Monday, April 26, 2004, 14:15
2004 Ninja 250r review
My friend has one and I must say I am NOT impressed. I'll start with the positives. I felt very comfortable and stable on the bike. It respoded well and cornered nicely. It has a large tank and a matching range between fills. Here is what I didn't like: the damn thing doesn't go! My 1986 radian that uses more oil that an '86 caravan(valve guide seals) blows it away. Although not as nimble what it lacks in cornering can be easily made up in acceleration. I was able to thwomp on and off the gas mocking my friend driving the 250 wide open. There is 0 comparison in power. The 250 is fairly quick when you get it up to 10K rpms, but the key phrase there is WHEN. IT'LL TAKE A LOOOOONNNGGG TIME! Now me being 220lbs and my friend have a substantial weight difference (140lbs) giving him the advantage also.
The ninja also has 1500 some miles on it, while the radian has 23,400 miles on the clock (original motor). I also should mention that the intake valve clearance is out of specification on 1 cylinder on the radian too (although it appears that I have all 4 cylinders running again, I had negative clearance on cylinder 1 giving me only 50PSI of compression, it is still out of spec) factory rating is 150, I am now up to 120 on all 4.
Overall, I was somewhat disappointed. I did try to go in with an open mind, and now understand why people make fun of 250s.
So, I am told I am not being objective, so I would like to include the counterpoints that have been brought to my attention.
* I think you should add another sentence to the end of that, "Then again, his bike IS a 250, and mine is a 600, so they are different animals. And I have to give him that my bike isn't twice as fast as his."
* you're approaching it as if they're supposed to be equals
* Its the fastest 250 out there, so apparently your expectations were exaggerated. Also, the bike has been the same since like 1987. Knowing that why would you expect the 2004 bonus?
* Back to the point...in a vacuum, the performance of my bike is shitty, and in a vacuum you are not impressed with it. Compared to your bike, however, given what each is, my bike does pretty well, except you are expressing your being unimpressed in terms of relativity rather than in the vacuum. You also have to keep in mind your perceptions of the performance difference were exaggerated because of the people riding the bikes. Yours got a lot quicker when I was riding and mine a lot slower.
