Interested in both bikes as I am an absolute beginner with no experience. I drive a stick in a cage so I know the basic premise of shifting, and clutch control. I would be getting this bike to drive to college when I go. The ride is about 30 miles and involves about 15 miles of highway. I have read the 250 runs at a very high rpm on the highway, but it gets 60 mpg. I could sacrifice the mpg and get the 650 which performs better on the highway, but I'm worried as to whether the 650 would be too powerful for a first bike. Can someone help me out and tell me about the 650's power and the issues listed above?

 

I'm an ex instructor with a lot of years and well over half a million miles on bikes.

I ride a 650 as it's the smallest bike that will be good for regular long freeway trips. The key words are regular and long. A 250 is fine for irregular long trips or regular short trips. 15 highway miles is very short.

A first bike has to be easy to manage - both bikes will satisfy that, but it must also allow you to develop your skills on the edge of the performance envelope, and ideally it should actually encourage you to do that.

What means is that the 250 is as fast as you want to go on the road most of the time, but to get there you'll have to work hard, where on the 650 you're much more relaxed. That means that you don't learn as much, don't learn it as well, and don't learn it as quickly as on a 250. The 250 is also a bit safer, especially when you're in traffic.

People will tell you that you'll get bored with a 250. THe only people that that's true for are those who can't ride one properly, and that usually means that they can't really ride any bike properly. It's much more fun, as your skills develop, being able to ride flat out as you can on a 250 rather than always having to restrain your throttle hand, as you must on a 650.

If you do need to do regular long highway trips, or if you intend to carry a passenger, buy a used 250 to start with. If it's faired, fit frame sliders to protect the bodywork, because if you push the bike hard enough to really master it you will drop it. You'll be able to sell the bike in 12 month's time at very little loss to buy a bigger bike and you'll have had a year's learning and a year's fun out of it.

I'll bet that you won't want to sell it if you learn to ride it properly. If you start on a 650, apart from the obvious dangers, most people never really learn to master the bike fully.

Do an MSF course, and keep off the highway until you've got a few hundred miles under your belt.

Rob

 

I re-entered riding in February 2008 after a long hiatus, and my bike of choice was a 2007 Ninja 250. I can say in all honesty that I wish I'd skipped it and gone with something larger, as that's what I ended up with just a few months later. It was a fantastic starter bike, but a miserable highway ride. It's about a 24 mile ride from my house to downtown Dallas and between the gusty sidewinds having their way with me, and the engine screaming at 9000 rpms, the bike was sensory overload on the highway. I looked at the 650 in the beginning and ended up wishing I'd gone with it. It's a very nice bike with the looks of a Kawasaki supersport, without all the wild horses to go with it.

I ended up going a completely different direction with what I have now (Virago 750) but if you are wanting a sport bike and have any highway travel on your itenerary, go with the 650. It's very comfortable, you sit upright and it's docile.

The bikes for newbies to stay away from are the supersports..anything with a parallel 4-cylinder engine. Even a ZX6-R is too much for a new rider, forget about the ZX-10 and ZX-14.

 

Watch out on those starter issues and some heavy internal engine noise. Good luck with that one.

If I was going 24 miles hwy one way then 24 miles back home only, I would prolly like the 650 as well.

 

250 would be great around town, anything else i say 650

 

My friends told me the same thing when I bought my 250 about 4 years ago. I love my bike. I have seen my friends larger bikes as well, but remind myself of what I really "need". I can tell you that the high RPM's are nothing to consider if that is all you are worried about. I spent less than $50 on a new front sprocket which allowed me to drop the RPM's by 1K. The power didn't change a whole lot either. Alos, the 250 get's excellent gas mileage in the city. I have accomplished 70+ despite what others say. For just highway it is closer to 50 MPG.

True this bike is lighter, but even my friend has trouble keeping his R1 straight on a windy day going across a bridge. No matter what bike you have you must know your limitations.

The one thing I can say is the seat is not very comfortable on a 250 for long rides (>2 hours). But this is the case for most sport bike. You can purchase a fuller cushy seat for the 250 though. It is about $300 I think. http://www.corbin.com/kawasaki/kn-250-r-gl.shtml NOTE: Lady saddle optional.

 

There is no one right answer to this question. I had a 2001 Ninja 250 and put 38,000 miles on that bike including trips of 1200 miles. It was a dream on the highway AND the back roads. I happen to fit that bike perfectly and they are electric smooth! I wouldn't hesitate for a 2nd to go and likely stay with the 250. I ride the 2006 KLX250s dual-sport these days when I'm not on the 2003 Vulcan 800 but I bought my girlfriend an '06 Ninja 250 that I jump on once in a while and am thinking about either Super Motard'ing the KLX or getting one of the new Ninja 250's. It has all the power needed for plenty of fun, great gas limage, minimal maintenance and cheap to insure.

 

One issue here is that some of the more exerienced riders are looking at the two bikes in absolute termsa and not giving enough weight to the question of a bike to learn to ride on. That's a bike to keep for a year and 10,000 miles, not a bike to keep forever, and a bike that will encourage you to learn all the lessons that you need to learn, including how to ride hard and maximise performance, while keeping a degree of safety.

You do not want to experiment with how to get the best speed out of a bike on a 650, because you'll be doing near to 130 mph when you do it. Much better, and much easier, to learn at 95 mph.

Rob

 

I've got a 250 and i ride on the highway everyday back and forth to work..dont really have a problem..sometimes with wind but other than that no prob..o yeah if you plan on going on long trips listen to ChrisAce and get the softer seat cause past 1 and a half to 2 hours your *** will be sore.

 

True, but the torque of a 650 twin is superior to that of an inline four cylinder six hundred. The Ninja 650 will beat any 600 class supersport to eighty miles an hour and since that's the range where all legal riding takes place the 650 twin is not a lot safer to learn on than a 600 SS. To the author, see my response in the 650 forum.