2010 Kawasaki Ninja 650r Abs

[monkeyofdoom]

I did a one hour test drive on a friend's rented 650R and was not really impressed... I thought it was upright to the point of having to struggle to keep it leaning in the curves. It kept trying to right itself unless I kept constant pressure on the handlebars all the way through. And any irregularity in the road surface made it wobble around, making me think "this is around 30% of a highside" many a time. Unsettling.

Am I riding it wrong? My regular ride is the 250R and once you lean it over, it tracks nicely through bends without any effort. No pressure on the handlebars needed, a featherlight touch is all. It also feels much more planted on the road than the 650R when hitting irregularities. Is this a general bigger bike thing, say, because of the fatter rear wheel and greater weight? Or is it a 650R thing?

[thaicbr]

Could be that the chain isnt tightend correctly so the rear wheel is not tracking correctly. could be the tyres are under or over inflated.

[husskydog]

I did a one hour test drive on a friend's rented 650R and was not really impressed... I thought it was upright to the point of having to struggle to keep it leaning in the curves. It kept trying to right itself unless I kept constant pressure on the handlebars all the way through. And any irregularity in the road surface made it wobble around, making me think "this is around 30% of a highside" many a time. Unsettling.

Am I riding it wrong? My regular ride is the 250R and once you lean it over, it tracks nicely through bends without any effort. No pressure on the handlebars needed, a featherlight touch is all. It also feels much more planted on the road than the 650R when hitting irregularities. Is this a general bigger bike thing, say, because of the fatter rear wheel and greater weight? Or is it a 650R thing?

A very good and perceptive observation, monkeyofdoom,,,,,,exactly what i felt when i first got my 650r...it didn`t want to stay down on the longer curves like my 750 inline four......but after lowering the front by 15mm and the flatter bars fitted there is a vast improvement, maybe by them trying to reduce weight in the engine/bike they have raised its center of gravity slightly???

And the point of the build quality, i agree, not up to jap standards...take a look up inside the rear shock sleeve..rust is starting to show on mine, i wd40 it after each wash to keep it in touch, oh and why not chrome the gear and rear brake pedals, starting to lose covering already....but hey, still good value...hd...oh i nearly forgot one area to check for you guys, pull out the rubber bung on the underside of the fork yoke, and get some grease or wd40 up there too..........

Edited November 23, 2009 by husskydog

[Travelmate]

Are you fat?

[husskydog]

Are you fat?

Who me, not at all....80kgs

[BigBikeBKK]

I did a one hour test drive on a friend's rented 650R and was not really impressed... I thought it was upright to the point of having to struggle to keep it leaning in the curves. It kept trying to right itself unless I kept constant pressure on the handlebars all the way through. And any irregularity in the road surface made it wobble around, making me think "this is around 30% of a highside" many a time. Unsettling.

Am I riding it wrong? My regular ride is the 250R and once you lean it over, it tracks nicely through bends without any effort. No pressure on the handlebars needed, a featherlight touch is all. It also feels much more planted on the road than the 650R when hitting irregularities. Is this a general bigger bike thing, say, because of the fatter rear wheel and greater weight? Or is it a 650R thing?

A very good and perceptive observation, monkeyofdoom,,,,,,exactly what i felt when i first got my 650r...it didn`t want to stay down on the longer curves like my 750 inline four......but after lowering the front by 15mm and the flatter bars fitted there is a vast improvement, maybe by them trying to reduce weight in the engine/bike they have raised its center of gravity slightly???

And the point of the build quality, i agree, not up to jap standards...take a look up inside the rear shock sleeve..rust is starting to show on mine, i wd40 it after each wash to keep it in touch, oh and why not chrome the gear and rear brake pedals, starting to lose covering already....but hey, still good value...hd...oh i nearly forgot one area to check for you guys, pull out the rubber bung on the underside of the fork yoke, and get some grease or wd40 up there too..........

While Kawasaki has thrown a Ninja sticker and some flashy fairings on the 650R it's really not a sport bike. Sport-tourer or all-arounder would be a more accurate description IMO. For me it's a great touring bike and good fun to play on the track with but I certainly don't expect to win any trophies.

When I first got my ER6n I was really surprised at how tall the bike is, same of course for the 650R. Coming from a Ninja 250R it definitely takes some getting used to. But once you do get used to the tall bars you'll find that you can lean the EX650 over and it'll hold a great line. Sure the suspension is very basic, but as reviewers have noted, the bikes does handle better than the sum of its parts. If you're finding the bike unsettled I'd definitely check the pressure and condition of the tires.

Park the EX650 next to any 'real' sport bike and you'll see that the bars on the ER6n/Ninja 650R are a good foot taller. Hence the popular mods of dropping the front forks and ditching the stock bars in favor of sport bars or clip ons.

Agree with HusskyD about Thai build quality- it's not bad and it's certainly good value for money, but it still can't compare with "Made in Japan" quality.

Ride On!

[NinjaGladiator]

Luggage?

Here's a picture of mine fully loaded up...

The back-box is badged honda, but is the universal bracket type so fits to any rear bracket, I made my own rear bracket (see earlier post), The box holds 35litres, my frank-thomas throw-overs came from UK, but are available around THailand each holds 15litres, the Magnetic tank bag fully expanded (as pic.) holds 30litres, this is my second tank-bag my last was worn thread bear after 10 yrs hard use, I find them very useful and not too intrusive, I also upgrade the magnets to neodymium (ultra strong) magnets, so the bag doesn't budge no matter how much weight is in it. So in total I've got 95litres of space, that's 80 for the misses and 15 for me.

[BigBikeBKK]

Wow! How many weeks are you going to be on the road?

[BigBikeBKK]

No-cut frame sliders for the 2010 Ninja 650R are finally here!

They've not yet been crash tested but the way they are designed I'm not sure how strong they will be...

I think they'll protect the bike if it gets knocked over or suffers a gentle lowside-

But in a hard fall I imagine the brackets could bend or snap... I guess that's the trade-off when choosing no-cut sliders.

Considering how cheap the fairings are here in Thailand I'm not sure these sliders are worth it...

They look good though

What do you guys think?

Happy Trails!

Tony

Edited November 25, 2009 by BigBikeBKK

[thaicbr]

If they are inexpensive (say1-1,500baht) then they will be ok for the smaller accident and save the time and hassle of getting the bike fixed, what do they bolt to?. They also look quite cool.

Allan

[BigBikeBKK]

If they are inexpensive (say1-1,500baht) then they will be ok for the smaller accident and save the time and hassle of getting the bike fixed, what do they bolt to?. They also look quite cool.

Allan

Cheers Allan,

I'm hoping to get a set this week and will take pictures of them on the bike minus the fairings so everyone can see how they attach to the frame. (They're a variation on the ER6n sliders) I don't know the price yet, but expect it will be somewhere between 2500-3000 Baht/set.

These are by far the sturdiest looking no-cut sliders I've found for the 2009-2010 Ninja 650R, but they're massive and I hear they are rather difficult to install:

http://www.motospecialties.com/store.asp?s...ja%20650%20Shop

Ride On!

Tony

[nikster]

I did a one hour test drive on a friend's rented 650R and was not really impressed... I thought it was upright to the point of having to struggle to keep it leaning in the curves. It kept trying to right itself unless I kept constant pressure on the handlebars all the way through. And any irregularity in the road surface made it wobble around, making me think "this is around 30% of a highside" many a time. Unsettling.

Am I riding it wrong? My regular ride is the 250R and once you lean it over, it tracks nicely through bends without any effort. No pressure on the handlebars needed, a featherlight touch is all. It also feels much more planted on the road than the 650R when hitting irregularities. Is this a general bigger bike thing, say, because of the fatter rear wheel and greater weight? Or is it a 650R thing?

A very good and perceptive observation, monkeyofdoom,,,,,,exactly what i felt when i first got my 650r...it didn`t want to stay down on the longer curves like my 750 inline four......but after lowering the front by 15mm and the flatter bars fitted there is a vast improvement, maybe by them trying to reduce weight in the engine/bike they have raised its center of gravity slightly???

And the point of the build quality, i agree, not up to jap standards...take a look up inside the rear shock sleeve..rust is starting to show on mine, i wd40 it after each wash to keep it in touch, oh and why not chrome the gear and rear brake pedals, starting to lose covering already....but hey, still good value...hd...oh i nearly forgot one area to check for you guys, pull out the rubber bung on the underside of the fork yoke, and get some grease or wd40 up there too..........

No problems in the turns with the ER-6n, it tracks fantastically. Especially so after someone told me about counter-steering - it now drops into the corners all by itself. Struggle? Most definitely not. I struggled with the D-Tracker but even that worked after getting used to the bike. So yeah you are riding it wrong

Now if anyone could point me to where I could buy some hard shell saddle bags, that would be awesome. Need to fit a laptop, would greatly enhance my riding experience because my computer goes everywhere I go and is riding on the back at the moment.

[BigBikeBKK]

Now if anyone could point me to where I could buy some hard shell saddle bags, that would be awesome. Need to fit a laptop, would greatly enhance my riding experience because my computer goes everywhere I go and is riding on the back at the moment.

Givi Panniers would be the obvious choice but I'm not aware of any retailers outside of Bangkok so you'll have to make a trip to the big smoke or have them sent to you. Try Dr Bike, Khun Yo can get Givi V35 and V46 panniers for you: http://www.weloveshopping.com/template/a37...p;shopid=119543

There are a couple of other Givi retailers in Bangkok but my google powers are weak this morning And some of the Kawasaki dealers (Udon Thani and Pattaya I believe, perhaps others as well) are also selling them. You're in Pai, right? Why not give Kawasaki Chiang Mai a call, I hear they are very helpful.

Happy Trails!

Tony

Edited November 26, 2009 by BigBikeBKK

[nikster]

Now if anyone could point me to where I could buy some hard shell saddle bags, that would be awesome. Need to fit a laptop, would greatly enhance my riding experience because my computer goes everywhere I go and is riding on the back at the moment.

Givi Panniers would be the obvious choice but I'm not aware of any retailers outside of Bangkok so you'll have to make a trip to the big smoke or have them sent to you. Try Dr Bike, Khun Yo can get Givi V35 and V46 panniers for you: http://www.weloveshopping.com/template/a37...p;shopid=119543

There are a couple of other Givi retailers in Bangkok but my google powers are weak this morning And some of the Kawasaki dealers (Udon Thani and Pattaya I believe, perhaps others as well) are also selling them. You're in Pai, right? Why not give Kawasaki Chiang Mai a call, I hear they are very helpful.

Thx a lot for this info. Some searching on Google revealed that motor bikes and internet don't mix too well. Most of the motorbike accessories websites look like they were designed in 1999. It's hard to find anything. Or maybe it's really only Givi, and those custom boxes for the BMW GS which cost > $1000.

The official Givi website doesn't have kinda-sorta important information like the inside dimensions of their boxes.

So I'll find them in Thailand somewhere and test them with my 17" laptop...

[husskydog]

Now if anyone could point me to where I could buy some hard shell saddle bags, that would be awesome. Need to fit a laptop, would greatly enhance my riding experience because my computer goes everywhere I go and is riding on the back at the moment.

Givi Panniers would be the obvious choice but I'm not aware of any retailers outside of Bangkok so you'll have to make a trip to the big smoke or have them sent to you. Try Dr Bike, Khun Yo can get Givi V35 and V46 panniers for you: http://www.weloveshopping.com/template/a37...p;shopid=119543

There are a couple of other Givi retailers in Bangkok but my google powers are weak this morning And some of the Kawasaki dealers (Udon Thani and Pattaya I believe, perhaps others as well) are also selling them. You're in Pai, right? Why not give Kawasaki Chiang Mai a call, I hear they are very helpful.

Happy Trails!

Tony

Kawasaki, korat have had givi`s in stock for about 2 months, he has 650r in the showroom with the correct bar and racks fitted along with the top box an solid detachable paniers....all givi...look good but omg to much money....

[crs]

 Newbie here just trying to get up to speed with the bike market in Thailand. It seems the E650's offer best deal for your cash for a sporty all-rounder by quite a margin. IMO you'd have to be on a mission to think of paying stacks more for a supersports (esp' considering roads/drivers in Thai) as they're all imported models (?)

Just wanted to check - I'm not overlooking any other obvious bargains am I? Cheers. 

[BigBikeBKK]

Newbie here just trying to get up to speed with the bike market in Thailand. It seems the E650's offer best deal for your cash for a sporty all-rounder by quite a margin. IMO you'd have to be on a mission to think of paying stacks more for a supersports (esp' considering roads/drivers in Thai) as they're all imported models (?)

Welcome! Yes, you've already figured it out- the Thai built Kawasakis are the best deals going hands down in the Land of Smiles and over priced imports. Half or less than half the cost of comparable imports and with dealers all over the country and super cheap parts they really are value for money. And Kawasaki is talking about moving more production to Thailand! Awesome! Just think what you can do with all the money you save!

Let the Good Times Roll!

[nikster]

Kawasaki, korat have had givi`s in stock for about 2 months, he has 650r in the showroom with the correct bar and racks fitted along with the top box an solid detachable paniers....all givi...look good but omg to much money....

Great info, thanks! Didn't have time to talk to the CM Kawa guys yet. Do you remember the price?

@Tony: Money well spent

[LivinLOS]

Normally I understand the 'all the gear, all the time' but in this case I think we can forgive her..

[crs]

Newbie here just trying to get up to speed with the bike market in Thailand. It seems the E650's offer best deal for your cash for a sporty all-rounder by quite a margin. IMO you'd have to be on a mission to think of paying stacks more for a supersports (esp' considering roads/drivers in Thai) as they're all imported models (?)

Welcome! Yes, you've already figured it out- the Thai built Kawasakis are the best deals going hands down in the Land of Smiles and over priced imports. Half or less than half the cost of comparable imports and with dealers all over the country and super cheap parts they really are value for money. And Kawasaki is talking about moving more production to Thailand! Awesome! Just think what you can do with all the money you save!

Let the Good Times Roll!

Cheers for that - and that.

[Morien]

I'm selling my CBR150 this month before heading home, and I'm thinking of buying a Ninja 650 when I return next year. I understand there will be a difference in fuel consumption, anyone care to give me a figure of about how much?

Thanks

[BigBikeBKK]

I'm selling my CBR150 this month before heading home, and I'm thinking of buying a Ninja 650 when I return next year. I understand there will be a difference in fuel consumption, anyone care to give me a figure of about how much?

Thanks

Both my ER6n and Ninja 650R average about 16-17km/liter. If you ride the speed limit you'll get better mileage for sure

[Morien]

Hmm. So approximately twice the CBR. Thanks.

[katabeachbum]

I'm selling my CBR150 this month before heading home, and I'm thinking of buying a Ninja 650 when I return next year. I understand there will be a difference in fuel consumption, anyone care to give me a figure of about how much?

Thanks

Both my ER6n and Ninja 650R average about 16-17km/liter. If you ride the speed limit you'll get better mileage for sure

second that, 16-22 km/liter. 3000 km measured.

[rixalex]

What a great ride she looks.

[BigBikeBKK]

Man, I could have sworn I broke my bike. After Bangsaen she was blowing smoke and running like crap... I figured a damaged valve guide, valve or rings. Ugh, the bike's only 3 months old and I already broke her?!

I put the bike all back to stock and brought her in to Kawi HQ. The guys at Kwackerzaki were cool- I told 'em what I thought it might be and asked them to do a compression check first to see if indeed is was a bad valve or rings as I suspected.

So I expected it to take a while and was pretty surprised when they called me the next day to say the bike was ready to be picked up.

I went over there expecting they'd ignored the problem or come up with a band-aid solution.

The bike was cold so I expected it to be hard to start and that it would idle like crap as it had ever since Bangsaen.

Hit the starter- she purred to life and idled like a kitten. Gave her some throttle and no smoke. Huh? What did you guys do???

Service assistance manager who's a really funny ass guy says to me, "Khun Tony, what you do in Bangsaen?". I'm like, what, nothing much, just ride around, get drunk, always use condoms, the usual...

He's says, "a lot of oil in your airbox"...

Really?! How'd that happen?

Service guy, who knows me a bit too well says, "Tony, you stunt a lot in Bangsaen?"

Who me? I'd never, well ok, perhaps on occasion, in fact yeah, at Bangsaen the Ninja spent a fair bit of time nose up... Ok, you got me. But how does stunting make the bike run like crap and blow smoke?

And I learned something new- These newer bikes with all the pollution control crap on 'em won't just blow oil out the crank case like my older bikes did from time to time. No, here's an inconvenient truth- these newer bikes are all eco friendly and green and don't want to spray oil (or gas) into the environment so now I finally found out just what that PAIR valve and other pollution control stuff really does- it was slowly feeding the oil in the airbox into the throttle bodies AND directly into the exhaust via the PAIR Valve. That explained both why the bike was running poorly and why it was blowing smoke!

Mystery solved!

Next thing I've got to do is disconnect the breather tube that goes from the crank case to the airbox, because apparently when you're stunting oil can get 'burped' up into the airbox. Oil in the airbox will make the bike run poorly and if you're running an aftermarket exhaust you'll be blowing smoke as the oil is introduced into the exhaust by the PAIR valve to be burned off by the cats that are no longer there. (Hence the reason why folks with aftermarket exhaust often plug the PAIR valve.)

I had put the stock can back on the bike expecting I'd have to make a warranty claim and once that stock can warmed up there was no smoke because the 3 cats in that massive can were burning off all the oil. With the straight through Arrow exhaust and no cats it was blowing a fair bit of smoke under heavy throttle.

What a relief to know that I didn't break her, just gave her indigestion Ha ha!

Oh, and what did I have to pay for them to take the bike apart and clean up the mess I made?

220 Baht!

God I love this place!!!

Ride On!

Tony

Edited December 3, 2009 by BigBikeBKK

[LivinLOS]

Relief huh !!

Proper service.. What a god send..

Come on Kwaker z1000 Purdy please..

[edwinchester]

Newbie here just trying to get up to speed with the bike market in Thailand. It seems the E650's offer best deal for your cash for a sporty all-rounder by quite a margin. IMO you'd have to be on a mission to think of paying stacks more for a supersports (esp' considering roads/drivers in Thai) as they're all imported models (?)

Welcome! Yes, you've already figured it out- the Thai built Kawasakis are the best deals going hands down in the Land of Smiles and over priced imports. Half or less than half the cost of comparable imports and with dealers all over the country and super cheap parts they really are value for money. And Kawasaki is talking about moving more production to Thailand! Awesome! Just think what you can do with all the money you save!

Let the Good Times Roll!

Very little body armour in those CK's.

And why subscribe to StarMovies if your not going to watch?

Thais eh?

[skybluestu]

Newbie here just trying to get up to speed with the bike market in Thailand. It seems the E650's offer best deal for your cash for a sporty all-rounder by quite a margin. IMO you'd have to be on a mission to think of paying stacks more for a supersports (esp' considering roads/drivers in Thai) as they're all imported models (?)

Welcome! Yes, you've already figured it out- the Thai built Kawasakis are the best deals going hands down in the Land of Smiles and over priced imports. Half or less than half the cost of comparable imports and with dealers all over the country and super cheap parts they really are value for money. And Kawasaki is talking about moving more production to Thailand! Awesome! Just think what you can do with all the money you save!

Let the Good Times Roll!

Big hands!

[LivinLOS]

Very little body armour in those CK's.

functional airbags tho..