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Should the ninja 650 be considered a starter bike or does its displacement make it a better second bike? Just curious what others think.

Are you asking for yourself or for the sake of discussion?
I think you know the common answer here

viewtopic.php?t=2983

!!!!YOU'LL SHOOT YOUR EYE OUT!!!!!

i don';t think a rational person would advise a 600 cc sporty as a first streetbike, unless the individual had been riding 125 racebikes around the track since they were 15 or something...

It can be a fine learner bike from what I hear, though more conservative people around here might differ. I learned on a similiar bike and had a good experience, but I rode it sanely. There are certainly people with self-control issues who could hurt themselves on it, those people probably wont listen to advice anyway.

Go to Kawasaki website and read all about it. It is not a 600 class gp bike. It was built to compete with the suzuki sv 650, and it matches the power of the 650. Alot of talk on the kawi forum about it replaceing the ex 500 since they don't sell as well as the ex 250.
It would fall in the grey area bike could be used as a beginners bike but probably shouldn't. I went to the yamaha dealer on Saturday and the salesman told me I shouldn't buy anything less than the v star 1100, and I've never ridden any motorized two wheeler in my life. I just thanked him for his time and high tailed it out of there. I prefer the sport tourer style or streetfighter anyway and I'm convinced it shouldn't be over a 500 cc. Just my two pieces of copper.

If the Ninja 650 is similar to the SV650 in terms of power and performance, I'd think of it as a good SECOND bike. Now, if you're good at riding dirt and have been doing so for a while, i could see it as a first ROAD bike, but it'd still be the second bike you learn on. What i'm trying to get at, not good for learning and starting to fine tune the basic skills needed to stay upright and stay alive.

Can you flat-foot it?

Can you hold it up okay?

Do you have the dexterity to apply partial throttle as opposed to just full throttle or no throttle?

If you answered "yes" to these three questions, happy biking!

No i'm not asking for myself I was asking for the sake of hearing the opinions of others. It's my inderstanding that the P-twin 650 won't make the power of the I-4 600 (i'm no tech buff so please correct me i'm wrong).

bigswifty wrote:!!!!YOU'LL SHOOT YOUR EYE OUT!!!!!.

roflmsfao............
Regards, Red Ryder

Sphinxman wrote:No i'm not asking for myself I was asking for the sake of hearing the opinions of others. It's my inderstanding that the P-twin 650 won't make the power of the I-4 600 (i'm no tech buff so please correct me i'm wrong).

The SV650's V-Twin has about 70ish hp and 60sih ft*lbs of torque. I'd imagine the kawa's twin is similar. A gixxer 600 has 115 hp and 51 ft*lbs of torque. The kawa Ninja ZX-6RR is similar to the gixxer in hp/tq, so i'd imagine the kawa Ninja 650R is similar to the SV650. Also, the Ninja 650R looks better imho.

The SV650S generates 45 ft lbs of torque. All the supersport 600s generate about that much. The GSX-R750 might generate 60 ft lbs of torque, but not the SV.