Nano-loved the last line hehe

Nano the side turn indicators in the Ninja is prone to breakage and is very expensive at 1,700/- +.. An alternate which is EXACT to the OE is The TVS Jive's indicator which is Rs.170/-..so keep it in mind.....OE chain sprockets are also expensive,and Rolon India had developed a X chain and is in the process of developing the full kit...
Try not to drop the bike since the fairings etc., are Extremely costly......

I have been a silent follower of this thread and gained a lot from here,but sadly this thread is dead. I liked the double meaning posts and this thread felt the most technical thread but sadly i do not know where all the members have gone. Please bring this thread to previous glory. The new kids on block cannot understand what a Fiero is but i can understand and i like to hear more from fiero owners.

@nanotechnology- Kaamal karte ho!.
You bought a NINJA and forgot to update. Congrats on the bike. I thought it was a new bike and i was surprised to hear from you. I am also thinking of buying a Ninja but sadly the cost is too high. And there are no ninja's in a city like Bhubaneswar( hardly 3-4) and forget about getting a used one. And i think Ninja 250 is not my cup of tea as i do not like revving high and riding it like a** on fire. Instead i think Ninja 650 is perfect for me. Lets see for the next year. You are right in your observation. I do not know why but manufacturers are going for shorter gear ratio to try to bring two strokes feel while treading for the four stroke feel of calm and easy cruising without strain on engine. You will feel it more after riding a Fiero.
Any ways take good care of bike as PSR sir has said the parts are expensive and hard to come by. You are lucky to get an excellent bike, wish a lots of miles of pleasure.

Thanks for the info Gixxer. Thing is... I got the T'bird carb from a buddy so want to bring it to the Fiero's specs and keep it for future use. Plus, this option allows me to keep my existing old carb bone stock as per factory setting as it is satisfactory for me.

I'm going to look around for the jets as and when I get time from office. So let's see how this goes.

Welcome to the thread Sibun..If you had followed the thread from start, you would have seen that the one member who stands out with knowledge is Gixxer Junkie, who had done things,that many would dread to dream. He is a Go getter and I am Happy to say I had learned so much from him, and his answers on SBKs are very famous...Since most members have been able to do DIY,thanks to Gixxer's sharing of knowledge, slowly the thread is coming to less and less post...fear not since I will always BAIT members here ,now and then ,and things will be back to normal...

All of us are friends here and would like to keep it that way.

Thanks psr for the kind words The keyword is that we are all friends here and the discussion is always informal as you've inferred.Sharing of knowledge is possible because of the environment.A environment where no one is ready to chew the other's head off,just to get a ego boost.Only in such a place can there be suggestions,advises and then this will lead to exploring the machine's potential.This is the kinda thing which i liked about ZEN TVS when it was operational and with guys like Mr Murthy ,Venugopal etc.I am merely conveying here the things i've seen and heard from these above mentioned guys and i am lucky that my machine has been in their hands at one time or the other.Last but not the least, i still remember when i asked for your help to sort out what nano was facing You have helped us a lot here on this thread and i've learn't a lot from you as well.
You're welcome bro.
Thanks for the appreciation bro and you are welcome to keep the thread alive with your posts too.Yes,i am a huge fan of taller gearing too.Technical discussion is what we love and it without fail leads to SBK's what's that about bikes and girls which can make any day a better day!
I have 7 HMT mechanical watches and my dad still uses a omax mechanical watch which is over 40 years old! It's still as good as new! That's something about mechanical watches isn't it,they are dependable and last for ever! hence worthy of investing on em.
The negatives what you've mentioned are exactly the things i look for in a bike! Man,this bike has everything which i desire in a everyday bike.Short stroke(<50mm) and a inline engine config.If it had been made in india,this would without any doubt would have been my choice as the best indian bike.
What you've got is a steal!!I am all for going for such used bikes.They suddenly become good VFM deals.You've made a excellent choice buddy and it sure looks like a well cared for bike.
Don't hesitate to keep us posted here ,on this bike as well.We'd love to see and hear your experience with her.

@ sibun

Welcome to the thread.
Don't worry, this thread will come back to its former glory really soon.
Do tell us more about yourself, like an intro...

Besides, the good part about the ninja is even though its a high revving bike, its not starving at lower revs like the other's do, it feels like a any-day bike at lower revs, i guess its to do with higher capacity.
I think you should also consider a used hyosung 650, try to ride it to know more about it, it should be cheaper and I personally like it more than the green 650.
The V twin is also something that would suit you as you want more torque.

Do keep bugging Gix here, he'll keep you entertained and informed about whatever you can handle, from Japanese SBK's to Indian SBK's with wide chassis...
If you didn't know, he rides a 190cc fiero fully ported and rear set equipped, with ABS (Anand Breaking System) and runs with an oil cooled radiator too, and yes also has a free flow exhaust.

@ Gix

I am sure I missed a millions of more mods do remind us about the same too, and tell us what's running in your head now ?

@ PSR

I do take a lot of care of it, I will try to never drop it but you can never be soo sure in our country.
What's worrying me is the suspensions, because the way it hits our bumps, I doubt weather they'll last as long as they should.
I'll keep a check of parts, and ofcource will bug you if I need anything.

Besides hows your foot now sir?

@ Rakesh

That's one of the reasons I ride in only after sunset...

Not many share ,forget knowing anything at all, in actual life....I guess the TWO things that we share in common is the love to mutually share knowledge, and our interest in SBKs with Wide Strong Chasis that you can ride all day... ....that said, you had been innovative,and Good Wasn't Enough...otherwise we all would never have learned from you of the oil cooler in Fiero...Who BUT YOU can think along those lines, and CAN ACTUALLY DO IT
Do keep up the good work so we all can learn....

@Psr

Well,let's just say inline engine config means a wider chassis and that sure gets our blood flowing!
About the oil-cooler,i'll get the pictures which rakesh had also asked for.Got a new banjo union made and got it custom bent to remain close to the crank case,at a lathe which deals with such works.They bent the pipe on a pipe bending machine.This was done last week and now it looks neat and yesterday got a new engine guard too to suit the new config.I'll post the pictures as soon as i give the bike a wash.
This built-in provision for a oil-cooler has made it easier and it's been running like this from a few months now.Like i had mentioned before,with this ,the cooled oil returns back to the sump.Thus leaving the oil-circuit as it was in stock.

@Nanotech

How about a write-up on the experience with the ninjette so far?

@ gix

I haven't ridden it much, only 700 kms so far.

Let me just share my opinions and experiences of the bike.
The day I took the delivery of the bike, it had a rear tire punture and the tire was completely flat, the bike hadn't been ridden from 6 months as the owner was a very busy and important man. However he did run it once in a while to flow the fluids and charge the battery. It was raining that day, as I was riding in the wet I was very slow and couldn't really feel the puncture as the tire wasn't losing shape and the suspensions were too hard to give me a puncture feel.

As a matter of fact, it took me 3 days to find out that I had a rear tire puncture, because it looked like an FZ's tire (flat profile) and the bike was still very stiff at the back.
The puncture was soo major that it took 2 hours to repair it, almost a centimeter of hole at the center.
The puncture guy was insisting to put up a tube inside, but I was against the idea.

After getting the puncture sorted, I actually started understanding and riding the bike.

Initially my experiences weren't great, because it was very heavy and long, and took a nice time to take a U turn and also to park.
It felt like a herculean task to ride it, and also took a long time for me to set up my mind at changing gears not below 6000 rpm no matter what.

Initially while riding the fiero I always kept it in either 2nd or 4th gear in any condition at any place, so wasn't used to shifting these many gears.
But with a few kms on the Ninja it started developing, 1 thing that I did meanwhile was not to touch the fiero, I wanted to ride the Ninja for at-least 500 kms before getting back on the fiero's saddle.
I used to ride the bike at night time, mostly around midnight and on the highway. I almost took a week to ride the bike above 80 kmph, because I was getting bothered with the temperature guage, it was almost always nearing its red hot zone, and I could feel the heat through the tank-handlebar gap.
Later did I realize that riding it faster and at higher revs made more air go in the radiator and seriously cool it down great levels, also the wet ride had clogged up the radiator with dirt.

At times (only at very low speeds amidst traffic) the bike used to suddenly make strange whining noise and give a tingling feel at the handlebars, with time I realized that it was the radiator fan which turns itself on if its heating up a bit too much.
Once all these doubts and worries got cleared, and had a few more kms on the bike, I developed the feel of the brakes and the tires.

Almost after say a 100 kms, I really started riding it fast.
I used to run out of road to rev it till 8~9k even at 3rd gear, if not the road length, it would either be a bump on the road that used to slow me down.
Even the lines that we find painted on the roads at intersections used to bother the bike's handling.
The stiffness was too much to make the bike wobble at speeds as low as 80, the weight and the wobble used to scare me a lot. The handle turns very less, so you have to lean the bike seriously even if you want to change the lane on a straight road. With time the confidence grew and I started to push it a bit.
The rear brake of this bike can beat the front brake of my other bike (fiero of cource), which already beats a lot of front brakes of a lot of bikes. Once I got used to the brake power and pressure, and also developed throttle control to make it ride at almost all the gears, I decided to go for a decent ride.

I went to lonavala (a hill station) at 8 in the evening and returned at 11 that same night the journey was almost a 200 kms return, it wasn't very fast ride though, but I could manage 140~150 at the straights.
This bike really turns in much quicker, although its way longer than the fiero, believe me at speeds above 40 it would turn at a much tighter radius that the fiero as I've ridden those roads a lot of times. Also you could keep the speed high and still turn in very harsh, as the chassis give you very good feel.
I had a lot of problems with the tires, as they seem to lose grip easily, even if you down shift at a turn on the ghats, you could feel the rear sliding when you leave the clutch.
These tires are very different compared to our Indian tires, I am not saying that they are any better but our tires are binary, either they give you a knife through butter grip, or they give up completely and loose grip.
These tires give up way too easily, but you can feel that although they are sliding a bit, they still seem to hold the trajectory pretty well, the chassis give you enough feedback to know exactly what the tires are doing.
Sometimes they slide a way too much, but still can hold the road as nothing has happened, this takes a lot of time to get used to. Its not easy to trust these tires on our roads, specially after coming from bikes and tires that we ride and learn on.
Another thing worth mentioning is that the tires heat up quite a lot. I happen to touch it once during the same trip and it was quite warm, almost 50 degrees that too during a winter night. Whatever they say about heating up the tires to get more grip is all bull$#!t, you ride it either hot or cold, they still slide the same way everywhere and give the same grip, atleast these ones...

After that journey I got used to the bike, I tried a few red-line runs on the highway, learned how to use much more of the lower body to control the bike and enjoyed the thrill of a 250cc the way I should have.
Once I finished 500 kms, it was the fiero's turn.
Boy I had never ever been so happy before in my life, the fiero now felt sooo light and zippy, also swingy over the bumps that it felt like a supermoto with that handlebar.
I could never ever before ride the fiero with soo much ease, now I had developed the feel of the tires to great extent so could push the fiero even harder.
Its only now that I actually feel the flex created by the chassis, and other tech stuff that we read about and never understand.
Another thing that has improved is my throttle control, the fiero now really feels mellow as the rider has been modified and upgraded.

I am really happy to have a combination of these bikes, I initially thought to sell off or to donate the fiero to someone as I didn't want it feeling insecure or neglected because of the ninja.
But nothing has changed and I will keep it.
Even today I ride the fiero more and enjoy it a bit more.
As I have a green colored bike, I cannot take it anywhere and its painfully uncomfortable for the pillion thanks to the brakes.
Most of my pillions have slid down to my seat even at very normal braking, it feels very jerky too as there's nothing to hold onto for the pillion, not to mention the embarrassment that those unbikerly pillions feel finding everyone staring at them sitting a foot over the rider on a green bike with headlight ON and everyone looking at them.

This bike in my opinion isn't an everyday bike, it shouldn't be.
Its purpose is very different and the way you ride it needs much more skill than what you think you do, its an easy bike to ride, but not so easy to ride fast.

Hola Guys, How are you all ?
Btw I was planning to get hold of a Apache150.
I ve found a used bike. Decent condition, run about 25k kms, 2006 model.

For how much should I finalize the deal ? Current owner is 2nd owner.
Is it easy to maintain, I mean spares wise.. Not comparing to Fiero

It's a easy bike to maintain and hardly needs any looking after.So you can go for it with your eyes closed.Spares are not a issue at all. Ask abhi about the price,he'll get you the market rate from pipe-line road.My friend owns one from the same year and it's been a zero maintenance bike.I've ridden it extensively,so yes,it's a refined and a damn rugged bike like the fiero.Which will take any amount of abuse and still look you in the eyes and say "is that your best? ".

@Nanotech

A very enjoyable write-up buddy.Do keep us updated with all the things about her,because we certainly can use some detailed posts like that here.
Interesting what you've told about the tyres.Sort of similar to other higher cc bike tires i guess.I personally like a very stiff chassis with a hard suspension,so i can appreciate what you're telling about the chassis stiffness and the feedback we can get from such a set-up.I understand what you mean about the pillion it indeed is the case when looking at the r15 2.0 too.
How's the feel from the engine when ridden at 130 - 140 speeds?It's a inline ,short stroke engine,so the power delivery might be peaky to overpower the grip?What about the oil,fluids etc?

@ Sheeni

Its a good bike, extremely east to ride in traffic, go for it eyes closes as it has the same fiero engine, all the parts are easily available.

@ Gix

This bike has a decent amount of power, 33 ps sounds a lot on paper, but remember its at 11k rpm, so what you get is a very heavy range from 3k to 11k for very very smooth and linear delivery of power across the rev range.
It doesn't put any pressure point on the tyre because the delivery is very very smooth and even, even if your riding at a slippery road, you can feel the rear spinning a bit more, but its soo even that if you don't pay attention you don't even notice it, and thus grip transfers back very smoothly.
This is not the case with the fiero, specially after the big bore setup, the power comes in aggressively and you have say 2~3k rpm of range to use that power, but here you have 6~7k of rpm range to use the power hence its real crisp.

I've ridden it like a demon from standstill and even at high speeds, the power is enough, its not too much to scare you, neither is it less to make you feel wanting more.
Because of the smooth delivery you can prefer short shifting to use as much as you want, for example your doing 80~85 at 6th gear, suddenly you want to bring a drag racer out of you, you can shift down to third and revv it hard, it wouldn't loose speed and you'll find it accelerating till 120~130 with ease.
The acceleration at higher revs is exhilaration and you wouldn't find yourself riding above 4th gear if you revv it like it should be.
Its really instant and sounds like a 4 cylinder bike at higher revs, but its much much quieter.

You would find your neck getting strained due to the wind, although I use a very good helmet, the wind scares you to ride it harder.
The power in the range of 9k to 11k makes you feel like you do in a video-game, and believe me when I say this, this bike feels soo soo reliable that even Karizmas give you a coarse engine feel after riding this.

The rear view mirrors are anti glare and give a decent car like view, similar to the skoda's. That's strange on a bike though because your not used to it.
This bike does vibrate a bit, i mean it has the vibration that one should feel to keep the pulse in check, unlike the CBR which feels like sitting in a multi axle Volvo with an electric engine.

Its not the stiffness, but i guess the 5 inch of rear and 4 inch of front suspension travel that puts the rider to the test.
No body would ever find this bike weak, if one feels that its weak, one really doesn't know how to ride.
Another thing worth mentioning is that this bike doesn't knock, even if your at idling in 6th gear the bike feels alright and smooth.
However if you revv it from that point it would feel like a maruti 800 with 5 people aboard and AC on trying to gain speed.
you can down-shift to not 1 or 2 but sometimes ever 4 gears and still gain speed
The quality of the rubber of the grips, and plastic all over is soo good that everything else (Indian bikes) seems bajaj like.

The gearing is very tall, but you have a 14/43 sprocket config.
It used 1.7~1.8L of oil, 10w40 and the manual says to use only premium fuel.
One does feel the difference between the performance of a standard and premium fuel on this bike.

@ all

I want to change the headlight to the round one, any info about the same ?

Why dont you try the new TBTS headlight-you get projectors with angel eyes