Re: Kawasaki Ninja 300 Ownership Experience

my answers in bold..


Has anyone used handlebar risers on Ninja 300? For touring, will it be necessary to add a handlebar riser or is the current position good?

I have some questions from touring perspective:
1. As asked above, is the handlebar good for long travel, or do we need riser? Where do I get a riser?!

Yes. handlebars are good for long distance touring infact they keep you utmost confortable. I recently did Ladakh on my Ninja 300, and no problems faced so far with the comfort of handle bar or the seat where i used to ride 800kms in a day in plains and whole day when i was in Ladakh. Its the best bike whatever the condition might come.

2. Are the stock seats too hard? Will adding a gel seat pad help?

I didnt\' use any gel seats. I upgraded from Duke to a Ninja and therefore seats where already very soft to my expectations. Rest your bum will tell you better.

3. Is radiator guard needed? 2k branded one or can we get it fabricated?

No clue. i am not using one. and i have done 15000kms on my Ninja.

4. Where do we get the frame sliders in Pune? Any available <5000? 7-8k is bit steep.

a good frame slider costs you 7-8k. Still with a frame slider you aren\'t 100% sure that debris won\'t scratch the fairing in case of a slide.

* A new left or right side fairing cost Rs. 11k. Insurance pays half the amount.
you decide bro.

5. Can we add something at the back so that the saddlebags don\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t damage the side faring and don\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t touch the tyre? Something like this:[/QUOTE]

yes. we can put plastic sticky tape. to prevent scratches. the carrier behind it will not look as cool, as it does on an adventure bike like XC800 or the likes.

Re: Kawasaki Ninja 300 Ownership Experience

Has anyone used handlebar risers on Ninja 300? For touring, will it be necessary to add a handlebar riser or is the current position good?

Responses in black
I have some questions from touring perspective:

1. As asked above, is the handlebar good for long travel, or do we need riser? Where do I get a riser?!
Similar to above response, my experience has been very similar. I have done upto 600+km in a day, e.g from Bangalore to Goa on the Ninja. Its riding position is pretty decent for solo-long touring. It is not tiring on your wrists/shoulder/back and one can do good speeds and cover greater distances. Even in case of two-up riding, it is pretty decent sport-tourer as well.

If found unsatisfactory, one can get a riser. You get it in US for about $50. These are 3/4inch or 1inch risers and they do seem to have made the riding position a lot more comfortable than stock.

2. Are the stock seats too hard? Will adding a gel seat pad help?
I prefer slightly harder seats in-comparison to lets say the Stock Karizma seats and I have found the stock rider seat pretty good for long distances as it seems to hold itself well over longer distances . However, I am contemplating on getting a gel seat installed for the pillion as I feel,that is something which needs more padding as presently it neither has width nor thickness. Did a recent 300km+/day of two up riding and from the feedback of the pillion, would probably go for that for a start. I say this because, reviews are spread across \\\\\\\"Not found satisfactory\\\\\\\"-\\\\\\\"Extremely useful\\\\\\\" for gel seats.

3. Is radiator guard needed? 2k branded one or can we get it fabricated?
2k ? Radiator guard ? where ? So far I have found most branded ones for 4k. If you could share the link, I would probably consider it as radiator is something you don\'t want to puncture in the middle of your trip . 2k is nominal cost to pay I think.

4. Where do we get the frame sliders in Pune? Any available <5000? 7-8k is bit steep.
Bachoo Motors have frame-slider from Rd-moto and they cost 7.5k. Not aware of any within 5k range (Yes, I do agree that prices are steep in-terms of accessories from spools to sliders to screens)

5. Can we add something at the back so that the saddlebags don\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t damage the side faring and don\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t touch the tyre? Something like this
I used the Dirtsack saddle bags (model:Speed bag) in the Goa trip. It was loaded to the fullest. No issues such as touching the exhaust/tyre! However, I would check may be the VIATERRA new Rapide as an option for saddle bags as I was not satisfied with the quality of construction, mounting etc in case of the Speedbag. I had used tape to mask the panels edges over which the bags slip/slide. It did its job ! (Jugaad worked).

Your saddle set-up is pretty interesting. If one can fabricate it well , it would work pretty well. The closest I found to such a set-up was from SW-Motech/GIVI but these cost upwards of 12k just for the mounting set-up. Not really worth it (IMO) as then saddle bags are extra (they look cool overall as a set-up but insanely expensive).

Keep us posted on the experiment if you decide to go through ! Thanks

Re: Kawasaki Ninja 300 Ownership Experience

I tried the Rynox Nomad saddle bag today, but somehow it was not getting on properly. When it was set up, it was dangerously close to the exhaust, and the pillion hardly had any acces to the foot rest. I am still not sure what kind of a saddle bag can Ninja 300 take with the pillion seating comfortably on it. Because of its protruded indicators, it makes it difficult for any saddle bag to be pushed backwards.

Re: Kawasaki Ninja 300 Ownership Experience

I rode the Ninja300 from Mumbai to Pune yesterday with a pillion. What a blast! Bike surges ahead with a twist, and I had to be careful about the speeds. But later, my right shoulder was paining a bit with the twist of the palm whenever I accelerated. Even today morning I felt the same.

What am I doing wrong? I am mindful about my sitting posture, and am putting minimum weight (if at all) on the handlebars. But with each twist my right shoulderblade is paining a little, and I wonder whether it has to do with strength or technique. Any tips from experienced riders?

Re: Kawasaki Ninja 300 Ownership Experience

Riding is a sports bike is physically involving isn\'t it? Doesn\'t it make you wonder want are the fitness levels that professional racing demand? Imagine the fitness level required at MotoGp levels? People say its about talent. Well, they could not be more wrong, because talent without the fitness level will take you only so far. It takes excruciating physical demand to ride a 250 bhp bike through 20 to 22 turns for more than 22 times through each turn and requires the rider to be a supreme athlete with a fitness level that rivals Olympic Gold medal winners.

Now coming to your problem, it comes down to fitness. I suggest that you work on you fitness level with weight training if you want to do better at riding. Your back, shoulders, abdominal, biceps and tricep muscles need to be strengthen if you want to enjoy sports biking to the fullest. So in short... hit the gym...

Re: Kawasaki Ninja 300 Ownership Experience

For hooking up a saddle bag with pillion, I think there are two main issues with Ninja:
1. That angular muscle that protrudes from the pillion seat. It is quite sharp and I feel it can dent a car! This protruding sharp plastic will poke a dent in the saddle bag.
2. The wide eared rear turn indicators. They pop out far too much, so they will interfere with any saddlebag.


http://i.imgur.com/9R1zcbd.png

So the effective width of a saddle bag is only between the turn indicator and the pillion foot rest, which is really not much. I tried Rynox Nomad bag, but felt that the pillion foot rest were not usable after putting it on. I am thinking of adding a separator (similar to frame slider) that goes from underneath the bike, which will protrude slightly beyond the indicators. This way, the saddle bags will not have to be stopped by the indicators, and can be pushed back, thus liberating foot space for the pillion.



http://i.imgur.com/g4UTYnn.png

Does this idea make sense? The separator can be removed anytime. It will be similar to the luggage hooks, only it will be using the underseat bolts and will be wider (and stronger).

EDIT: Somehow images are not getting linked as inline, so please click on the links above to see the images.

Re: Kawasaki Ninja 300 Ownership Experience

I checked Nomad, DSG\'s inhouse saddle bags and Viaterra rapide.

1. Nomad have great quality, but not useful on Ninja 300. Would easily touch the silencer, and pillion seating was questionable.
2. DSG inhouse bag was good size, perfectly fitting, but very poor quality. After seeing a bag torn in storage, I skipped the purchase.
3. Viaterra rapide seem pretty small. But they fit very good on Ninja. With my spacer idea, the chances of them hitting the silencer are very less.

So I am left with three options, no saddlebag, or big one with chance of hitting silencer, or small one without hitting silencer. I am going ahead with the purchase of Viaterra rapide. At Rs.2,900 with rain covers, it is priced properly. Its quality seems much better than the 4000rs one of DSG. Hope it proves good in use.

Also, for reference purpose:

The cost of routine first servicing at Pune is Rs.2928 only.

Re: Kawasaki Ninja 300 Ownership Experience

Guys i have just booked a ninja 300. I would like to know where would i get a tank pad. I would also like to know about the fuel(normal petrol or unleaded) for the ninja 300

Re: Kawasaki Ninja 300 Ownership Experience

You can get it on planetdsg website

Re: Kawasaki Ninja 300 Ownership Experience

Happy to report that I have now returned from a 3000km journey to Gujarat with my wife as pillion, with tank bag and saddle bag on a Ninja 300. We travelled from Pune to Ahmedabad, a 700km distance, in a day. Also did many long rides there as well.



Will share detailed update soon. Also will start a new thread for mounting luggage on Ninja300.

Re: Kawasaki Ninja 300 Ownership Experience

I found the headlights of Ninja 300 to be severely inadequate on dark roads. I am planning to put an HID light in it. Has anyone put HIDs in N300 here? Any words on this?

Re: Kawasaki Ninja 300 Ownership Experience

Never ridden any Kawa but is it because when you turn, since it's faired bike, you don't get to see corners well lit at nights? Asking just because u used to ride something else few weeks back.

Re: Kawasaki Ninja 300 Ownership Experience

Its just like your 220. The lights do not move with the fairing.

Re: Kawasaki Ninja 300 Ownership Experience

On straight roads, the road was hardly visible on n300. My previous ride GS150R with an HID would turn the night into day!

Re: Kawasaki Ninja 300 Ownership Experience

arrey baba... I know that. That's why I asked whether it's just a feeling he is having because he recently transitioned to fixed headlight bike.

Oh ok.. Even cars with normal lights can't fair well with a bike having a good HID.

Please continue. Sorry for the interruption