This one looks like no hand-me-down. Finally there is a beginner Kwacker that doesn’t look like it belongs in a dusty textbook in some long forgotten archive. This one even has a real life digital speedometer to replace those 19th century alarm clocks that the 250 had. Oh and the looks. Everything from the twin headlamps to the side air vents and the ZX6R-esque wheels just make you go weak in the knees. In fact the only thing that visually brings back memories of the Ninja 250R are the brake rotors that still remain the same.
Your eyes aren’t lying to you. The brakes and the suspension bits are pretty much the only things that have remained unchanged. Everything else, chassis and engine included has quite extensively been updated.
The engine first.
If you’ve been waiting for this bike as eagerly as we have, by now you would have read pretty much everything there is to read about the motor. 296cc, liquid cooled parallel twin that is similar to the 250R motor but now with a longer stroke, lighter pistons, better crank, shorter but thicker connecting rod, etc. Just to refresh your memory the motor now makes a cool 39PS at 11,000rpm and 27Nm at 10,000rpm.
From standstill, progress does not seem to be very swift. But all you need to do is glance at the speedo to be assured that you’re climbing the numbers at a reasonably brisk pace. In fact this is because the power delivery on the Ninja is so linear that you never feel that kick in the pants when all the power comes in.
When compared to the Ninja 250R the power has moved down a fair bit in the rev range and that translates into lesser gearshifts while riding in the city. But just like its predecessor, this motor is happiest when you keep the needle hovering around close to redline. It’s a comfortable bike to ride around fast on highways and there is no lack of go when you need to overtake. And if you find a nice long clean stretch of road to keep the throttle pinned you can easily cruise at 150kmph and might even manage to see somewhere close to 175kmph on the speedo. Actual figures will however have to wait till we fully roadtest the motorcycle.
The real star in the engineering department is the slipper clutch. It makes even first time riders seem like the smoothest. It sucks out all the jerks from your downshift if you haven’t quite mastered the blip yet. Furthermore, even if you’re stupid enough to enter in the wrong gear into a corner and downshift halfway through it, it will make sure you come out unscathed.
Ninjas have always been good handlers and this one is no different. The new tubular steel chassis has extra bracing that should adds to the rigidity and directly translate into better handling. But we can further comment on this only after we do a full roadtest. The only letdown are the IRC Road Winner tyres. Like the last time around the IRC tyres are quite decent for most things. However the new chassis makes it quite clear that a tyre upgrade will release a lot more ability especially at the race track.
So altogether, when compared to the other 250R in the market today, the Ninja seems like a far better package. The only problem however is the price. At Rs 3.5 lakh, it almost two lakh more than the Honda CBR 250R. Internationally, the Ninja 250R and the CBR250R have always been neck to neck when it came to pricing. But with the 50cc that has been added and the extra performance that it brings, and not to mention the extra tech that you’re getting, it is almost like the Ninja 300 has carved out an all new segment for itself.
[ SOURCE: http://overdrive.in ]
