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The “Five to Survive” Rule & Why You Should Use It
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ronkoreParticipant
Alright, been meaning to post pics of it, but I’ve been busy riding and other things. 140 miles on it so far, and thankfully no crashes or laying it down yet. Being careful about it. Changed the oil myself around 90 miles. Anyway, here she is
ronkoreParticipantYeah, I’m still in the “no >4000 rpm” breakin period so I’m trying to take it easy on the RPMs. That and driving a manual transmission car, I’m conditioned to shift once the engine pitch gets to that certain point.. ‘course a car has much less RPM range. When I go riding today I’m gonna try pushing the rpms up a bit more before shifting.
Another thing I read.. swapping out your front sprocket to a 15 tooth helps a ton on the highway in keeping the RPMs down.
ronkoreParticipantI’ve been spending most of the day riding it. It’s been a blast so far. Went up Glendora mtn road to get a feel for it somewhere that doesn’t have traffic (but does have a ton of twisties). Saw a lot of other riders up there, and got waved at. Nice feeling all around.. the handling, the fun factor, and camaraderie from fellow riders.
Haven’t dropped it yet thankfully, but I can see how easy that can be, even though it’s a light bike you still gotta watch it. I’ll get pics of it later.. gonna order a cover, 25mm cable lock, and disc lock for it online, that should be decent enough protection.. the 15mm cable lock I got at HD isn’t gonna cut it I don’t think.
ronkoreParticipantIt runs high RPMs on the highway. You’re usually in 6th by 40mph or so. I haven’t ridden mine on the highway yet, but others say it does alright, just not a lot of reserve power once you get up to 80 or so. The consensus I’ve read on different sites seems to be if you plan on riding on the highway most of the time, you should probably go with a 600cc.
ronkoreParticipantIt finally came today, went to the DMV and got my mc license. The dealer’s delivering my ninja tomorrow morning. Insurance is all set.. will ride tomorrow, woohoo!
April 24, 2009 at 1:19 am in reply to: *twitch* Going crazy while bikes in shop *twitch twitch* #17998ronkoreParticipantThe rate difference if I asked for a policy right now with just a permit is over twice as high, I think it’s worth waiting to save that much. Most insurance companies here won’t even touch someone that doesn’t have a license (M1). They said I’d have to pay the high amount for the whole term if I went with it right now, regardless of the fact if I got the license before the term ended.
So, yea it sucks waiting but it’ll be worth the money saved in the end. Didn’t come in the mail today either, btw.. as for murphy’s law, lol I wouldn’t be surprised, but it still isn’t past the two week window, so I can’t call em yet. If I’m lucky it comes tomorrow, otherwise it’ll be another weekend without riding. At least the dealer is being cool about keeping the bike there. I shoulda taken the MSF class earlier!
April 23, 2009 at 7:50 am in reply to: *twitch* Going crazy while bikes in shop *twitch twitch* #17975ronkoreParticipantPut the money down for my new ninja 250 last Friday, still haven’t ridden it. Hasn’t even been delivered. DMV paperwork’s the holdup, waiting for the DL389 form (The one that waives the driving test in CA) from the MSF class so I can get M1 status.. can’t get insured with the best rate until that happens, I was told by my agent. So, checkin the mail every day, nothin so far Maybe tomorrow?
lol I’m goin crazy here, though with the last couple days being around 100 degrees I wasn’t missing good riding weather at least.
Sounds like you’re in a worse predicament though..
ronkoreParticipantStill waiting on the DL389 in the mail, which is the primary holdup on delivery. The State Farm rep told me it’d be best to get my MC license first in order to get the best rate. Obviously it’s not good to get it delivered before then due to the possibility of theft and my wanting to ride it..
Wasn’t in the mail today, hopefully tomorrow…
As for going riding I’m a bit far from San Diego (I live in the LA area), although I know a friend who lives in Ramona who I may visit sometime, so maybe then
ronkoreParticipantgoogle, type in what you’re looking for and at the end put:
site:bestbeginnermotorcycles.com
ronkoreParticipantPut the money down on my blue one today! It won’t be delivered until next week because I’m waiting for the MSF paperwork so I can go to the DMV and get my MC license. Once I get the license I’ll be able to get the insurance set up on it, and therefore I’ll be able to ride. Almost there..
ronkoreParticipantFinished up the MSF course yesterday. Learned a lot of things, definitely better off having gone through it. Now, no worries about the notorious CA DMV motorcycle driving test. The MSF is also a great place to meet others like you who are just starting out, and to find out about good dealers. One guy I spoke to gave me a name of a place who I called yesterday and they’re willing to give me a blue 250 for $4600 OTD. Gonna go down there tomorrow morning to take a look. My hunch about the helmet was right, the ridercoach said you want a helmet that fits snugly all around, pressure points and especially gaps are dangerous. Comes down to this question: Is your head worth $400+?
I did notice a lot of ppl (even the ridercoaches) saying that I (and others who were considering the ninja) would get bored pretty fast on a 250. I’m still goin for the 250 though, for skill, up-front cost, and mpg reasons. The 250 gets a good 15-20mpg more than the next step up, from what I’ve seen. Plus the 600cc range is $1-2k+ more. I think I’ll be a lot better off getting the skills figured out on the 250 in the end.
ronkoreParticipantUpdate on my “get a ninja 250” objective, went to the dealer the other day to check it out.. looks just as sweet in person. No height problems, my feet reach the ground fine and all that. Wasn’t able to try the full riding position, but when I go back next time I’ll do that. Pricing.. well, I’ll break this down using the “Buying a new motorcycle” guide on here.
MSRP for 2009 ninjas: $3999
Dealer invoice price: $3589 (according to this)With those numbers in mind, the guide says to figure 10-15% onto the invoice price to get the “ready to sell” price. I’ll pick 12.5% since that’s right in the middle.
$3589 * 1.125 = $4037.625
Now, add in things like registration fees, sales tax, etc. They don’t charge any setup or freight fees. The sales guy I talked to at the dealer said the CA plate reg fee for the bike is $90.
$4037.625 * 1.0925 + $90 = $4501.11
So, it looks like a “decent” OTD price after taxes and margin for me is $4500. I didn’t have this in mind when I went into the dealer the other day, but I threw out MSRP as a starting point (yea, probably should’ve gone lower, I know). After a bit of back and fourth they offered a $4800 OTD price ($200 down from their initial offer of $4999) as well as some discounts on gear:
(numbers are before 9.25% sales tax)
TCX Performance2 SS boots: $143
Tourmaster Cortech Jett 2 Jacket: $86
Cortech Scarab RR Gloves: $62
Arai Profile Pearl black Helmet: $450From my looking around online the prices all seem at or below the lowest I could find.. so it seems they aren’t jerkin me around with that part. Sales tax is a big fee though.
They told me that heavy duty carpenter jeans protect well in falls if I wanted to save money, I’m dubious about that claim though, but I don’t get what their motivation would be in telling me that when they could sell me a $150+ pair of motorcycle pants. I’d like to find pants that are good all around, on and off the bike. Don’t want to be wearing something all day that looks like snow pants.
As far as the helmet goes, that’s a big chunk of change I was not expecting. Unfortunately, of all the helmet brands they had, that was the only kind that fit my head well without the tight spot on the forehead and/or the gap on the top. I could save a good $250 by going with a different brand, but it will have those issues. I’m kinda torn on this, is the feeling of a 2-3″ gap on top of the head a very bad thing as far as safety goes? My instinct says YES.
If I crash, I’m looking at a ton of money to replace all this gear.. it’d probably put me off the bike for a long time.
There’s another dealer around here called Advanced Kawasaki that I’ve heard good things about, I plan on going there sometime this week to see if they can get me a better deal.
So, yea that’s the latest info.. tried to break things down to be as informative as possible to any other newbies in a similar situation.
ronkoreParticipanteternal:
I’m 5’10”, so height shouldn’t be a problem. Of course I do plan on checkin it out at the dealer to see if I like the feel. As for dealers, well, the place I called is known as one of the best places for low prices in socal by the local riders.. OTD motorsports. The other dealers around here are all higher, as an example I drove by a pretty local place to me last week, walked in and saw them sellin the 09 ninja 250 for 6800 or so. It sucks we have to pay such high prices, and the recent 1% sales tax hike has made that worse.
I’m hoping perhaps I can get OTD to lower the price a bit, 1k over msrp is pretty steep I think. Ideally, get em to lower it and also throw in some gear. Hm, any socal ppl here who’ve bought ninja 250s recently?
Another thing I’ve been thinkin about.. I’d like to do all the work on my bike but don’t really have most of the tools to do so (things like socket wrenches, tension wrench, etc). I’m mechanically inclined so I could likely pick up the jist of it fast enough, just wondering what kind of initial investment would be necessary to get all the right tools/gear. Already I’m figuring at least another half grand for the proper safety gear.. this 3499 bike (well, the 08 was..) is gonna end up being a lot more than I planned for. Too bad the used market sucks around here.
ronkoreParticipantThanks for all the info guys. I got a quote from McGraw today that was only around $160 or so, a ton lower than the Geico quote. If I wanted to add comp I could get that for $640 or so. Anyone here dealt with them before?
As for pre-08 ninjas, the used ones that don’t have a ton of miles are going in the 2500-3500 range here. I got my heart set on an 08 or 09, after I read the improvements they made over the older ones. If Hyosung were lower in MSRP I might go for one, but I’m thinking (hoping) it’ll be worth it for the ninja. The other thing is the Hyosung is heavier.
Very good point about dropping the bike though, I wish there were a naked sport option, that’d negate the potential damage somewhat. I thought about a cruiser (on which you can get some naked 250 or 500 versions) but I think a sport will be a better fit for me. I guess I’m gonna have to be super paranoid about it, I never ran into any problems riding my friends’ scooters, but I realize that’s a completely different league. Eh, what can I do. It basically comes down my wanting to get on something now (financed) versus waiting a few months to get the extra cash set aside for something used.
Just registered for the MSF class tonight, it starts next Monday. Costs $250 here in CA.
ronkoreParticipantYea, the $400-500 figure is their rate if I have the MSF course. The savings with MSF was pretty negligible, maybe $40 or so. I figured it’d be more than that. And yea, I’m not buyin until after the class, even though I’ve ridden on manual transmission scooters it’s not the same.. I’d rather have the basics down first.
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