Is a 250 ninja a good beginner bike?

Question

Does anyone have one they want to get rid of?

Answer 1

theyre the BEST beginner bike. they hold their value, are cheap, and are a blast to ride from what i hear.

more info here on begginer bikes. many of these guys have a ton of experiance on bikes, and they know WTF theyre talking about. http://www.supercars.net/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=1&fID=4&tID=87668

and thank you for not thinking you should start out on a literbike, like most f00ls.

and theres zillions fo them on ebay. prices are pretty steady for them.

edit: to the guy saying hell grow out of it too fast: thats just a bunch of crap. IIRC theyre about as fast as a 911 to 60. thats not exactly slouching, or something youre going to grow out of in less than a year or so (which the bike will have depreciated about 2-300 bucks, maybe.)

Answer 2

How do you feel on the GS500? Comfortable if you feel good on the GS500 then you are going to feel the difference if you get the 250. Ninja 500 has a little more horsepower than the GS500 because it's liquid cooled. I would recommend the Ninja 500 but if you feel confident on the GS500 and aren't sweating it too much then maybe SV650 might be a good candidate. I would go with the Ninja500 but if I found a good deal on a SV650 I would pick it up.

Answer 3

if i was gonna start with a sport bike instead of a cruiser, i woulda opted for either a buell or a ninja-250....or if i had the balls, a ninja-500. but i definately wouldnt get a 600 or a gsxr for the 1st bike.
as for growin outta it...they call the sportster a 'girls bike', 'beginner bike', 'bar hoppin bike', 'too small of bike'. but after 2 years in the saddle on it, i'm havin a hell of alotta fun on my 1200 sporty. it would be better for me to be on the sporty anyway. i live no less than 2 hours of ride time to get to area's that would let a sport bike shine, but i also know that the ride to get there would have my *** too sore to wanna ride aggressively the way the bike is designed.

Answer 4

Not only is it a good (great) beginners bike, it's a very good Experienced rider bike too. We bought one for my wife as her first bike (bought for $600, sold for $1500... but then I'm a mechanic too ~ that was for a 2001 in 2004), and I found that I sold my ZRX1100 and slowly quit riding my VFR750 for trips under about 100~150 miles because the 250 was SO much MORE fun than any of the other bikes I had available.

The saying that comes with cars, directly translates to bikes: It is Much more fun to ride a slower bike fast, than to ride a fast bike slow.

And to say the 250 is slow is a bit off, as mentioned it does 0-60 in 5.75 s, which is faster than pretty much every car cheaper than $80~100k. It'll do over 100mph aswell (barely), which is more than enough to get anyone in the US tossed in jail without passing GO or collecting $200. Any it's Certainly enough to get you hurt or dead in the wrong situations (no gear, riding stupid and bad luck).

But it's also a Very easy bike to ride, extremely forgiving of newbie mistakes without putting the rider into a bad situation.

If you're serious about the bike, head on over to http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/Main_Page and http://forums.ninja250.org/ for tons of info and a community of riders.

Answer 5

The 250 Ninja is an excellent first bike. It's sporty, reliable, fast (for its class), and very forgiving when you make a mistake.
Then in a few years, you can step up to a 500 or 600cc bike.
Just remember that riding isn't about speed, its about skill and learning to ride properly.

Good choice on this one!

Answer 6

I don't have one to sell, but I must admit it was great to learn on this bike- that or a Honda Rebel, it really depends on the style you like. Whats great about this bike is how light it is, so it is very flingable, turns are very easy, and maintanance is a breeze. I had mine for 6k miles, all I had to do was change the oil a couple times and keep the chain lubed. This is also a great bike to learn on because the power is very predictable. I've had a couple friends get seriously injured on 600cc sportbikes as there first bike because they had no throttle control. Learn on this bike, then consider upgrading.

Edit - The person above mentioned resale. That is also a huge factor in buying this bike. I bought mine used with 300 miles on it for 3k. I sold it for $3100. Figure that one out! :)

Answer 7

Excellent choice for a first bike. I even still keep floating the idea of buying one for myself as a fun second bike.

Answer 8

It's a great bike. Very reliable and fast. No I do not have one that I want to give away.

Answer 9

http://www.cycletrader.com/

Youll find a lot of Ninja 250's here, but Ive never ridden one although I hear there fun as hell.

Answer 10

You will grow out of a 250 too fast. I would get a Suzuki GSXR 650...

Just don't start out with a harley :)