Thread: Ninja 250R Bike

Kawasaki reckon they're aiming this bike at young, cosmopolitan and style conscious city riders. What a mouthful. Yes, it's good in the city (I think that's what they mean) and that may well prove to be where most owners ride it, but barrelling through the fast sweeping turns on the outskirts of the Barcelona I'm laughing out loud. There's so much more to this bike than jambusting. I'm riding as hard as I can, ttying to keep the engine spinning to make full use of its 33bhp. A small, learner friendly bike has no business being this much fun. But fun it is.

The Ninja 250R is the replacement for the now dated ZZRzso, which is still being sold in America. Last year, the ZZR was Kawasaki's best selling bike in the United States, shifting 23,000 units. That makes the little Ninja a really important model for the manufacturer, and the 33bhp licence law means there's huge potential in the expand their range and get more customers, and the parallel twin Ninja 2soR is seen as the first rung on the ladder for people looking to buy into the Ninja family.

The bike looks so good - and has the talent to back it up - that we reckon it will help make biking cool again among those who would previously have just asked for a car on their seventeenth birthday. In the '70S a 250 was the thing to have if you were a learner rider, but then the law changed to get new riders on to smaller, slower bikes, and gradually 250 ceased to be a magic number for motorcyclists, at least in Britain, despite the brilliance of later 250S such as the Suzuki RGV, Aprilia RS and Kawasaki's own KR-IS.

Riding on the streets of Barcelona, I catch a glimpse of my reflection in a shop window. This bike looks cool. I don't just mean cool for a learner bike, either. Admiring looks from other riders stopped at the traffic lights show I'm not imagining it. Look at it: this is a bike with a sense of purpose. Pulling away from the lights, I find myself revving the engine for all it's worth and slipping the clutch for a quick getaway. The exhaust note encourages this kind of behaviour, right up to the 14,ooorpm rev limiter. Hold it there in second gear and you can do 85km/h, which gives you an idea of how far from the typical learner bike the

Ninja is. This is a high-revving engine and needs to be used as such. Below 6000rpm the motor isn't very inspiring, but above that point it really picks up. It takes a while to reach maximum revs, but it's lots of fun holding on for them, willing the engine on. Darting around the traffic and through the city streets, it becomes apparent that this Kawasaki is really easy to fling about. It feels light and agile, fitting through gaps between the cars and filling me with confidence. The non-adjustable forks don't get in the way of enjoyment, although they do dive a lot under hard braking.

The rear shock deals with Barcelona's tramlines in an unobtrusive manner, too. Despite looking like a bigger bike, the Ninja handles like the small, lightweight machine that it is. I didn't think that riding through town could be this much fun. Heading out of town I pass through a tunnel and I'm pleasantly surprised by the stylish looking clocks, which light up in blue.

The first thing that strikes me when I make it out onto the faster roads heading up into the hills is that the handling is just as quick and predictable as it was in town, especially when changing direction quickly. The forks give me no problems at all, so on reflection I'm not that disappointed by their lack of adjustability. The shock, on the other hand, becomes a bit more of a pogo stick when the pace quickens. Mercifully, it does have a small amount of adjustability for preload. The quick handling is well suited to the revvy engine - the combination feels like a package that belongs together.



I'm completely sold on the revvy engine, which makes you feel like you're going much faster than you actually are. It's a right laugh. I know 33bhp isn't much, but on these roads it's enough to keep me chuckling, and enough to keep my attention, tapping away at the gearbox and attacking each bend as fast as I can. You need to be positive with your gearchanging all the time, though, as I found a couple of false neutrals in the six-speed 'box when I was too busy admiring the view. Given the stick and the road, the baby Ninja will show an indicated I55-160km/h.

Even the factory-fitted tyres are enough for me to have fun. The Ninja wears IRC Road Winner RX-01 rubber, and no, I'd never heard of them either. But even on the relatively slippery and dusty roads I don't have any significant problems with them.
I'm enjoying myself far too much when I realise the bars are actually quite vibey. I hadn't noticed earlier, as it really only becomes apparent with prolonged high revs. While I mull this over, a lurking hairpin jumps out at me and I have to brake in a hurry. Fottunately the single disc is plenty powerful enough, although once again it makes the forks dive - this time almost to the limit of their travel.

On the way back down into Barcelona, the route takes in a fast A-road and some motorway. On the A-road I discover that although the bike had felt really quick on the s'maller, twistier roads, it's not that quick when you add cars travelling at IOokm/h into the mix. The way to deal with this is to plan my overtakes very carefully in advance and be totally committed. Once you're alongside a car, there's not much more power to get you past in a hurry. But even this can be fun, and certainly makes me think about my riding a lot more. In a word, it's involving.

The motorway surprises me, too, as I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about standard screens being too low. The screen on the 250R, along with the fairing, offers surprisingly decent wind protection. Kawasaki offer a higher screen as an aftermarket option, but only the tallest of riders will need it.

Tucking in on the motorway is no problem either, as there's plenty of room to move around on the bike. In fact, it's just as comfortable tucked in as it is when sitting up in town. Amazing really, considering its overall size, a seat height of only 77smm, and my considerable girth. Arriving back in the city I catch my reflection again. Did I mention how good it looks? It makes me want to be 17 again. If I weren't double that age and in the red already, I'd be saving up for one.

The baby Ninja, showcased at the Auto Expo held in Delhi earlier this year, will be in India very soon now.This pedigree motocycle has virtually no serious competition in the domestic market currently. Prior to this, the only other bike on Indian streets that came anywhere close to the Ninja 2soR was the Comet GT 250 launched in collaboration between Kinetic and Hyosung Motors of Korea in limited numbers.