Hey,
I'm Florian, 16 year old sophomore in highschool. So I just got a job and I'm in the market for a bike now and I have my eye on the Honda Nighthawk aswell as the Kawasaki Ninja 250R. So far I'm looking twards the Ninja seeing as its $600 less and it doesn't look so puney. But now after I went around looking for bias opinions on the Nighthawk I'd like the same for the Ninja.

-Top speed on last gear at 2.5k RPM
-Top speed at red line
-MPG
-Get go power? (the street racing community of my town of 11000 ppl is somewhat complex, but theres not many riders in highschool so I'm not looking to compete with those katanas in college)
-About how many miles can I throw on her before she dies?
-Can she handle a weekend road trip?

That's all I can think of right now but I'm sure I'll ask more later. Feel free to add what ever you want

Thanks
Florian

 

wasup man.. That's cool on getting a new bike, just take her easy out there. I read a review not real long ago where they tested the three major brands of 250's. Honda, kawi, yamaha... The kawi had the most power, throttle response, mpg, and ergonomics. Not sure what top speed is, but prob around 80-85 mph range with mpg of around 60.. If I was looking for a 250, the Kawi would be my choice..

And it looks good too

 

Hey man,
Thats cool that this has best overall preformance of the three. When I started looking around I read a few reviews and I recognized the one youwere talking about. Three bikes in the 250 class on motorcycle.com, titles ".25 Caliber Shootout"

http://www.motorcycle.com/mo/mccompare/250shootout.html

Written nearly a decade ago but I don't suppose all that much has changed when everyone trys to move foward.

 

Yup, that looks like the one!! I didn't realize it was that old , I know the rebel changed some. the new ones are just ugly. I've never been a big air cooled fan, so that rules out the virago. But I haven't seen the Ninja 250 in real life yet. There's some nice pics on here of them, with lots of aftermarket parts available.

The 250 market is a HUGE market. So any one of the three is going to be a decent bike. I was on old school cruiser man myself, until I bought this ZX10, and I gotta tell ya, AWESOME!!

Go with the kawi. Water cooled, reliable, power, looks, aftermarket parts availability, and it is not so small looking. Have you seen the nighthawk in person. It's a pretty small looking bike. Nothing wrong with it, just small looking.

If you look at Mr Toads bike with him on it, it doesn't look to small. JMO tho'.

Ride safe, dude, let us know what you get, no matter what you go with!!

 

Yeah, well, lets just hope my mom will give me an early christmas, I only have $150 stored up right now, do you think I could get away with putting only $500 down for a new Ninja 250?

 

You will need to have a co-sighn, being only 16 I'm gussing you dont have any credit built up.... like credit cards or rent or utility bills so try to get your parents to help ya if they like the idea of ya getting a bike. Anyways whatever you do be safe, oh btw welcome to the forum if I havent already.

 

Very true on the 16 and a co signer... A good rule of thumb, is 10% down. Bike costs what? $3500 ? So $350 down. But you need insurance, helmet, gear.... Figure another 3-4 bills out of pocket there... But, if you have a dad, etc, co sign.....you can probably finance the helmet and etc also, and save some up front money. so maybe around $600 - $700 down???

Let us know what happens!!! GL bro....