Some motorcycle questions - bike reccomendations, gear reccomendations...

Superwormy

Golden Member
Feb 7, 2001
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Aight, a few motorcycle questions...

1) I'm looking at a Kawasaki Ninja 250. I found a good price on a used one. I'm a small guy (5'6", 130lbs.) so I think it might be a good fit. Good bike?

2) Does anyone have any idea if a Ninja is an easy bike to work on (in case I need to do work on it in the future)?

3) For gear, any reccomendations on a particular helmet or brand of helmet? What about a jacket and gloves? My safety is important here, I don't think I'd like dying.
 

bsobel

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Dec 9, 2001
13,346
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Skip the jacket, buy a full leather riding suite. If something does happen, its much better to burn holes thru leather than flesh. The jacket will protect (to some extent) your upper body but not your legs. Even jeans on asphault will wear thru like tissue paper.

You already have your license? If not, take a MSF class ;)
 

CombatChuk

Platinum Member
Jul 19, 2000
2,008
3
81
Originally posted by: Superwormy

Aight, a few motorcycle questions...

1) I'm looking at a Kawasaki Ninja 250. I found a good price on a used one. I'm a small guy (5'6", 130lbs.) so I think it might be a good fit. Good bike?

2) Does anyone have any idea if a Ninja is an easy bike to work on (in case I need to do work on it in the future)?

3) For gear, any reccomendations on a particular helmet or brand of helmet? What about a jacket and gloves? My safety is important here, I don't think I'd like dying.


1. It's a good bike for commuting in the city. Might want more if you take it out for a long ride.

2. The ninja's engine is fairly easy to work on. It's a parallel twin to you only have half the valves to inspect/adjust and there is no fairings to take out which makes oil changes easy.

3. For jacket and boots there are a lot of good choices out there you don't have to get leather textile jackets have come a long ways and they're quite a bit cheaper. For Helmets I would recommend the Z1-R Strike helmets. The magazine Motorcyclist did a impact test of all the popular helmets in the market (Arai, Shoei, etc) this helmet did the best and it only cost about $100 shipped (vs $200-600 with the major brands)
 

Triumph

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,031
14
81
Originally posted by: Superwormy

Aight, a few motorcycle questions...

1) I'm looking at a Kawasaki Ninja 250. I found a good price on a used one. I'm a small guy (5'6", 130lbs.) so I think it might be a good fit. Good bike?

Yes.

2) Does anyone have any idea if a Ninja is an easy bike to work on (in case I need to do work on it in the future)?

Yes.

3) For gear, any reccomendations on a particular helmet or brand of helmet? What about a jacket and gloves? My safety is important here, I don't think I'd like dying.

Gloves, boots, and helmet are the most important. Gloves are cheap, work boots are good enough, and helmets are fairly cheap, too. After that, buy some textile gear from a major name manufacturer. Don't stress out over it too much right now, the biggest step in protection that you can take is getting into ANY gear. After that, it is all just variations of a theme.
 

LordMorpheus

Diamond Member
Aug 14, 2002
6,871
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If I had a bike I'd feel silly wearing leather pants, but I've seen blue jeans that have kevlar lining, designed for bikers. I'd probably do that + leather jacket if I had a bike.
 

MikeMike

Lifer
Feb 6, 2000
45,885
66
91
Helmet: NO SUGGESTIONS. go and TRY them, if the $150 fits better than the $700 Arai helmet, buy the $150 HJC helmet. they should be TIGHT, but not any specific pressure point, they should be tried on for 15-20 minutes.

Gear: Aerostitch is the best, firstgear is good too.

Boots: work boots are better than nothing, but can be ripped off in an accident, and well, then you have nothing.

bike: will be a fine bike
 

Kelvrick

Lifer
Feb 14, 2001
18,422
5
81
Originally posted by: LordMorpheus
If I had a bike I'd feel silly wearing leather pants, but I've seen blue jeans that have kevlar lining, designed for bikers. I'd probably do that + leather jacket if I had a bike.

They don't offer much protection impact wise, just from the road rash. If you're going to get riding jeans, buy some knee armor like these A*.

If you can, buy a 2 piece suit. I know people who got a one peice and well, just didn't wear it because its a hassle. The 2 piece isn't as secure, but if you'll wear it, then get it.

I'm tired of this topic to say more, do a search.
 

CombatChuk

Platinum Member
Jul 19, 2000
2,008
3
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Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Originally posted by: LordMorpheus
If I had a bike I'd feel silly wearing leather pants, but I've seen blue jeans that have kevlar lining, designed for bikers. I'd probably do that + leather jacket if I had a bike.

They don't offer much protection impact wise, just from the road rash. If you're going to get riding jeans, buy some knee armor like these A*.

If you can, buy a 2 piece suit. I know people who got a one peice and well, just didn't wear it because its a hassle. The 2 piece isn't as secure, but if you'll wear it, then get it.

I'm tired of this topic to say more, do a search.


Full leathers can cost almost a $1000. To me unless you are going to do track days seems excessive for the street.
 

Kelvrick

Lifer
Feb 14, 2001
18,422
5
81
Originally posted by: CombatChuk
Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Originally posted by: LordMorpheus
If I had a bike I'd feel silly wearing leather pants, but I've seen blue jeans that have kevlar lining, designed for bikers. I'd probably do that + leather jacket if I had a bike.

They don't offer much protection impact wise, just from the road rash. If you're going to get riding jeans, buy some knee armor like these A*.

If you can, buy a 2 piece suit. I know people who got a one peice and well, just didn't wear it because its a hassle. The 2 piece isn't as secure, but if you'll wear it, then get it.

I'm tired of this topic to say more, do a search.


Full leathers can cost almost a $1000. To me unless you are going to do track days seems excessive for the street.

Full leathers can cost a lot less then 1000k. There are a lot in that price range, but still plenty in the 400-700 range too. Shift superstreet is the first to come to mind for barely over 300. A* vector one or two piece for like 700, as well as teknic and Frank Thomas for like 500 bucks.

Look on newenough.com, motostrano.com, mawonline.com.

A good full set of gear can be had for like 700 bucks
150 helmet
400 jacket and pants (can be textile overpants, no need for leather if you don't want)
100 boots
50 gloves
 

Kalvin00

Lifer
Jan 11, 2003
12,705
4
81
Originally posted by: Superwormy

Aight, a few motorcycle questions...

1) I'm looking at a Kawasaki Ninja 250. I found a good price on a used one. I'm a small guy (5'6", 130lbs.) so I think it might be a good fit. Good bike?

2) Does anyone have any idea if a Ninja is an easy bike to work on (in case I need to do work on it in the future)?

3) For gear, any reccomendations on a particular helmet or brand of helmet? What about a jacket and gloves? My safety is important here, I don't think I'd like dying.

1)Very good starter bike. Highly recommended.
2)For the most part
3) Helmets....HJC is one of the more popular brands, but there are plenty of different ones to try. Get what is most comfortable that you can afford. Joe Rocket and Alpinestars are pretty common for leather jackets..