^ Don’t know yet … I haven’t run a full tank down low enough for the fuel light to come on (there’s no fuel gauge on the Ninja 250). Will post here when I do 
I live up in Shilin, Taipei Dominic, but I dare say I will be popping down south sometime soon to do a bit of camping, so will let you know and we can go for a thrash! Huge tank on the T2- actually makes it a bit top heavy cornering, even though its a really low bike and im a 170cm dwarf! Difficult to say mileage, as I have been thrashing the pants of her this last week! Not my usual power-band motocross rush, but i love the torque and braking on this thumper, even though she is heavy and desperately needs upside down forks- im used to 120 kg motocross with 50hp! However, I have had a lot of positive comments about her, which is nice for a ‘wierd’’ Sym! I put 330nt petrol in last week and just filled up again yesterday for 180nt, so that can’t be bad consumption, considering I commute on it about 25km everyday too. I did see a 290cc big bore kit for the T2, which is supposed to add 10hp with new jets, but will avoid that for the moment…
Well, 4 weeks on and I’m still very pleased with the Sym. New set of tyres last week for 7000NT have dramatically improved road holding. Fuel economy is brilliant. Negative- speedo sensor has just conked out- hope this isn’t a sign of things to come…
I finally saw a SYM T2 up close last weekend. Was really impressed with how it looked … much better in the flesh than in pictures, I reckon. The one I saw had a great matt-blue paint scheme. A really eye-catching bike, for sure.
Regarding the Ninja’s fuel economy, the fuel light started intermittently flickering on after 330km (consisting of a mix of short commutes and a couple of longer runs). I filled it up to the top for less than 400NT. I’m pretty happy with that.
Just saw a black T2 like mine, but pimped right up with racing exhaust and beefy brakes- looked and sounded cool. Shame it’s such a heavy bike… I wonder why there are so few around- maybe most are exported for more money? I have not one single Ninja around…
Funnily enough, I only saw a grand total of two Ninja 250s in about 7 months before I bought mine. Now I seem to see them at least once a week. Even drew up alongside a green one at the lights the other day. Maybe they were there all along but now that I own one, I’m noticing them more?
[quote=“dominic77”]I finally saw a SYM T2 up close last weekend. Was really impressed with how it looked … much better in the flesh than in pictures, I reckon. The one I saw had a great matt-blue paint scheme. A really eye-catching bike, for sure.
Regarding the Ninja’s fuel economy, the fuel light started intermittently flickering on after 330km (consisting of a mix of short commutes and a couple of longer runs). I filled it up to the top for less than 400NT. I’m pretty happy with that.[/quote]
What the … How did u fill it full up for less than 400NT? Isn’t your tank 17L ? My Quannon is 13L and it costs 400NT for a full tank.
Hmm… 330KM … I’m a real gas guzzler, I’m constantly in the 7,000 range all the time, and the max I got was like 327KM on a full tank .
^ The fuel light had only just come on, so I probably still had a lot more gas left in the tank.
Filled it up yesterday and it cost 430NT, but I didn’t note exactly how many liters it took. I reckon I must still have a whole lot of fuel in reserve after the light comes on.
Now I’ve had my Ninja 250 for exactly 2 months, I thought I would write a short ownership report …
I’ve now covered 3,300km on it, mostly on longer runs. I commute to work on it once or twice a week, otherwise it stays in the garage from Monday to Friday. At the weekend, I go for longer drives into the mountains or down to Kenting.
It hasn’t needed any major work. I had the oil changed (800NT from main Kawasaki dealer) at around the 12,000km mark, to be on the safe side as I wasn’t sure when the previous owner had last changed the oil. The tires (which at the rear is a slightly wider than standard 140, instead of the stock 130) were brand new when I bought the bike.
It’s had a minor brake fluid issue on the front brakes. On two occasions, the fluid slowly leaked away over a period of a few weeks. The Kawasaki mechanic could find no evidence of leakage. However, it seems that the problem may now have stopped of its own accord. My bike has non-standard Brembo brakes at the front, which could perhaps have been a factor in this problem.
I will generally endorse what most people seem to say about owning this bike. It is good around town, with a comfortable riding position, and can be happily driven around with the scooters at low rpm. It is very fuel efficient; even when driven hard it barely uses any more fuel than my 200cc Hartford, which itself is a highly fuel-efficient bike. Generally the fuel light (there is no fuel gauge) comes on after 330km or so, but when I fill it up I only get around 13 liters in it. The capacity is 17 liters so there must be plenty of gas left after the light comes on.
It’s an eye-catching bike and gets plenty of attention, so I don’t take it out anywhere in town if I’m unsure of getting secure parking at the other end. Don’t want some jealous a****** deliberately scratching it. This is obviously a drawback to ownership of this or any other expensive motorbike/scooter.
People worry about buying a 250 because of less performance than bigger bikes. My assessment after 2 months with my Ninja (and drawing on plenty of experience elsewhere on bigger bikes), is that you really, truly don’t need any more performance on Taiwanese roads. A bigger bike makes sense somewhere like the US, where the roads are wider, faster, straighter, and less clogged with other traffic, and distances much longer. In a nutshell, I haven’t yet found any roads in Taiwan where the performance capability of my Ninja is less than the safe driving speed for the road.
You have to work the engine to get the most out of it. Below about 4,000rpm, it’s a little sluggish. Then it picks up very nicely, and pulls strongly right up to the redline. It’s possible to hustle the lightweight Ninja very quickly along twisty mountain roads as long as you use the gears and always stay in the optimum rev range. In the right hands, this bike will keep up with anything through the twisties; it’s forgiving to ride so an averagely skilled rider can really throw it around corners in a way that, on a larger and heavier bike, would be the preserve of very skilled drivers only.
I haven’t tested its maximum speed, but I’ve had it up to 150km/h and it felt like it should be good for another 10-20km/h on top of that. Acceleration is very consistent up to at least 120km/h. Various road tests indicate a 0-100km/h (0-60mph) time of between 5.7 and 7.7 seconds, depending on the rider. Suffice to say, it’s quicker than almost all cars, and all other standard white-plate bikes and yellow-plate scooters. From a standing start, the relative lack of power at low revs means the quicker small scooters have their nose in front for the first few meters traveled: then once the Ninja hits its sweet spot above 4,000rpm, it’s in a completely different league.
It gets buffeted quite a bit by the wind on exposed roads, due to its light weight … I’m thinking particularly of certain stretches of the 1 and the 26 heading towards Kenting. Bigger, heavier bikes can obviously cope better with high-speed highway driving in windy conditions.
I was quite surprised the other day when I popped into my local Kawasaki dealer for a quick check-over before a long run. I parked between a ZX10 and a ZX14 in front of the showroom, and my little Ninja was barely any smaller in terms of height and length. I had always assumed those mighty machines were physically quite a bit bigger than my 250, but that is not the case.
Despite its white plate, the Ninja 250 is definitely in the “big bike” club on the open road. Other bikers are always interested to have a close look at it, and several times I’ve been invited to join groups of red-plate bikes on rides.
Overall, I’m delighted I went for the Ninja 250. Performance, looks, economy, practicality, reliability, ease of maintenance, and street cred are all great. The initial purchase price was high, but I have no regrets and resale value should be good, too.
Would love a head-to-head comparison with a SYM T2 or a Honda Hornet 250 … any takers for a day ride? (Tintin?)
Nice report Dominic, and it also sounds like a nice bike too, congrats. Regarding the mileage, I may be naive, but 19.4 kmpl doesn’t sound very efficient to me. My horrid CPI makes something like 19.9 and disappoints me greatly 
It could be cool to see a side by side comparison with the hornet. Forget about T2, as I see it the T2 is something totally different (heavier, less powered, I guess that worse engineered, etc)
I get 330km out of 13 liters. 330 divided by 13 = 25.38kmpl 
I get 330km out of 13 liters. 330 divided by 13 = 25.38kmpl [/quote]
Shit, I thought that it was done with 17 liters… indeed, if you say that when you go to the gas station if put only 13 liters out of the 17 that fit there, it means that you only used 13 liters… am I missing anything? 
Anyways, I guess that for a fast bike like yours which needs to rev up for getting the best out of it is not a bad mileage. With my TU, which had great low torque, I could get something like 24.5 kmpl in the city, 26 or so when ridding longer distances.
Also, before buying, we could easily rent a Ninja 250 or some similar models. It seems to be quite a popular practice.
After seeing the prices of heavy motor (600cc and above)…i’ve decided to rent it only at the beginning, to try different models and help me decide which one to buy if any.
I will have my driving test >250cc the 9th Dec, but I have no idea yet what to do haha…I didn’t understand everything, I will check with my wife \o/
I get 330km out of 13 liters. 330 divided by 13 = 25.38kmpl [/quote]
Shit, I thought that it was done with 17 liters… indeed, if you say that when you go to the gas station if put only 13 liters out of the 17 that fit there, it means that you only used 13 liters… am I missing anything?
Anyways, I guess that for a fast bike like yours which needs to rev up for getting the best out of it is not a bad mileage. With my TU, which had great low torque, I could get something like 24.5 kmpl in the city, 26 or so when ridding longer distances.[/quote]
That is pretty much what I get on my Quannon. My Quannon is a 13L tank, and the most I’ve gotten out of it so far on one tank is about 330KM on one tank. Even with the fuel low light , you can still go pretty far… On 100NT only, I go to around 60KM, then my warning light kicks on,from there, I can keep driving until 90-95KM before I’m completely out of gas . So … yeah… you can still keep running for a while lol . But my bikes lighter… its only like 133KG so …
I get 330km out of 13 liters. 330 divided by 13 = 25.38kmpl [/quote]
Shit, I thought that it was done with 17 liters… indeed, if you say that when you go to the gas station if put only 13 liters out of the 17 that fit there, it means that you only used 13 liters… am I missing anything?
Anyways, I guess that for a fast bike like yours which needs to rev up for getting the best out of it is not a bad mileage. With my TU, which had great low torque, I could get something like 24.5 kmpl in the city, 26 or so when ridding longer distances.[/quote]
That is pretty much what I get on my Quannon. My Quannon is a 13L tank, and the most I’ve gotten out of it so far on one tank is about 330KM on one tank. Even with the fuel low light , you can still go pretty far… On 100NT only, I go to around 60KM, then my warning light kicks on,from there, I can keep driving until 90-95KM before I’m completely out of gas . So … yeah… you can still keep running for a while lol . But my bikes lighter… its only like 133KG and I weigh 105 KG… So I suppose the weight is a factor to your gas mileage ~~
Ninja 250 has a “wet” weight of 170kg, but I weigh only 78kg … indeed that will be a factor in fuel consumption.
So, I was on a quiet mountain road today and had to stop for some roadworks where an earthmover was moving gravel to repair the road after a landslide. I stopped and waited. The earthmover started reversing towards me, the driver not bothering to look behind. I sounded my horn but he kept coming. I yelled, but he couldn’t hear me over the noise of his engine. So he hit me and down I went. Bike landed heavily on its left side (luckily not the muffler side) … the foot peg sheared clean off, but fortunately for the bike, my leg got trapped underneath so the front fairings took only minimal impact.
I don’t speak Chinese and unsurprisingly, none of the road workers spoke any English, but I communicated for someone to call the police. There was no cell phone reception in the area, so the site foreman drove down the mountain to summon help. The police arrived, and a quick glance at the scene was enough for him to know that the earthmover driver was clearly in the wrong.
The site manager offered me 10,000NT, which I accepted. I drove the 90km back to town without a left foot peg, calling in at Kawasaki on the way home. The guy there said he can weld the foot peg back in place. The front mudguard was shattered from the impact of the earthmover, and a new one will cost 4,500NT. Miraculously, the left fairing is undamaged, and there is no other damage apart from a few small scratches around the headlight which can probable be polished out.
Update: the repairs were all completed today and I have to say I’m very happy with the results. The bill was 5,200NT including a new front mudguard (4,500) and an expert welding job on the footpeg (700). The Kawasaki dealer also touched up the minor scratches free of charge.
I’ve still got 4,800NT left from the accident compensation money - that should just about cover my anguish and suffering at seeing my pride and joy backed into by an earthmoving vehicle
Also, I filled up the bike today and got my best fuel consumption figures yet … 391km out of exactly 13 liters (just over 30kmpl).
Take care man, next time may be the motherfucker is not going to pay more than 1,000…
Had something like that happen at a petrol station last year. SUV backs quite slowly 3 or 4 car lengths into a lights flashing, horn-sounding, obscenity-shouting foreigner in a car, gets a fright (I’d just shaved my head and looked well 'ard ) and takes off.
New dent didn’t matter much though, and no danger of injury. Earth mover/motorcycle is a much more dangerous combo.
Speaking about mileage… I can’t believe but the last time I filled the tank I made 255.4 km with 7.5 liters, which is about 34 km per liter. It’s much better than any other time. The secret? to ride with other people, and to use N gear a lot