To me the mention of this very word conjures of the image of an iconic personality possessed of super
natural ability to appear and disappear at will. While these samurai's fought an outer warfare the Ninja hid in
the shadows and struck without a warning with a controversial code of honour the Ninja uses trickery and
deception,speed and agility to accomplish the maximum sinister performance. But how far are these
common conceptions applicable to todays modern day world, and who if any of todays world could qualify
as a modern day equivalent.
The new Kawasaki Ninja 300 undoubtedly has all the earlier mentioned attributes and i fear that this time it has
struck its blade right to the competitions bone making it an un contestable champ of accessible sports bikes.
The old Ninja 250 R was a bench mark and the name to be recon with untill status quo was changed by to be
changed by Honda through the launch of its CBR 250 R. But if this is to be the successor of the old Ninja 250 R
then we are glad they did not try to build the completely new value for money product but instead decided to
provide more value for the premium that the new Kawasaki Ninja 300 demands.
If you look at it when it is hiding in its shadows the new Kawasaki Ninja 300 is perhaps the best looking bike in the
world.The front dual head lamps looks like the ZX636, its windshield like the ZX 10 R and the side fairing fins and
the wheel like the ZX14 R, but i wont be boring you to death by describing all the new changes in words instead
you will be in agreement with me if I'm just to say let the bike do all the talking.
There are no two ways about it, the engine on the 300 the new engine will make you will make you fall in love with
this bike cause its outstanding and a lot has gone in to making the old to 250 cc parallel twin engine even better
So, to start with the new engine is more compact and now boasts of an increased cubic capacity of 296 the
port and in take valves diameter has been increased by 1mm and connecting rods are shorter and the new
engine features lighter aluminium cylinders and shorter pistons to keep the high revving nature of the Ninja intact
and it is also given a 300 and a 13 k red line and all of these changes and the redesigning exhaust has boosted the
torque curve, i mean you can feel it as early as 4500 rpm as compared to 7000 rpm on the 250
what that means is
riding this bike in the city and the highway is so much easier and it requires very few gear changes as
wasn't the case in the old 250.
to extract the most of this new ported engine the six speed transmission to has gone through a change and it
now features a roller type shift drum which basically means that the gear box on this ninja is no longer clunky
it is smooth it is precise and works efficiently even when your quick shifting.
Some of the other changes include lower compression ratio and a larger 2.4 litre oil tank with cooling fins.
these have been introduced by Kawasaki to keep the operating temperature of the engine at a lower level
they were not working that great because the 300 still seemed to heat up a fair bit especially in stop go traffic
but then the new Kawasaki air management system proved to be quite handy because it actually deflects all
hot air coming from the engine away from the rider to the bottom of the motorcycle through air ducts which go
behind the radiator
so thats a welcome feature on this bike because the engine heating up was quite a big
issue on the old 250 as well.
I was left a little disappointed with the braking on this bike because it has the same
290mm front petal disc and even though the feed back is alright it definitely does not have the same bite as the
old 250 something which i really really loved on the old bike.
Having said that the 220 mm rear petal disc its a lot
better on this one because it doesn't lock up as easily which is great for people who are new to biking and
looking at this as a good learners bike.
When it comes to rider comfort and ergonomics be it for long tours or for spirited riding or pillion comfort for
example the Kawasaki Ninja 300 is a considerable improvement over the old 250R.
With 30.9 inches as the
saddle height the tapering seat at the tank maximises riders pavement reach and comfort.
Further more the mirrors are pushed further away from the body have a larger surface area for a greater visibility.
The rubber foot pegs have been replaced by aluminium ones and thats add to the super sport feel once again
what you also get by default on this bike is bungee cord hooks which is a good thing because this bike pretty
good at long tours too. Apart from that another stand out feature is the integrated grab rails now these are not
jutting or popping out from the tail but are rather placed very cleverly on to the underneath of the tail.
Now since the engine is very smooth and a lot more refined what you don't have at the rider foot pegs
is tingling or buzzing sensation due to vibrations you may get some of it between 12000 to 13000 rpm but
thats way high up in the rev range so much so that you can ignore it at about 4000 to 4500 rpm though
a clear buzz can be sensed at the pillion foot rest.
The Ninja 250 was real sweet handler. I had felt planted in corners as well as really high speeds
But!
it was still a really lazy turn out and by that i mean it took quite some effort to put the bike into corners
this is where the 300 really excels.
Redesigned and wider handle bars mass centralized compact engine and revised riding position see the 300
enter corners with a lot less effort and one's in it feels stable as a rock because of its increased wheel base,
new rigid chassis and swing arm and of course the wider 140mm rear tyre.
The bike feels great in corners and on
highways alike. But, i think the 300 can do with better tyres because right now it comes with IRC's and i wasn't
too impresses because they do take quite sometime to heat up
and i really saw the rear spinning a lot yesterday when
it rained so in wet conditions it was quite scary to ride this bike around the corners.
But the most impressive
feature in this segment is the new clutch which comes with the assets and slipper function which has made the
Ninja 300 an even better track tool and a learner bike the clutch is so much easier to operate its so much more precise
and it really reduces wheel hop when you are down shifting.
just spotted sagar doing his final round of testing maybe. so before we move on to our conclusion
with the verdict and the sagar puts on his final rounds of testing at this hills we take time out to summarise what
the new bike is! the new Kawasaki Ninja 300 is an absolutely different personality when compared to the
older 250 R the inclusion of slipper clutch was an interesting proposition i must say that i have come to
become a fan of it. The absence of ABS on this bike was a slight disappointment but then as Kawasaki official's
clarified that the inclusion of ABS would been a fair bit of complex considerations.
The Road conditions riding habits and of course also the commercial reasons.
For the bike could be a bit 35000 rupees extra if it had come with the ABS unit.
Aaah! sagar must be done with his final rounds of testing call him in for the verdict see you at the
verdict location.
Over!
you know what I'm not coming in, I'm gonna do the verdict right here on the bike. Well thats how much i have
enjoyed riding this bike and as far as the verdict goes i think this undeniably a very very worthy successor to the
best selling quarter litre bike in the world. I mean it has pretty much everything which the Ninja 250 did not have
and everything that the Ninja 250 did with this one does it better but then it does have this a negative point and
that is it comes with the very hefty price tag of four lakh rupees which would take this bike away from a lot of
bike enthusiast but for all of you guys who can afford this machine, well after testing it, after riding it extensively
for two days i can safely say that you gonna get more than your money's worth!