up to $3,999 for the 2009s. I’m a prof in a graduate negotiations program, and I usually do well at negotiating deals, but there really wasn’t much reason for the dealer to budge here. The bike is incredibly hard to find right now, and they had a long list of people who wanted calls when the bike came in. I just lucked out that I was at the dealership right as the bike was delivered and was ready to buy it on the spot. I did at least get them to throw in a cover, drop the usual bogus dealer fee ($100), and deliver it.
dcJohnParticipantNow, is that a DOT or Snell approved bar stool?
dcJohnParticipantSorry for the somewhat redundant post. I missed the earlier post about the bike.
dcJohnParticipantYeah, while I’d rather get a new bike, it looks like the odds are it’ll be a used one instead. Local dealerships are asking for a $500 deposit to be put on a waiting list for the Ninja 250s, with no guarantee on when they’ll be arriving.
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