Good first bike? Kawasaki EX500 250

[roscowgo]

Shame to hear it. Keep your eyes open on the classifieds, Ebay places. I about bet come fall there are going to be plenty of folks selling their rides. You never know what you might see for 800$

[NOVAgator87]

I ride a 250R and I'm 6' 2" and 195 lbs. The ninja 250R has more of a standard seating style than sport, so it's more comfortable imho.

I'm glad to come across a topic on the Ninja 250 b/c I've been having a few issues w/ mine. I bought it used a couple of weeks ago w/1400 mi on it. I was riding it one night, probably for the 5th or 6th time, and the engine stalled when I was at a stop (clutch disengaged of course). I tried to use the choke to warm up the bike, but even w/ full choke the bike stalled. Anyways, I was getting really heated, and eventually the bike started working again, and I drove it home.

Since then, I've been keeping my bike under 6k RPMs, b/c b4 I was revving it up to 9k RPMs at times, and I figured that was damaging the bike and contributing to my issue. The problem I'm running into now is the bike seems really slow. By the time I'm going 35mph, I'm in 6th gear, and by 50mph, my RPMs are around 6k. This makes me nervous about trying to take the bike onto the highway, because ppl like to drive 70-75mph out there, and I have my doubts that the bike could handle those speeds safely.

I know tons of ppl will vouch for the 250's highway capability, so I guess what I'm wondering is there a mechanical issue with my bike, or am I shifting at the wrong RPMs? Please help!

[VP]

Make sure you are at 1st gear when you start from a stopped postion. There are times when even though you've thought you downshifted to 1st gear, you really haven't...because the gears don't catch with the teeth. This has happened to me about 3 or 4 times with my EX500, and when I was riding my friend's EX250 home from the store for her, it happened once...it's pretty common. What you do to make sure you're on 1st gear is to tap down on the gear with the clutch squeezed...if it's solid and there is no further movement, then you're in 1st gear. If you keep pressing down on the gears, and they just don't seem to catch, then move the bike inch by inch forward and keep pressing down on the gears until you're in first (with the clutch squeezed in).

Hope this answers your question.

Good luck.

[dieziege]

If you were riding and it stalled, choke was probably a mistake. Personally, I haven't used my bike's choke at all in the last 2000 miles... before that I used it from time to time when the bike had sat overnight in cool temps (50f/10c)... but never once the bike had run within the last 4 hours.

Using the choke can actually flood the engine (dump too much gas into the intake) making it impossible to restart until you clear the excess gas away (by cranking or waiting a few minutes).

If it stalled, there is something wrong or you did something wrong... mine has never stalled except when I screwed something up (e.g. letting the clutch out with the side stand down or trying to start from a light in 2nd).

I usually shift at about 11K RPM... and on the highway I'm usually cruising at 9.5K or so (well, I recently changed the sprockets so it's a little lower now) but I've done literally hours at 10.5K and never had it hiccup. It burns oil faster at the higher revs because of blowby, but that's normal. Bike has 4300 miles on it so far no problems.

Ride it like it was meant to be ridden... keeping it below 6000 is probably hurting it more than using the full rev range. And good luck figuring out whatever is wrong.

[DirtyD86]

get the 250. those bikes are so much damn fun

[BigChickenStrips]

i think it was already posted once but the 500 tank is not good for taller people because your legs wont fit under the ridges. (go sit on both, you'll see what i mean) the 250 is a better fit for tall people.