Posted February 18, 2005

Introduction

I've now owned my 2001 Ninja 250 (EX250-F15) for about a year and a half. I've used it as a commuter, a country-road carver, and even as a distance tourer. In that time, I've ridden just over 10,000 miles: I bought the bike with 9000 miles on the odometer, and just rolled over 19,000 miles a week or two ago.

This isn't a bike review, but more of a retrospective. For a review, please see my initial review.

But, It's So Small!

This was my initial concern, before I bought the bike. I remember test-riding a used model at CycleBarn, and being quite impressed at its speed. I almost bought that bike, but they wanted about $500 too much for it and weren't at all flexible on the price.

I was worried, before I rode one, that I might have trouble keeping up with aggressive commute-time traffic, or maintaining speed on hills, or what have you. I figured that loading my 210 pound frame, plus 30ish pounds of riding gear and Stuff, on this little 250cc, 300 lb bike would be ungainly. Surely such a small motorcycle can't handle a big guy like me!

If you know much of anything about this bike, you probably know by now that that's just not true. Kawasaki lists the maximum load as about 340 lb, which pretty much precludes me from riding with a passenger, but that's the only limitation I feel. I routinely best traffic off the line and end up many seconds ahead of them to the next light.

The bike has impressive power (for a 250). With practice, on the flat, I can start it going at nearly idle RPMs, which is pretty good (for a 250). Accelerating onto the freeway is exciting, and in a good way (for a 250). It's not a 600cc supersport by any stretch, and a competent driver in a sports car would still take me to the cleaners in a drag race. But, we're not drag racing, and in real-world use, the Ninja 250 has more power than you need.

One dissappointment to me, when I was first shopping around, was that the Ninja 250 doesn't really see its full potential performance until you really rev the motor. As I mentioned in my initial review, I feel that this makes it a marginal choice for beginners, who may be scared by how much noise the motor makes at high RPM.

Of course, it is a small motorcycle. It only weighs 300 lbs dry, and rides on relatively skinny tires with a small contact patch. The steering geometry is relaxed and stable, as is the stock suspension. The brakes are pretty good (for a 250) but only adequate when compared with modern systems. It feels a bit skittish at extra-legal freeway speeds (ie, the speed everyone else drives), particularly in the wind. It's not much fun to ride at 85 MPH, even though it's capable of maintaining that speed.

This is also a cheap motorcycle, with a list price just under $3000. You can get scooters that cost more than that, and they don't even have a 250cc, 28ish (real-world) HP motor. For all that, it comes impressively spec'd, with disc brakes front and rear and components all around which are good quality, if not fabulous. You can ride it right off the lot and be pretty happy with what you have.

Mods, Mods, Mods

Of course, this brings me to modifications. I had no idea, when I bought this bike a year and a half ago, how much time, effort and money I'd invest in modifying it.

A quick summation shows that I've put about $800 (more or less) in modifications into the bike. That includes the first set of non-stock tires (but not subsequent replacements). I would guess I've invested around 20 hours of my own time in the bike, a lot of which was spent on the seat.

Most people modify motorcycles for aesthetic, performance, or functional/ergonomic reasons. I am no different. I just have a slightly skewed set of priorities: I'm not much interested in engine modifications for power -- the bike's powerful enough; I don't much care what it looks like, this is my daily-driver and commuter, and it was lightly crashed by the previous owner. My modifications have all been for "performance" in the sense of handling and braking, and functional or ergonomic. I haven't really touched the engine or the appearance of the bike (some would argue that I've negatively impacted the bike's looks, but that's up to the individual).

My performance modifications have been restricted to tires, suspension, and brakes. Almost first thing, I removed the stock tires, which are reputed to be as grippy and responsive as rocks, and put on Bridgestone BT45s. I've since worn out those first BT45s and replaced them with new ones, I like them so much. A fellow 250 rider recently rode my bike around the block, and praised the tires highly, having been riding his bike on the stock tires. Since I didn't spend much time (only about 200 miles, according to the servicelog) on the stock tires, I can't really compare them.

For suspension, I installed the RaceTech .75 kg/mm front fork springs, and an old EX500 rear shock. The RaceTech springs were a huge improvement for me, but I probably weigh 50-70 pounds more than this bike's originally intended rider. Even so, I highly recommend replacing the front springs as one of the first modifications to this bike.

The Ninja 500 shock on the rear was also a good improvement, but I can tell that all it really gets me is a preload adjuster and possibly a slightly higher spring rate. A proper aftermarket rear shock ($500 vs. the $30 or so I paid for the EX500 shock) would almost certainly be an eye-opening improvement. I still recommend the EX500 shock over the stock unit as a worthwhile upgrade for very cheap, if you want to increase ride height or static sag. With both suspension modifications done, the bike no longer feels toy-like when I climb on. Brake dive is still present, but I no longer bottom the forks during hard braking.

On the brake front, I made all the modifications you can easily make: new pads, and stainless steel braided lines. The pads I'm using, EBC Blacks, are fine, but nothing to write home about. Apparently the sintered metallic pads are a good improvement, but at the cost of increased disc wear. Since the brakes are fine for my use (even in heavy braking they're fine), I elected to replace the expensive discs less often.

The truly useful brake modification was the SS brake lines. This made a very noticeable improvement in braking feel and responsiveness. If I bought another 250, this would be among the very first things I'd do to it. This modification is so completely worth the $100 it costs that I recommend you scrape that money together however you can and get it done. A hand-operated vacuum pump makes swapping brake fluid very easy, and is a tool you'll use every time you have to deal with brake fluid, if you have it.

The final modifications I've made have been functional and ergonomic. Certainly the one that took the most time was the seat. You can read all about it on that page, but in short, I spent about $100 buying supplies and a used seat on Ebay, and 8-10 hours modifying it to be more comfortable for me (sitting further back and higher up for my long legs). The end result has been very successful, and I'm glad I know how to do it now.

A very obvious addition to my bike is the driving lights mounted to the mirror brackets. Their installation accounted for about 5 hours, between bracket fabrication and wiring it all together. Ultimately, I'm kind of dissappointed in the project, because I simply don't ride in an area where the extra lighting does anything more than alert other drivers I'm there. They're great for that, and the fog light is on almost any time it's dark out, but the driving light almost never comes on. I'm just never riding in a situation where it's either useful or desirable. I'm not sure that's a modification I'd make to my next Ninja 250.

Another obvious addition to the bike is the "shrimp basket" on the back. It's just a wire basket with shock cords that stretch down to the stock bungee hooks, but for a $15 modification it is incredibly useful. It's not pretty. It's not graceful. But it's oh-so practical. It fits 1.5 bags of groceries. It allows me to carry small objects that would otherwise fall out of a bungee net, or not really fit in a tank bag. I love it.

Finally, I added a BC800 bicycle computer to the bike fairly early on. I made this change primarily so I could have a convenient clock on the bike, but seeing my actual speed (the speedometer reads about 8% too high) has also been quite useful.

Ninja 250 as Commuter

My primary goal, when I bought this bike, was to use it as a commuter. I commute about 6 miles on what might be best described as a high-speed, stop-and-go street. It's not a freeway, but it's not 25 MPH city streets either. The Le Mans was getting crappy gas mileage, and I really wanted to try out this 70 MPG wonderbike called a Ninja 250.

As a commuter, this bike rocks. There's just no other word for it. It handles lightly, to dart out of the way of car driver who "just didn't see you." It accelerates well enough to outpace all but the aggressive teenager in the tricked-out Honda Civic (and often it'll outpace that kid too). I've been getting about 50 MPG on my commute, which isn't the promised 70, but is still way better than 25.

My fuel mileage has ranged everywhere from 44 to 66 MPG, depending on the type of driving I've been doing. The very lowest mileage I've gotten for a tank of gas was due to a clogged air filter combined with city riding. The very highest was on a freeway-only trip where I think I gassed up, got on the freeway, and refilled immediately upon exiting. You can see my gas mileage charts here, but the bottom line is that I've gotten about 52 MPG averaged over my ownership of the bike.

Ninja 250 as Sport Bike

My friend Jesse got interested in motorcycles again (he'd been riding off and on for about 8 years at the time) last summer, and ended up putting several hundred miles on my Ninja 250 on country-road expeditions we mounted. He was impressed with its abilities, and it piqued his interest enough that he ended up buying a CBR600F3.

I've taken those same roads, at one point even keeping pace with a suicidal person on a supersport through the curves, quite happily on the Ninja 250. It is so light that throwing it through curves is very easy and pleasant, and (with the upgraded suspension) it remains fairly composed.

You'd think the Ninja 250 would lack power for that kind of riding, but all it takes is keeping the engine in the 9k-13k RPM range (it redlines at 14k RPM). It screams along and really sounds the business, even though you're still travelling sane speeds. What the bike doesn't have is enough power to pull you out of a slow corner, so it's well worth learning how to maintain speed through the corner, as conditions permit.

Accelerating on the Ninja 250 is very gratifying, in a way. It lacks the visceral "why is gravity straight behind me now?" pull of a bigger bike, but it's very satisfying to rev it, full throttle, through the gears. Most motorcycles, if you did that, you'd be travelling 120 MPH by the time you hit 3rd gear, which is jail-worthy in most jurisdictions. On the 250, you can scream through the gears and come out going 70 MPH by the time you hit 6th. Fully legal on some roads, and there's just something about using the bike to its full potential that's very satisfying.

Ninja 250 as Tourer

I've only done it once but my Ninja 250 made quite a capable touring bike on that occasion. I won't do more than a brief recap here.

The route I chose was fairly back-roadish, rather than blazing down I-5 at 80 MPH. The Littlest Ninja just isn't happy with that pace (although it'd be more accurate that it makes the rider unhappy -- the bike itself is perfectly content to travel at that speed all day). But, with an average speed of about 45 MPH, the Ninja made an excellent bike on that trip.

Since I own both the Moto Guzzi and the Ninja, I'm unlikely to do much touring on the Ninja 250; the MG is just more appropriate to the task. If I only owned the 250, I wouldn't hesitate to tour on it, although I feel it would be limited by the luggage you could fit to it. There are a number of aftermarket racks either available or in the works, but storage isn't the EX250's strong suit.

In terms of performance and reliability, I think the Ninja 250 would make a fine touring bike, particularly for backroads touring. I've had no reliability problems with my bike, and it spent mile 2000 to mile 9000 with no maintenance whatsoever (as proudly proclaimed by the previous owner). Being a chain-driven bike, it does have that liability for touring, but regular maintenance keeps it from being a problem.

Picks and Pans

In brief:

Picks	Pans
Generally good components for the price	Ridiculous break-in requirement limits you to 35 MPH for 500 miles
Comfortable seating position for most	Cheap, nasty OEM tires
Surprisingly strong motor	Motor requires aggressive use to see full potential
Excellent fuel economy	Design last updated in 1988
Best value for the money in motorcycling

Final Thoughts

In case the theme doesn't come out clearly enough, I think this is a great bike. I ride it so much (probably 90% of my time on a motorcycle is on the Ninja these days) that I sometimes glance at the poor Le Mans, sitting on the other side of the garage, and wonder if I shouldn't try to find it a better home. I still like the Le Mans, but the Ninja 250 is just much more appropriate for almost all the riding I do. If you're paying attention, you'll notice that I ride my $3000 "beginner bike" in preference to my refined, sexy, $11,000 Italian motorcycle almost all the time. If that's not a powerful recommendation, I don't know what is.

I love the good fuel economy, the light weight and quick handling. I greatly enjoy knowing that I'm riding a $3000 motorcycle (for which I only paid $2000 used), which still meets all my motorcycle needs. It's certainly a bike with faults, but they mesh so well with my riding needs that they don't bother me.

I've even considered putting a sidecar on a Ninja 250, although that's a sizeable modification involving a lot of welding and fabrication. I'd like to do it some day, but not right now.

The bottom line is that I'd recommend this bike to anyone, almost regardless of the type of (on road) riding they're doing. It's not a great touring mount, and it's not a great high-speed freeway bike, but those are the only two areas in which it doesn't shine.

The Ninja 250 has an undeserved reputation as an incapable bike. Go test ride one today, and prove to yourself whether it's incapable or not.

Copyright 2005 by Ian Johnston. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net.