bought a ninja 250
 

I bought a 07 Kawasaki ninja 250. Its a lot of fun. It lets me let out the go fast part in me, so while I try to hyper mile my car, I can have fun on this. Already put almost 1000 miles on it. It got 65, 66, 63 MPG the last few tanks. Could drive it better, but I like to take it to a twisty canyon road, with lots of hair pin turns, where I have it in lower gears. It has 6 gears, and when it is in 6, RPMS are at 5000 at just 40 MPH. It has a surprising amount of power, considering its engine has small displacement. I want to do a sprocket change. Nice thing though, is that the speedometer runs off the front wheel, so it won't effect the reading.

I'm jealous. I thought that a 650cc single cylinder low rpm bike would get better mileage than a high revving 250. I actually spent more on it that a Ninja 250 costs, only to have it slow and a fuel hog. The best I've ever gotten is 55 mpg. Congrats!

BTW, 5000 rpms at 40 mph is 8000 at 65! The thing must SCREAM at highway speeds. You do need that sprocket....

Originally I was going to say 10,000 RPM at 80 MPH:eek: I was doing that, the other day. I am going to build a rack so I can carry some stuff for road trips. Can you imagine going all day like that, IE a road trip? Must be why sportbike engines are said to last 30,000 to 60,000 miles. On the other hand cruser bikes last longer.

Piston speed has more to do with longevity than whether the bike is a cruiser or sport bike. Most sport bikes that have short lives probably get ridden VERY hard, and abused. A long stroke engine may have much higher piston speed than a shorter stroke, higher revving engine, especially if the short stroke engine is ridden conservatively. Look at 600 Hondas, those things seem to have very good longevity in adult hands. And just for the record I own a Harley not a sport bike!

Well, from the 600cc side of bikes, I don't see terrible longevity problems. My 2003 Yamaha R6 was sold in October, and it survived over 8000 miles of race track use during five seasons, two of which it was really only a back up bike. The new owner will be using it for track days.

I wouldn't say that it's abused. That's the design parameter.

I have an old Honda CX500 with just over 100,000 miles. It turns about 7000 RPM on the freeway, day in and day out. It's an "over square" engine, big bore and short stroke. I fully expect it to go another 100,000 miles if I live that long.

Q

about how many gallons does the tank hold? how many miles per tank are you getting?

I think it holds about 3-3.5 I usually put 10 dollars of gas in there to get a full tank when it was run on reserve to get to the gas station. I also get high mileage! i managed 70 at one time, but racing the engine as much as i like to, i get about 55-60.

I woudn't really say it is extremely powerful, you will notice what i mean if you forget to slip the clutch and rev on takeoff (with a cold engine) it will take forever to get going!

The EX250 hold 5 gallons.
I usually fill up after about 250 miles.

At does "scream" at 70+, but you get used to it... at top speed its at 13,000RPMs (216 rev per second!)

It is low on low end power, but you can 0-60 in about 5 1/2 seconds. It takes a very expensive car to match that.

Willpower is the only thing that stands between this bike and 70mpg. I got just over 70 long before I ever heard of "hypermileing".

People do long trips on this bike. It's cheap and easy to customize, and has had the same design (until a year ago) for like 20 years.

This engine specifically is known for not lasting too long. While some people have had no problems for many years, other's report 50-60k or so. I rode it very hard, and ended up replacing it at around 70k. Good news is the entire engine cost less than $500.

Check out www.ninja250.com for lots of info and mods and ideas. It is very versatile:
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That last one is mine. It doesn't look like that anymore though

I have been wanting a motorcycle, but What would you recomend. Either a 250 ninja or a 600 ninja. I know that the 600 is faster and less FE, but is it worth the extra 1500 or so for the extra speed?