To insure or not to insure?

As with most riders, one common question that is asked is whether insurance is worth it or not. Generally speaking, when one mentions bike insurance, it is fair to assume we're talking about Comprehensive cover. The reason one would assume this is because Comprehensive insurance is indeed a big debatable topic for riders. I myself, am still pondering through the options...

Basically you can get one of three choices: Comprehensive (Expensive), Third Party (Sensible), or no insurance (Risky). For a new rider with no experience, and still on his or her L plates, full comprehensive is likely to cost at least $1.5k with excess being at least $400. With a bike like the 2008 Ninja 250R, which you can purchase for around $7k on the road, it does make you think.

Paying $1.5-2k for a $7k bike doesn't seem really worth it. But unlike cars, you're expected to drop your bike at least once. So if you do happen to drop it a few times, comprehensive looks like the go. However, if you feel like gambling, you could just get Third party and take care of your liability in the event of yourself being at fault in an accident. You just better hope you don't drop your bike or get into single vehicle accidents (yourself being the single vehicle). With third party costing you around $170 a year, it seems fair. No insurance? After several discussions with other bikers it seems you'd be silly not to take out any forms of insurance.

Personally, I think I will be getting Third party, and hopefully I can find a decent package which covers me for Fire/Theft as well (although I doubt bikes ever get set on fire). Bikes are easier to steal compared to a car, so hopefully the addition of Theft coverage won't cost me too much more than the $170-200 I've seen quoted for Third party insurance.

Ninjah Riding!

Haha don't let the topic of this blog post fool you. No, I have not yet received my long awaited 2008 Ninja 250R. Instead I've had to leave it to my imagination to see what I'd look like riding it. Enjoy ^^

Aftermarket Exhausts

Although I will only be riding a 2008 Kawasaki 250R Ninja as a Learner's bike, I do think that I will eventually change the stock exhaust. Some may think it's odd that I would spend that much money on a 'Learner's Bike', but truth be told, I think I'll be riding it for at least 3 years so I might as well enjoy it. Considering that I will be going back to Uni for the next 3 years, I don't see how I'd be able to afford an upgrade to a 600 with little or zero income.

There are two aftermarket exhausts that I am particularly interested in checking out. Pretty much it will be the Yoshimura VS Area P, most probably going with the carbon fibre pipe for both options. Although the sounds from home-made youtube videos are notorious for not truly representing the 'real life' sounds, these two exhausts do sound the best out of the current available options.

Below is the Yoshimura VS Stock clip. In the second clip, you can see the Area P VS Stock.





I'd like to hear both exhausts in the flesh, but with the already limited number of 250R's riding around Adelaide, it would be a long time before I would be able to spot both. At the moment, I'm leaning towards the Yoshi.

Modifications ^^

It may sound stupid, but I'm thinking of modifications that I'll do to my bike (even though I haven't got it yet!). Basically, there's the one modification which is pretty much a MUST for any new ninja owners. Eradicate that ugly rear tail. If you don't know what i mean, allow me to show you.

Here is the original mud flap/fender/rear tail/ugly p.o.s. that comes with the 2008 Kawasaki Ninja 250R (p.s. it's a flipped image, hence backwards stickers and exhaust on the wrong side ^^)


Now for the massive improvement, spot the difference when a Competition Werkes Fender Eliminator kit has been installed. Impressive hey?


God knows what the Kawasaki designers were thinking when they came up with that. It may have something to do with safety requirements or whatever, but it's just plain ugly and definately needs modification. It seems that to install this kit, some cutting will be required, but I'm sure it won't be too drastic or difficult. For us Aussies, it's most likely that the best deals on the Competition Werkes kits would come direct from the US. With our current exchange rate hovering around $0.95 USD the only concern should be waiting time rather than price. So this is the first modification I'll be doing when I eventually get my bike.

Expenses.. Expenses

Well everybody knows that riding isn't exactly a cheap hobby. I've had my first taste of expenses and sadly they're only about 1/10th of the expected amount I'm gonna have to pay to be on the road for at least 12 months. First of all I went to TransportSA the other day during my lunch break and signed up for the compulsory Rider Safe Basic Course.

Basically it's a beginners course neccesary to obtain your biking L's. Well the basic course which is a 2-day thing (2x 3.5hour days), cost me $317!!! Well I was prepared for it to be steep, but that's deplorable if you consider the price about 12 months ago. I remember my friend telling me it only cost him $120... I blame rising petrol prices and the government. Higher fuel prices create more bikers hoping to save on fuel, which means more people doing the course, and then the government profiteers by jacking up bike related fees. How sucky!

The second bit of parting with money involved me placing the deposit down for my Baby Ninja. Even with that down, I'm still looking at waiting til the end of August. Especially if I really want to wait for my colour preference, which is black. How pathetic hey? Apparently Kawasaki are only releasing the Baby Ninja's in black and red in a 60/40 ratio respectively. Too bad if the market preference is 90/10. Waiting.. waiting.. always waiting...

What is a 250R?

heh, seems I forgot to post pictures of the bike that stole my heart. So just incase you don't know what it looks like, enjoy these pics.


As you can see, the 2008 model has been totally redesigned from the previous 250s available from Kawasaki. This new full fairing was designed to look like it's bigger brothers in the Ninja range, and I think that you would agree that it looks super awesome! In fact it's probably the best looking learners bike available. Partially the reason why I'm getting it.

What really convinced me was the fact that I could pay anywhere between 4-6k for say a Honda CBR250 which would range from being 12 to 22 years old as they were in production from 1986->1996. For just an extra little bit of cash, I'm looking at getting a brand new 2008 model bike with zero km's! At least I can be guaranteed that it will be mechanically reliable :)

Ninjah shall ride!

Welcome to the birth of my ninja blog. I've decided to set up a blog dedicated to my (future) bike and (future) riding and modification experiences. I've been contemplating riding a motorbike for a few years now, but have never been in the right financial situation. However, this year I've managed to save up a tiny bit; enough to finally buy a bike and protective gear!

For those of you who aren't aware, 'Ninja' is the name of a series of Kawasaki sport bikes, that started with the GPZ900R. I actually never considered riding a Ninja before - I've always thought that my first bike (which has to be Learner legal i.e. 250cc or LAMS approved), would be the Honda CBR250. To me the CBR always looked like the best looking and most reliable bike a learner could get. In a way I'm glad I didn't have the finance to buy a bike earlier, because when I saw the 2008 Kawasaki 250R ninja, I fell in love!

Anyway to cut a long story short, I fell in love, and have decided to obtain my motorbike license, then buy the 250R!