If you read my last blog, you already know I'm into motorcycles and riding spiritedly. My passion started 3 or 4 years ago when my father got back into the hobby and encouraged me to give it a shot as well. I immediately fell in love and shortly after bought my own first motorcycle, a Kawasaki Ninja 250R.
I rode that bike for 3 years and absolutely loved every moment. Living in Hokkaido, there was little practical need for more power than what the 250 had and it offered more than enough handling potential to keep me satisfied and learning. Touring, mountain roads, commuting, that bike got it all done for me. It lived up to its reputation as one of the best beginner bikes you can buy and then some. It was capable but easy to ride, had just enough power, confident braking, and quick and easy handling. However, after pushing that bike for 3 years I began to run into the mechanical limitations of riding a small bike in a way that it wasn't entirely intended to be: fast.
As I became more interested in the racing side of motorcycling I began pushing the bike harder and harder and it wasn't long before I was scraping hardware around turns and yearning for more power out of the corners. I had a brief stint on a 400cc Honda somewhere in this time which was a great bike but not entirely satisfying either. This also just so happened to coincide with me moving back to America which forced me to sell the Ninja anyway, and get in the market for a new bike back home. After a lot of thinking, research, and a little bit of soul searching, I got this:
A 2009 Honda CBR600RR.
For those of you unfamiliar with the difference between a 250 and a 600 super sport, I'll attempt to illustrate it to you.
A 250 Ninja is roughly as fast as a Toyota Camry. The CBR does 0-60 in the same amount of time as a Ferrari 458.
A 250 Ninja tops out just under 100 mph. The CBR will push past 160.
A 250 Ninja is one of the best beginner bikes you can buy. The RR in CBR600RR stands for race replica as it's essentially a replica of Honda's supersport world championship bike from which it derives most of its technology.
Needless to say this was a MASSIVE leap in every possible way for me. The brakes are strong enough to flip the bike end over end, the engine is strong enough to 12'o'clock me right off the back of the bike in just about any gear, and it'll do highway speeds in first gear on one wheel if I had any desire to do so. All of that is great, but there's something even crazier about this particular bike.
I bough it from a guy who learned to ride motorcycles on this bike.
And that totally blew my mind. This has been my dream bike for a long time, and even after riding for about four years on a variety of different bikes and in a variety of different ways I was very hesitant to buy a bike this powerful. People can say what they will but honestly there is no justification to have a bike this powerful on the street. You are never realistically going to be in a situation in which having a Ferrari-level power to weight ratio is going to save your life. Even with my experience the capabilities of this bike are absolutely terrifying to me. And that is exactly why I knew I was ready to move up to it.
The most dangerous part of a motorcycle is the rider, period. Knowing the capabilities of a bike is great, but entirely meaningless if you don't understand and accept your own capability, or lack of. You have to respect the bike, ride well within your limits, and accept that learning to ride well takes time and experience. Unfortunately as humans we tend to learn by making mistakes, and that generally means pushing our limits and not realizing it until it's too late. On a 250 this isn't really a big deal. They are made for beginners so they are very forgiving to all of the mistakes a new rider will inevitably make on them: poor throttle control, poor braking control, poor clutch engagement, etc. That is not so much the case on a 600, and by that I mean a typical newbie mistake on a super sport could very well kill you. So certainly a new rider will respect a 600 as their first bike even more right? Certainly, but this in turn tends to breed bad habits in the new rider like overusing the rear brake, feathering out the clutch instead of rev matching downshifts, etc.
I'm sure there are some people out there who have learned how to ride on a super sport and come away from it okay. But for every one of those people there are probably a hundred who have bred bad habits in their riding, crashed their bikes, or even worse brought injury to themselves because they didn't put in the time on a smaller bike to build their fundamental riding skills. Don't be one of those guys or girls. Start small, accept and improve your personal limitations, and move up when you are confident that you're ready to. Do it right.
On August 19 2013 14:52 futility wrote: You are never realistically going to be in a situation in which having a Ferrari-level power to weight ratio is going to save your life.
Dude, you live in Japan. Being forced to run from tsunami is always a possibility.
But bad jokes aside, you're right of course. Torpedo-style bikes are too often owned by idiots who think they know better. In Poland, it's so obnoxious, we actually use the words 'motorcyclist' and 'organ donor' as homonyms. Especially considering the horrible condition of roadways here.
Perhaps the guy you bought Honda from was just richer than you expected?
I'll be honest, I'm personally not a fan of the sport style bikes. Give me a cruiser any day of the week. Heck my dream bike is a Triumph Speed Master. + Show Spoiler +
Either way, I loved reading your blog. Well written and thought out. There are plenty of small bikes great for beginners to ride on. Personally, I've never run into a motorcyclist who has looked down on anyone's bike, if you then say "I'm still a beginner". I learned to ride on a 1982 Honda Nightwing 250cb. Love riding and hope to do so for a long time to come.
Have recently made a similar jump myself from a YZF R125 to a GSXR600.
I'm really not sure how the Ninja 250 is to ride but the jump for me has actually been really easy so far. The power and weight of the GSXR600 seems to make it a great deal easier to ride.
I'd almost be inclined to recommend learning on a GSXR600 if you're reasonably intelligent and understand what the bike's capable of. The added stability seems to make it so much easier to control at slow speed.
It's a real shame you're not allowed to learn on 250's in England, I've heard they're really good to learn on and have never had a chance to ride one!
On August 19 2013 23:38 CornMuscles wrote: I'll be honest, I'm personally not a fan of the sport style bikes. Give me a cruiser any day of the week. Heck my dream bike is a Triumph Speed Master. + Show Spoiler +
Either way, I loved reading your blog. Well written and thought out. There are plenty of small bikes great for beginners to ride on. Personally, I've never run into a motorcyclist who has looked down on anyone's bike, if you then say "I'm still a beginner". I learned to ride on a 1982 Honda Nightwing 250cb. Love riding and hope to do so for a long time to come.
Yeah, as a beginner I never had any bad experiences with other riders. For the most part everyone was really enthusiastic about more people getting into the sport. One of the things I really loved about the riding community in Japan was there wasn't any animosity between the different types of riders. Whether I passed a cruiser, a dual sport, or another sport bike, everyone always waved at me. Being back in America with my CBR now things have been mostly positive but there is the occasional guy on a Harley or something that gives me the finger when I wave at them. I'm a huge fan of motorcycles in general so if I had the money I would definitely own some awesome cruiser too but for now my next bike is probably going to be a mid 70s Honda CB400.
On August 20 2013 01:14 Ryka wrote: Have recently made a similar jump myself from a YZF R125 to a GSXR600.
I'm really not sure how the Ninja 250 is to ride but the jump for me has actually been really easy so far. The power and weight of the GSXR600 seems to make it a great deal easier to ride.
I'd almost be inclined to recommend learning on a GSXR600 if you're reasonably intelligent and understand what the bike's capable of. The added stability seems to make it so much easier to control at slow speed.
It's a real shame you're not allowed to learn on 250's in England, I've heard they're really good to learn on and have never had a chance to ride one!
Honestly I've never ridden anything smaller than a 230 but I'd imagine they handle pretty similarly. There are aspects of my 600 that definitely make it an easier bike to ride than the Ninja was, but I feel like that wouldn't be so much the case if I didn't already have the experience that I got on the Ninja. Low speed maneuvers in particular require very sensitive throttle control and possibly clutch control as well that would be very intimidating to jump into on a bike with a hundred horsepower. My other big concern is there is a big possibility of a new rider putting the bike down and that's a lot easier to deal with on a used 250 than a 600 super sport covered in very very expensive fairings.
Anyway, speaking of low speed control, Japan has a somewhat disgusting obsession with it. The Japanese license test requires a number of interesting maneuvers like going over a balance beam, typical slaloms, and not so typical super tight S and 90 degree box turns back and forth. The instructor that was showing me around the course was practically dragging a knee around several of the turns. Then once you've passed the test there's always gymkana to look forward to:
Grats on the new bike. I used to own an 08 cbr 600 (it was bright orange in the same design as yours and awesome). You've got to find a decent fender eliminator and a new exhaust so people can hear you. But that bike is fantastic, I wish I didn't have to sell it to buy my car because some of the greatest days of my life were on that thing. And if you haven't gone to the track yet, that's a life experience you have to do.
Not sure what exactly the test is at the dmv in California, but it involves going through this tight lollipop shaped thing without putting a foot down. It's pretty difficult, so most people just take a class to get their license.
The best bike I've found for starting out is the suzuki sv-650. It's fast enough that you can enjoy it, but not jumpy like the sportier bikes. Plus its a v-twin so it's a very smooth throttle with a nice throaty groan when you twist it.
My mom recently bought a triumph street triple r, and holy crap that bike is the most fun thing I've ever been on. Definitely the bike I recommend people now... if they have the money for it.
somehow I get the feeling that I'll be going the same route as you in terms of which bike I own. I started out on an '01 ninja 250, crashed it twice then blew the engine (I'm a bit of a reckless squid who had gear that didn't survive the second crash and now needs some pretty badly) now I'm attempting to rebuild the engine with the goal of giving the bike to my friends & older brother to learn on like I did. as I'm doing that I'm riding a ninja 300 (I could have bought a 650 or a 600 but I know myself too well and staying on a small displacement is best for now) as a daily driver. I figure I'll ride the balls off the bike for as long as possible holding myself back from buying my dream bike...a cbr1000rr, that bike would get me killed if I got on it now simply because I would use all of the power all of the time just like I do on my ninja. Honestly I probably won't get it until I turn 25 but that doesn't stop me from dreaming.
but I digress, significantly. starting on a low displacement sport bike is probably the second best way to learn how to ride a motorcycle behind only motocross riding. too many people start on supersports and although they respect the power due to fear they tend to fall into one of three categories within my experience. the first is the one who makes a newbie mistake and crashes, the second is the one who doesn't use the bike out of fear thus never really learns how to ride and never really has the fun he/she should have with the bike, and the third is the one who somehow winds up on a track and ends up being fast as a bat out of hell. but all of them have one thing in common, no one can reasonably max out a supersport without riding on a track. However a 250, hell yea you can max the thing out on the street no problem, and it'll give you smiles all the way. that and you can hold your own with most sports cars that go for 4-10x the price off the line.
On August 23 2013 03:02 renoB wrote: Grats on the new bike. I used to own an 08 cbr 600 (it was bright orange in the same design as yours and awesome). You've got to find a decent fender eliminator and a new exhaust so people can hear you. But that bike is fantastic, I wish I didn't have to sell it to buy my car because some of the greatest days of my life were on that thing. And if you haven't gone to the track yet, that's a life experience you have to do.
Not sure what exactly the test is at the dmv in California, but it involves going through this tight lollipop shaped thing without putting a foot down. It's pretty difficult, so most people just take a class to get their license.
The best bike I've found for starting out is the suzuki sv-650. It's fast enough that you can enjoy it, but not jumpy like the sportier bikes. Plus its a v-twin so it's a very smooth throttle with a nice throaty groan when you twist it.
My mom recently bought a triumph street triple r, and holy crap that bike is the most fun thing I've ever been on. Definitely the bike I recommend people now... if they have the money for it.
I don't have any plans to modify it yet as all my money gets dumped into my race car (I can write another blog about that if people are interested) but I definitely plan to get the bike on the track. I may be able to get a track day in sometime in the next month but more likely it won't happen until next spring. One way or another I'm really looking forward to it.
I've never ridden the SV650 but I've heard a lot of great things about them as beginner bikes. I've been obsessed with racing cars for a while so I knew early on I'd want to go the sport bike route which was one of the big reasons I went with the Ninja (slightly more aggressive seating position, parallel twin, high powerband).
On September 13 2013 18:26 unit wrote: somehow I get the feeling that I'll be going the same route as you in terms of which bike I own. I started out on an '01 ninja 250, crashed it twice then blew the engine (I'm a bit of a reckless squid who had gear that didn't survive the second crash and now needs some pretty badly) now I'm attempting to rebuild the engine with the goal of giving the bike to my friends & older brother to learn on like I did. as I'm doing that I'm riding a ninja 300 (I could have bought a 650 or a 600 but I know myself too well and staying on a small displacement is best for now) as a daily driver. I figure I'll ride the balls off the bike for as long as possible holding myself back from buying my dream bike...a cbr1000rr, that bike would get me killed if I got on it now simply because I would use all of the power all of the time just like I do on my ninja. Honestly I probably won't get it until I turn 25 but that doesn't stop me from dreaming.
but I digress, significantly. starting on a low displacement sport bike is probably the second best way to learn how to ride a motorcycle behind only motocross riding. too many people start on supersports and although they respect the power due to fear they tend to fall into one of three categories within my experience. the first is the one who makes a newbie mistake and crashes, the second is the one who doesn't use the bike out of fear thus never really learns how to ride and never really has the fun he/she should have with the bike, and the third is the one who somehow winds up on a track and ends up being fast as a bat out of hell. but all of them have one thing in common, no one can reasonably max out a supersport without riding on a track. However a 250, hell yea you can max the thing out on the street no problem, and it'll give you smiles all the way. that and you can hold your own with most sports cars that go for 4-10x the price off the line.
That was pretty much exactly my thinking. I started on a 230cc dirt bike before my Ninja and although the cbr600rr was my dream bike I knew I'd kill myself on it at the time. Now a few years down the road with a lot more experience (although fortunately no crashes yet) I felt comfortable moving up. The Ninja has more than enough potential for any beginner riders out there, and especially because I was living in Japan and surrounded by super technical mountain passes, even the 250cc had more than enough power to have fun. It wasn't until I really started approaching the mechanical limits of that bike that I began thinking about upgrading. Even now though I'm sure there was more I could have squeezed out of it.
I absolutely agree about riding a super sport on the street. Even on a 600cc you can't come anywhere near pushing that thing without committing a few felonies on the street. I am super excited to finally get it on a track so I can open it up a little more without worrying about police/oncoming traffic/etc. I imagine it'll be a long time before I can use even a fraction of the bike's full potential though.
I went out and got my bike licence a bit over a year ago I brought a ninja250 and road it twice then sold it. But I'm thinking of getting another one and giving it another crack
Congrats man, beautiful bike. I've drove a dirt bike for 13 years and havn't been on one in awhile. I convinced my wife that eventually we are going to get bikes. I'm looking at a CBR 600 for my first bike (see past riding experience) and probably something like a CBR 125 or Ninja 250 for her. My dream bike is a Hayabusa, but I'd bring true meaning to the term donorcycle on that.
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