Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

So I just got my bike licence and ive been looking at a ninja250 special edition 2011 on bikesales but then it came to me I might get bored of this bike in couple of months I would want something more powerful so I started looking at the 650L which is restricted for learners but ofcourse it is more pricey so should I get a 250 outright, ride it for a year then upgrade or woth getting a 650 on finance and unristriced it after a year??

I really love the 650 too but ive only ridden a bike like twice in my life lol and that was including the test bike t

650 makes more sense to me, assuming you are not knee-high to a (smoldering) midget...

Probably the best idea for you is pay your local bike instructor for some lessons and tell him you want to try out with different size bikes on his fleet while you are learning. Then while you are learning good skills you can get a feel for the different sized bikes etc...

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If you have very little riding experience you could look at a 250 to start off with and then progress to the 650. The bigger bike for some one with zero experience may be a bit intimidating. If you have experience on dirt bikes then I would go for the 650 every time.

Hi ninjaa,

I'm a first time learner as well, i bought the 650L and love it. Got the 300se for the son, rode it once, couldn't wait to get back onto my 650. The 650 isn't as scary as it looks, it handles great and I'm only 172cm 71kg.

Salesman told me that full throttle, top gear you'd be doing $1.80+, so wouldn't worry too much about derestricting it once on full licence.

Cheers,
2Ninjas

Hi ninjaa,

I'm a first time learner as well, i bought the 650L and love it. Got the 300se for the son, rode it once, couldn't wait to get back onto my 650. The 650 isn't as scary as it looks, it handles great and I'm only 172cm 71kg.

Salesman told me that full throttle, top gear you'd be doing $1.80+, so wouldn't worry too much about derestricting it once on full licence.

Cheers,
2Ninjas

Yeah I get alot of people telling me start off with 250 as I have no experienece I dont know how long the thrill will last

I suspect you'll end up a better rider if you start on a 250. You need to ride fairly well to go fast on them. The extra power of the 650 will mask riding flaws. My bike was off the road for a few weeks and I was riding a 250 and it's fun. Need to keep corner speed up. Any mistakes, the revs drop and it takes a while to get them up again. They are also a bit lighter and slow riding is easier. I think a lot of people on 250s don't keep the revs up and ride in too high a gear.
My experience is you can plateau a bit and lose the thrill, but do a bit more training and it comes back.

Get a cheap secondhand bike as your first bike, 250 or 650 main reason being you will more than likely only have it until you get your blacks & there is a high chance that you will drop it at some stage...... hurts less if its not too pretty to start with.

except it's not stupid but sound advice IMO

robracer wrote:Get a cheap secondhand bike as your first bike, 250 or 650 main reason being you will more than likely only have it until you get your blacks & there is a high chance that you will drop it at some stage...... hurts less if its not too pretty to start with.

Too right Rob. My first bike was an '88 GPX 250 Ninja with all the fairings held together with araldite, and sure enough I dropped it in a carpark.

That being said, I rode several GPX's and Ninja 250's for over 3 years from my L's to blacks. They are great bikes and loads of fun, I was very sad to see mine go. I now ride a Ninja 650 (non-learner legal) and it too is a great bike, but very different to the 250.

My advice is to buy a shitty old bike for at least your L's, and then get a 250 (or 300 if you can afford it). Cut your teeth on that and learn how to turn corners instead of just twisting the damn throttle. You're going to have a great time on them until you're ready to upgrade to a bigger bike, even if you do get the 650L later into your P's.

Too right Rob. My first bike was an '88 GPX 250 Ninja with all the fairings held together with araldite, and sure enough I dropped it in a carpark.

That being said, I rode several GPX's and Ninja 250's for over 3 years from my L's to blacks. They are great bikes and loads of fun, I was very sad to see mine go. I now ride a Ninja 650 (non-learner legal) and it too is a great bike, but very different to the 250.

My advice is to buy a shitty old bike for at least your L's, and then get a 250 (or 300 if you can afford it). Cut your teeth on that and learn how to turn corners instead of just twisting the damn throttle. You're going to have a great time on them until you're ready to upgrade to a bigger bike, even if you do get the 650L later into your P's.

my wife has a new 300 and a mate has the 650l and as a starter bike i would take the 300. actually alround i would say the 300 is the better bike just less cc. I would be surprised even after 12 mths if you could out ride a 300 or 250 for that matter. I am not having a go at you but I have a 1200 and a 1400 and i am not sure i could ride the 300 to the limit. so start small remember it is more fun to ride a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow