Kawasaki Ninja 250

[dave_boo]

I saw a group of approx 10 ninjas cruising through pattaya today.

nice looking bikes.

I suppose that they're going to become very popular bikes bought by rental companies.

Don't we have a special thread for comparison between Ninja 250 & CBR 250? I'm thinking Richard is a Kawa salesman.

I've been saying the same thing for a long time. Of course everyone just thought I was biased or had some sort of personal thing against him.....

[Richard-BKK]

The CBR250 is a very old model, I not belief it is being sold or manufactured now-a-day. It is said that the Honda VTR250 comes to Thailand in the beginning of 2009. So we have to wait until then to compare the Kawasaki Ninja 250R to anything Honda can offer in the same range.

The Honda CBF250 is the same as the Tiger Boxer 250RS a single cylinder engine.

[JSixpack]

MP in Pattaya had 7 in today, 5 ( inc all the green ones ) went straight away, 2 black ones left at 149700 on the road !

It's a good thing nobody knows what MP means so that we can't buy or take a look.

Love the communication skills on our beloved forums.

[moo9]

We did some testing ourselves, sorry I'm not the speedracer I was once so, I let somebody do the testing. With the rider being only 49.8kg weight we had some problems making this statistics stick...

But what we did find is that the Thai Kawasaki 250R is redlining at 13,100rpm, after that, with clutch play, the engine seems to creating much higher temperatures and not much power improvement.

With redlining the Thai Kawasaki Ninja 250R at 13,100rpm we where able to get at the indicated speedo of 179km/h, which with the official Bangkok Police radar speed indication is 165.8km/h.

With several speed tests, we can say that the Kawasaki Ninja 250R is 8 percent faster then it actual is going....

As I'm not a speed devil on small bikes I had the idea to test the bike in second gear to red line of 13,100rpm the Kawasaki was fast and even with my weight of over 100kg I was in a few minutes on 89km/h. The Thai police person riding a Honda CBR-150 could not get close, even he was free to shift transmissions at will. The Thai rider with a weight of 49.8kg was unable to keep up from the start, but lost out at about 56km/h.

Comparing the Kawa 250R with the CBR-150R from 0 to 100km/h we can see a amazing surprise, in 7 try's we found that the Honda CBR-150R was faster in the first away.... and holds this until 40km/h, at 8500rpm the 250R geared to second gear and was gained speed rapidly over the CBR-150 at 10,000rpm the 250R was doing 68km/h in second gear and the CBR-150 was now falling back a serious amount.

From then on the the Honda CBR-150R, never came close to the 250R, in average human sight it takes on normal road conditions 7 minutes to get out of sight of a Honda CR-150R rider. Comparing this figure to my girlfriend riding a Yamaha FZ1 it takes 5 minutes, this all is based on not real science as road conditions change and is based on actual road conditions.

All this test are being conducted with the supervision of the police, and conducted at Rama 2 Road Bangkok.

Don't we have a special thread for comparison between Ninja 250 & CBR 250? I'm thinking Richard is a Kawa salesman.

...as well you do not make a test to know, that the Nija is much faster than the CBR150.

[CHdiver]

MP in Pattaya had 7 in today, 5 ( inc all the green ones ) went straight away, 2 black ones left at 149700 on the road !

It's a good thing nobody knows what MP means so that we can't buy or take a look.

Love the communication skills on our beloved forums.

It,s the big motorbike shop at the corner Pattaya Tai / 3. Road. Shop is called Mityon (or similiar).

Edited September 11, 2008 by CHdiver

[Bard]

It does seem odd that it would be that much lower than what others are reporting for their peak; at 27.2 RWHP going down to 25.3 RWHP (7% loss) would seem to be able difficult to explaine the difference away by temperature/humidity/etc. at the various dyno locations.

It is certainly strange, I agree with that.

I believe in collecting knowledge. Like did you know that Gary Sheffield hit the 250 000th Home Run in Major League baseball's history yesterday? And I haven't decided against buying the Ninja. I was actually hoping that you'd be willing to ride with me to Chiang Mai and I would be able to test drive a world version of the Ninja to help me decide what I should actually do. I am planning on upgrading the CBR, but if the Ninja impresses me enough, I would be definitely willing to pass along the upgraded Honda to my B-I-L.

I will definitely try to participate in the ride, and you're more than welcome to try out my Ninja to make up your own opinion. I am sorry that I misunderstood you earlier regarding the bikes.

How did the dyno calculate the drive line loss? There's a lot of assumptions to make a calculation like that. I.E., you would have to assume how much clutch slippage there is, how much fricition there is, etc. The most accurate way to dyno only the engine is to do that; pull the engine and dyno it. None the less, if a dyno chart doesn't specific it is for BHP why make the assumption it is for anything other than RWHP?

Well, what we did was to test out my rear wheel hp, then for fun we tested out engine hp. We dialed in the car type (Nissan Skyline) gearbox, clutch, axle, wheels and up came the estimated engine hp.

The reason I was asking about the American version is that there seems to be such a disparity between what is published by reputable American magazines regarding the American's version of the bike and the numbers being circulated on the web. If the American version really is putting out the HP listed at the rear wheel, and is so much slower both in acceleration and top end than the EU version which has what I assume is 33 BHP (an increase of 1 BHP over the projected BHP of the American version) what's the story? Either there are more differences between the FI version and the carb, like gearing, or there are some optimistic numbers being used on the web. I know that speedos are overly optimistic so I will grant that.

Well from what I can see of Dyno tests from US vs EFI is this based upon forum posters from US vs Europe and myself, the US has a hole at around 10k plus dies off from around 11-12k while the EFI does not, the 10k hole is fixed by pulling the snorkel in the US version. Here is a comment which were inside the manual from Area-P. "The (US) Ninja does exhibit a tendency to be slightly lean in the low - mid range and slightly rich on top". Also if you go to kawiforums.com you can read loads of data on the 10k hole and die off at top revs. Which could explain the lower top speed and acceleration. Like I mentioned, I have no idea of the US version other than what users on forums from US is telling me, and nobody have had as low as 96 mph as top speed even when they test with GPS or Police radars, so I am again unsure of the one US magazine who reported this, which is also the only magazine who has done so... Maybe the test driver was 300 pound fatass, or 6'6" who knows, there is nothing in the article stating this which in my humble opinion is pretty poor, and gives pretty useless data to consider. There is also no indication on how they managed to check the speed accurately, or was it the speedometer? Nor if the hp was from a Dyno, actually it leaves one more clueless than you were before, so I personally do not think the article was very good at all.

Please take pictures of the process. Also, could you please provide me with the contact information for your shop that has a dyno? And are they willing to dyno and help tune such a small engine?

I will take photos of the entire process, from the changes needed to be done on the Area-P system to make it fit the EFI. And the entire Dyno process. I have tried numerous occasions to contact Tsukigi Racing without any luck. And I am currently trying to locate the station in/around Pattaya. There is supposed to be at least one and as soon as I get hold of them I will give all details

[Bard]

My first mod on the Ninja was a brake light modulator I bought from here http://www.nocutmodulators.com/ reason for buying that was increased visibility by the unit flashes the brake light 8 times before it goes to normal mode, and it was easy no cut any cable to install it. Got it pretty fast from the guy who makes them, plugged it in and voila it works great.

[Bard]

Since we have had perfect riding weather in Rayong today I went for a long ride while my daughter was out and about in an area close to the national park with my wife. When I was driving they found a road kill jungle cat, and they could hear the cry from a baby cat. So they picked it up since the mum was dead. And to my big amusement and surprise I had the little bugger with me after my trip. Took some pictures of it with my daughter, jungle cat and my Ninja. The cat stays with me until Monday when we will hand it over to the government.

Cheers Bard

[moo9]

MP in Pattaya had 7 in today, 5 ( inc all the green ones ) went straight away, 2 black ones left at 149700 on the road !

It's a good thing nobody knows what MP means so that we can't buy or take a look.

Love the communication skills on our beloved forums.

It,s the big motorbike shop at the corner Pattaya Tai / 3. Road. Shop is called Mityon (or similiar).

Mityon has several branches all over Pattaya. Hard to miss them!

Usually a good shop, quite professional and quite easy to deal with.

[JSixpack]

MP in Pattaya had 7 in today, 5 ( inc all the green ones ) went straight away, 2 black ones left at 149700 on the road !

It's a good thing nobody knows what MP means so that we can't buy or take a look.

Love the communication skills on our beloved forums.

It,s the big motorbike shop at the corner Pattaya Tai / 3. Road. Shop is called Mityon (or similiar).

Mityon has several branches all over Pattaya. Hard to miss them!

Usually a good shop, quite professional and quite easy to deal with.

OH. MITYON!

I went there last Friday and looked at the Ninjas. Sweet bike! I didn't see any flipup Index helmets, though.

[thaicbr]

well hi ninja guys how you all.

I have a cbr150 and cbr250 and richard is very correct the 250 is an old model now but was way ahead of its time they are good for about 190kmh and rev to a crazy 19 thou red line.

mine unfortantly has been down the road one to many times and is now without its fairing so the top speeds of old are no more ( above 170 with no fairing my head and helmet are bouncing around to much).

so going to regear it or crazy acceleration.

should be fun lol.

ps if you ride aggressivly i highly reccomend dunlop alpha10s stick to the road like shit sticks to a blanket.

allan

[BigBikeBKK]

ps if you ride aggressivly i highly reccomend dunlop alpha10s stick to the road like shit sticks to a blanket.

allan

Hi Allan,

Thanks for the tire recomendation- the Ninja 250R comes with "IRC" tires. I'd never heard of IRC and had to look them up- turns out it's a company that specializes in bicycle tires... But, having said that, so far I've been quite happy with the stock tires.

I believe the non FI Ninja 250R that is being sold in the US comes with Dunlop tires, though not sure which ones....

Ride on!

[dave_boo]

ps if you ride aggressivly i highly reccomend dunlop alpha10s stick to the road like shit sticks to a blanket.

allan

Hi Allan,

Thanks for the tire recomendation- the Ninja 250R comes with "IRC" tires. I'd never heard of IRC and had to look them up- turns out it's a company that specializes in bicycle tires... But, having said that, so far I've been quite happy with the stock tires.

I believe the non FI Ninja 250R that is being sold in the US comes with Dunlop tires, though not sure which ones....

Ride on!

IRC is standard on many Thai motorcycles. Even the CBR 150R comes with them, however, many of the owners praise their long life and curse their hardness.

[BigBikeBKK]

ps if you ride aggressivly i highly reccomend dunlop alpha10s stick to the road like shit sticks to a blanket.

allan

Hi Allan,

Thanks for the tire recomendation- the Ninja 250R comes with "IRC" tires. I'd never heard of IRC and had to look them up- turns out it's a company that specializes in bicycle tires... But, having said that, so far I've been quite happy with the stock tires.

I believe the non FI Ninja 250R that is being sold in the US comes with Dunlop tires, though not sure which ones....

Ride on!

IRC is standard on many Thai motorcycles. Even the CBR 150R comes with them, however, many of the owners praise their long life and curse their hardness.

Hi Dave! Yeah, the Ninja comes with IRC Road Winner RX-01 tires. And they are super hard, but considering how light the Ninja 250R is, I'm fairly impressed with how well these hard tires stick to the pavement. I do make sure I've warmed them up before I do any aggressive cornering I think I may go for something softer once I've worn these out.

Ride on!

[moo9]

ps if you ride aggressivly i highly reccomend dunlop alpha10s stick to the road like shit sticks to a blanket.

allan

Hi Allan,

Thanks for the tire recomendation- the Ninja 250R comes with "IRC" tires. I'd never heard of IRC and had to look them up- turns out it's a company that specializes in bicycle tires... But, having said that, so far I've been quite happy with the stock tires.

I believe the non FI Ninja 250R that is being sold in the US comes with Dunlop tires, though not sure which ones....

Ride on!

IRC is standard on many Thai motorcycles. Even the CBR 150R comes with them, however, many of the owners praise their long life and curse their hardness.

Hi Dave! Yeah, the Ninja comes with IRC Road Winner RX-01 tires. And they are super hard, but considering how light the Ninja 250R is, I'm fairly impressed with how well these hard tires stick to the pavement. I do make sure I've warmed them up before I do any aggressive cornering I think I may go for something softer once I've worn these out.

Ride on!

Well designed Garage

[BigBikeBKK]

Well designed Garage

Well sure Moo- you don't expect my bike to sit out in the heat and rain, do you?

How do you like my bike stand?

Ride on!

[thaicbr]

big bike. what i would do is get a set of the alpha 10's they are 8000baht for the pair and keep those irc crap for spares or sell them on mocyc to one of the nsr150 loons. the improvement is just ###############.......well its good,very,very good. bad tyres cause accidents .. i know! and your ride is to shiny and new to look like mine when it goes down the road due to hard crap tyres.

shop i got mine from guy speaks good english 02 23789 or 02 238214

allan

Edited September 17, 2008 by thaicbr

[peterd1961]

Hi,

I agree about the irc tyres! I have a ksr and I change the irc tyres after 500 km for metzeler tyres because I feel very unsafe on the irc! The road handeling is so much better after the change!

Regards Peter

[Bard]

<br />big bike. what i would do is get a set of the alpha 10's they are 8000baht for the pair and keep those irc crap for spares or sell them on mocyc to one of the nsr150 loons. the improvement is just ###############.......well its good,very,very good. bad tyres cause accidents .. i know! and your ride is to shiny and new to look like mine when it goes down the road due to hard crap tyres.<br /><br />shop i got mine from guy speaks good english 02 23789 or 02 238214<br />allan<br /> <img src="style_emoticons/default/wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="wink.gif" /><br />

<br /><br /><br />

Thank you very much for the phone numbers, I tried my Ninja on the Bira track and the stock tyres were slipping way before the bike should so I will replace mine and get rid of the stock ones which sucked on the track, they're way to hard to drive hard in cornering. I went slowly to increased speed and when the tyres started to slip it was controlled, needed to test them out and it was good to check it out before I get a slide on the tarmac... And you are absolutely right bad tyres causes accidents, they slip when you really need them...

[thaicbr]

bard you will also be able to go up to a 140 rear. maybe 150 but not sure what the 150 will do for your top speed.

on the cbr250 its no problem but the ninja is slightly less powerful.

allan

[dotcom]

big bike. what i would do is get a set of the alpha 10's they are 8000baht for the pair and keep those irc crap for spares or sell them on mocyc to one of the nsr150 loons. the improvement is just ###############.......well its good,very,very good. bad tyres cause accidents .. i know! and your ride is to shiny and new to look like mine when it goes down the road due to hard crap tyres.

shop i got mine from guy speaks good english 02 23789 or 02 238214

allan

Not enough digits in your phone numbers.

[Bard]

<br />

big bike. what i would do is get a set of the alpha 10's they are 8000baht for the pair and keep those irc crap for spares or sell them on mocyc to one of the nsr150 loons. the improvement is just ###############.......well its good,very,very good. bad tyres cause accidents .. i know! and your ride is to shiny and new to look like mine when it goes down the road due to hard crap tyres.<br /><br />shop i got mine from guy speaks good english 02 23789 or 02 238214<br />allan<br /> <img src="style_emoticons/default/wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

<br /><br />Not enough digits in your phone numbers.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

Think the number is 02 22 23789, I found that under tyre dealers in Thailand.

[thaicbr]

yep thats it Bard. sorry every one, typing when sleepy not sure good......

allan

[Bard]

BigBikeBKK I see you removed the fairing, how much work was actually that? I will install my new exhaust system soon and need to remove the fairing, have been pushing it due to the work involved. So was it fairly easy to remove and re-assy? Why did you knock it off anyways? (just curious)

Let the good times roll, Cheers Bard

[BigBikeBKK]

Hi Bard,

How's the Green Machine doing? That's awesome that you could take it to BIRA- I'd like to try that some day, it's been MANY years since I've been on a track. Do they require full racing leathers? Are they available for hire?

Getting the fairings off the Ninja 250R is pretty straightforward- I recommend you pull all of the little plastic fasteners first (3 big ones at the bottom and a bunch of little ones higher up.)

The turn signals need to be unplugged (I could imagine someone forgetting that and yanking off the fairing with the wires still attached)

I took off the fairings because the bike needed a deep clean after riding in heavy rain a while back, and also because I was just curious to see what the bike looks like naked

Ride On!

[Bard]

Hi BigBikeBKK,

My Green Machine has been great, love it to death. And yes Bira was really fun and a great experience, all I wore was my armoured mesh jacket, Snell approved helmet (Shoei), boots, gloves and strap on knee sliders (i did not really need the sliders yet) and honestly I think you could drive in netto with a helmet there... I wanted to try out the machine and feel myself towards the limits of the bike. My experience so far was the bike exceed my expectations and more than I am currently comfertable with leaning down. Only thing was when I did very hard breaking exercises for emergency breaking I found the tires to be a bit to hard, and slid a couple of times (wet) so it is a fine way of getting to know the bike better. Bira is open every day except race days and special event days, call first to see if there is a problem and the circuit is open from 08:00 - 12:00 for motorbikes, cost 1000 Baht for driving as much as you like for one day. Unfortunately I was sent offshore last Wednesday and will not be home again until Friday so my itch for driving has not been satisfied lately... That with the absolute crap weather when I was home really limited me and my bike from driving, and I sat in my SUV most of the time on the road...

You convinced me to actually take the time to get the header sorted out, sounded like it was not to much hassle. Since the header I bought was for the US bike there is no fitting for the Lambda sensor and I need to pre-fit and mark it up, then take both headers to a very good welding shop in Rayong to fit in a suitable stainless nut so I can install the sensor on the new header. Since I leave again next Friday for a new oversea job it has not been top priority, but rather to know the bike better. Anyway I will try to make it happen before I leave, and I will post the how2 and a feedback of the difference between the stock vs the Area-P Quiet core system. It sits in my house and looks great in Carbon Fiber, but with the limited time I might postpone the installation to next time I am home again.

[JSixpack]

I sat on one of those Ninjas yesterday and the seat seemed awfully hard. I think my butt would quickly get sore. And the riding position requires bent knees all the time, which my knees wouldn't like.

Phantom just seems a lot more comfortable. Just talking comfort here.

[Bard]

I sat on one of those Ninjas yesterday and the seat seemed awfully hard. I think my butt would quickly get sore. And the riding position requires bent knees all the time, which my knees wouldn't like.

Phantom just seems a lot more comfortable. Just talking comfort here.

Seat takes a little time to get used to, and a lot of Ninja owners abroad change the seat with a corbin leather seat for more sensitive butts You can also use a bicycle pant under your driving pants which is padded. Personally I was a little sore in the beginning, like when you start out with mountainbike but it didn't take long before I got used to it, after that I have had no problems even on longer rides. The sportier riding position gives you better control of the bike in curves and swift movements which is what I like about it. It is not a cruiser bike, and for people who prefer cruisers it is not the bike to buy. Then a Phantom or a Boss is probably more up there alley...

The Ninja is a sportsbike, and from driving it for a while it is a very nice sportsbike in my opinion. It is faster than you want to drive on the roads so you don't miss out there, and very playful in curves so it is a fun bike to drive. When I took it to Bira I found the brakes could easy make a stoppie and you can wheelie in 1st and 2nd without any problems. If you like to have a playful sportsbike, it is a good bike, which gives you lots of fun. It is not perfect as no bike really is, but for me who is driving it for fun and use my car for comfort it is a very good match.

[Bard]

Here is my Ninjette after I got a fender eliminator and Area-P installed, love the fender eliminator and the exhaust is unbelievable good sound and you can really feel the increased power. I am just a grin all over my face now, the bike is fantastic now...

[dave_boo]

Here is my Ninjette after I got a fender eliminator and Area-P installed, love the fender eliminator and the exhaust is unbelievable good sound and you can really feel the increased power. I am just a grin all over my face now, the bike is fantastic now...

I'm a sucker for carbon fibre.

Did you find that information about the Dyno?