Kawasaki 250R Ninja - views?

[trickywoo]

So what do you think? I'm tempted by one of these. 85mpg, OK performance, looks good and you can ride it on a restricted licence, saving the cost of a DAS course.

I know its not fast but a new bike for arround £3k with a revvy fuel injected engine that costs peanuts to run, should be good for a new rider?

[Brite spark]

trickywoo said:

ride it on a restricted licence, saving the cost of a DAS course.

there's going to be very little, if any price difference between das and restricted licences, the only difference between the two is the power of the bike it's completed on and that a das rider has to be 21. It can't be ridden on a cbt so no real cost saving on the test, for a restricted bike though it is a good option to consider, but so would the 400's, which could be bought cheaper be de-restricted after two years and probably not depreciate as much as a new 250

[AndyDRZ]

I was in a similar boat a few years ago and was looking at a Sachs XTC 125 as I thought it would save the hassle of doing the DAS.

Glad I didn't do that route. Instead I did my DAS and got 5 year old ZX6R. All in all it cost roughly the same as a CBT and a brand new XTC would have cost but a ZX6R was much cooler than an XTC would have been!

[FeatherZ]

Just look abit boring to me, i know its got fairing, but it looks very un-sporty? as said you could do you DAS and buy a second hand r6 for price of doing your A2 and getting a ninja 250,

[Jimmy5]

You could also spend half the cost of the R6 insuring it

Horses for courses

[Penguin]

85 mpg???? that can't be right????

[AdeTuono]

Penguin said:

85 mpg???? that can't be right????

Why not? 33 bhp 250 4-stroke. Sounds about right.

[S7Paul]

It's tested in the latest issue of SuperBike magazine. Summary was weedy motor, reasonable chassis (let down by low-budget OE tyres), natty styling, fairly cheap. The problem, as they saw it, was that for anyone with aspirations to get a bigger bike you'd be better off getting something like a restricted ER-6n which you can de-restrict in the future. If you're not intending to progress up the cc ladder, the Ninja 250R would probably be fine.

[hornetrider]

Do the DAS. Trust me, you'll get used to the power within a month (or maybe even a week) and yearn for more. Fact.

Plus, you probably won't actually save any money going this route in the long run.

[Penguin]

AdeTuono said:

Penguin said:

85 mpg???? that can't be right????

Why not? 33 bhp 250 4-stroke. Sounds about right.

Fair enough I stand corrected

[Carl-H]

My restricted licence (as I'm 17) is costing me £350 with 12 hours training, 1 hour before my test, practical test and bike hire. Don't think DAS is too much more and if I could go for DAS I definitely would.

[trickywoo]

DAS it is then. Besides, my local kawasaki dealer couldn't have been less helpful when I asked about one on saturday.

One test I saw said they got 74mpg thrashing it on mountain roads and that 100mpg+ would not be out of the question which would be nice....

[sprinter885]

If that's the class that you're limited to I thought they looked like a fun little thing-and not much else of same size to choose from yet.
If it has half the character of my ER6n then it would be a good tool for a young 'un?

[Beemer-5]

It's a fine bike if you accept that outright speed isn't it's forte.