My first mega ride....

Hey guys posting a small(not really ) blog of the 1000 Ninja celebration at pune. This is my very first blog so plz pardon my way of presenting and my language...have posted some pics in the end of the post.
The guys in this epic trip were as follows:-
William (Ninja_1)
Pranav chavan(pc2211)
Manas Jain(manas_jain)
Bharat
Pratik Vellinkar
Capt cheri jacob
Vivek Kambli(guy with R15)
and Myself...

Saturday Morning @ 5:20 left home for the longest and best ride on my Ninja ever, before doing this trip had only been to Palm beach rd that too as a pillion with my elder bro and rode a bit over there. I had never ridden my Ninja for more than 20-25kms at a stretch , so doing this 400km solo trip(w/o my bro) from Mumbai to pune and back was really something else for me....

Fortunately i had an awesome group of 7 Ninjas and a R15 to ride with all the way to pune. All the riders were awesome and was fun riding along,

Left home and met up with my buddy who was waiting for me in my parking lot, we both quickly uncovered my Ninja sprayed the chain with Motul chain clean and lube and headed away...met up with all the members of the group near vashi had a short introduction with those who were new and continued our journey. The roads early in the morning were awesome, so quiet and empty, the weather was nice and cool as well. We were cruising at speeds of 100-120kmph effortlessly and then arrived at the lonavala ghats had a lot of fun in the twisties with the Ninja but was also scary as i am a bit New to handling it...after the ghats we stopped at a hotel (kamat green house) to have a cup of tea and a bit of breakfast, then we continued onwards.

We reached the PBK showroom at approx 10am and were gifted with the site of 15-20 Ninjas all lined up. I was super exited for the ride so got myself registered and got the identity card saying RIDER (I quite liked that) and wonder that i very well would be the youngest guy here with this ID being just 18 and passed my driving test @ RTO only two days ago (Riding w/o the actual license, but only the receipt saying I have passed my test @RTO )

After taking a bit of refreshment @ the PBK the All Ninja rally was underway following the city twists and turns. The site of 25 Ninjas together was a real head turner. The fun of the ride was limited due to the traffic and ill organised route (Ride could have been longer and better IMHO)

Anyways, after the riders reached @ the hotel Le Meridian and parked the Ninja in front of a Big banner saying Celebration Rally 1000 Ninja's On the Indian roads. Had a brief photo session and a small talk with some of the other Ninja owners....then we were lead in the hotel room where we kept all our riding gear and bags at the counter and had a nice cup of tea and some snacks which was followed by a official conference where special honor was given to our group for riding all the way from Mumbai to pune so as to attend the event organised by them.

After the conference there was a small briefing about the key features, regular maintenance and DIY for the Ninja with i found boring so went ahead and grabbed some lunch, after the lunch we had a small talk with one of the Kawasaki officials from Japan and then Met up with the Pune Xbhpians:Tenhut, Trustvishwas and desertfox....I have always wanted to meet tenhut in person and instantly learned that i could today when i had spotted the orange SHARK helmet on the Green Ninja leading the rally. So was a really awesome experience meeting up with you tenhut enjoyed it. Wish we could have talked a bit more but we were getting late and needed to get a move on....

After leaving from the hotel we went to Planet DSG as some of my friends needed to buy helmets, jackets, tankpads etc....Finished with the shopping by abt 4:15 and regrouped, now a fellow rider dropped his Ninja and had a slightly bent shifter pedal. Luckily there were no scratches at all on the fairings, so we headed to get that fixed and the garage where we stopped was a treasure box, inside which we saw Hayabusa, R6, Intruder, CBR 600RR and a old dirt bike, unfortunately we couldn't wait there for long as the bike was fixed in no time and again we were running behind time..
At this pt. the fuel low warning light on my bike was on so got to a fuel station and had a full tank of Indianoil Xtrapremium(as recommended by Tenhut) got a full tank in 835rs @ approx 59rs per liter and had clocked 312kms from my last fill up i.e. I got an average of abt 22kmpl from my Ninja (Is that decent??)

Now having finished everything we headed off towards Mumbai, decided to make minimum stop as we wanted to avoid riding a lot in the dark. So started riding and instantly got separated from one of our members of the group amidst the pune traffic, one of my friends volunteered to stay back and wait for him so that we could continue to ride and he will regroup with us on a predetermined location. When we arrived at the location we were absolutely astonished to find both of them waiting over there for us instead, we had no idea when n where did they overtook us....

Anyways having regrouped we continued our way back home and traveled a huge distance w/o stopping by this time our group again got divided into two groups. There were 4 guys upfront who were riding fast and four of us lot left behind as we were riding sane. The group upfront had stopped for us at a petrol pump somewhere in Lonavala, I spotted them and stopped but unluckily one of my friend was just overtaking a truck at that point hence he couldn't notice the group and hence was separated from us, we tried calling him to call him back but he wouldn't answer, so we all decided not to worry as he very well knew his way back home and we all stopped at a nearby hotel where we had a nice cup of coffee and sandwiches . The amount of attention that the group was getting was unbelievable, we were like a crowd magnet, A crowd formed anywhere we stopped within no time and then there were the usual set of questions like "kitne ki hai, avg kya hai, app log koi nayi bike ka testing kar rahe ho kya etc..."
By the time we finished our snacks we got a call from the lost friend he reached at panvel and then he realized that he had lost the group . He said he could see a group of bike upfront which he assumed were us but after catching up he realized they were a group of Karizmas...lolz so he continued the rest of the ride w/o us....

After leaving the hotel it had become dark and there wasnt anything particularly interesting that happened on the way just long and boring ride in the dark rode at a safe speed of 60-80 kmph. until I encountered this psychopath riding a karizma with 2 pillions(Triple seat). He was hugely overwhelmed at the sight of my Ninja and started riding like crazy while trying to talk to me about the price and the pillion was clicking pics with his mobile phone, I was feeling unsafe so tried to zip away but @ 110kmph he was still desperately trying to keep up and not even for a moment he rode in a straight line he was zigzagging on the road like an absolute maniac and going any faster than this was fairly unsafe on those roads, when suddenly one of his pillions discovered that there was a whole group of Ninjas up ahead so they moved out of the highway and I thought "chalo balla talli..." but then discovered that they took some sort of a shortcut to reach my group upfront and were irritating them but luckily after a short time they reached their village and moved away. I was mighty scared by the way these guys were riding and hope will never encounter any such person ever...

Having survived the ghats we reached at Palm beach road where we parted with the guys who reside near by that area. Had a couple of pics and 3 of us moved towards thane that is where we live. We reached home safely and it was almost 10pm.

Was an absolutely fantastic experience riding my Ninja for the first time for such a long trip, had a lot of fun with the pune xbhpians specially tenhut and enjoyed the trip to the core....I had left home @ 5:20 in the morning and came back by 10 and the 16 hours in between are quite possibly the bestestest ever 16hrs of my life....

OKay, I am little confused now. Is the suggestion that front brake is NOT to be used at all in the wet?
Can someone please explain why?

The disc brakes are powerful enough to stop the vehicles efficiently. In wet conditions the disc brakes have a different effect. The friction decrease between the tire & the road is the reason. If you depress the brake lever more than necessary the tire can get jammed & then due to the low friction between the tire & the road the bike can loose stability & lead to a fall.

The same can happen with the rear tire also but the chances are less since the rear brakes are not that effective.

rear brakes on the Ninja250R will trigger a slide way sooner than the front brakes. Its a forward biased bike with fcukin strong rear brakes of a supersport 600.

The only reason rear is to be used more in gravel or wet is because the rear sliding is way more easier to contain than the front sliding. U can almost never contain a sliding front.
That said..if u dont use the front to brake in wet AT ALL and only use ur rear you are most prolly just gonna do some sliding circus without coming to any stop. Front and rear both need to be used...the braking force distribution to the front and rear is the only thing that will change in wet conditions.

You cant let the front lock in the dry either.
My question is why not use the front AT ALL?

You would need to use the front if you are travelling at anything more than 40 kph. If you just try to use the rear, you are liable to lock it.


I second that. Thats exactly what I was trying to say.

Well put. I'll just add to it.

Both, the distribution and the magnitude of the force will change in the wet. In fact a slide is caused by both the absolute braking demanded and the rate at which it is asked for. It is the 'rate of application' that is taken care of when the rider 'squeezes the lever' rather than grabbing a handful. A controlled and linear 'rate of application' gives time for weight transfer onto the front contact patch and so helps optimize the braking action.

As Tenhut and Hyperion point out, there is no blanket rule for NOT applying either brake. Just grade your braking demands in accordance with the traction available underfoot.

My opinion is that braking cannot be taken out from theory or from text books. in india road conditions vary by the meter which calls for innovative braking. this will also vary with the bike u are on. in the case of the ninja especially since the tyres IRC (its my opinion ) is useless as regards grip on normal roads one has to have fingers crossed esp if its starts raining. recently i was coming back from chennai it rained. the first monsoon rain the street's were brown with mud and water. can any one tell me a fool proof braking with IRC tyres on the ninja. i stuck to the rear brake, skidded and managed to hold release and continued that way till i got out of the city. never tried to use the front unless the road was a clear and clean black. for me using the front in such conditions is a sure way of resulting in a slide from which recovery may be impossible. i had a go at my brakes recently on the NH at an area where the road stretch was dry level and clean at 80 kms ( bike is still in running in period)to see how good she stops i had tried with the front only, rear only and combo with more front. the combo works best and was good at hauling the bike to a stop.

if i have to go for impulsive braking i will go for the rear and then the front. this is the way my body is going to react as it has gone thru 30 years of bike riding. i dont intend to change that on Indian road's and i am happy to face what ever consequences that may have.

i am not reccomending this to anyone as i feel braking is purely a personal thing evolved and perfected on repeated riding on all roads and all conditions and may vary from bike to bike ( how much pressure/ front/rear/combo etc etc )

read theory but practice /practice and practice braking. you will perfect good braking skills that you are confident and comfortable for any situation.

unfortunately its one skill that you cannot copy.

Hey, I agree with everything u said except for the line in Bold.
Indian terrain or road surface will have little to do with why you shouldnt be using rear first.
You shouldnt be using rear first or much because you are riding the Ninja250R. A sporty bike with forward weight bias. There is more load on the front at any given moment of u sitting/riding the bike (except under acceleration or when going uphill)
Braking is simple.The aim is to stop without locking your wheels and doesnt need to be country or road specific as long as we arent getting into dirt braking.
The answer is simple. Whichever wheel carries most of the bike's load should be given more braking force. More weight on the wheel = lesser tendency to lock that wheel under heavy braking. The Ninja250R should definitely be braked primarily at the front and secondarily at the rear, anywhere in this world.
Changing your braking under emergency/panick situations to front first and rear( if necessary) later is not as hard as u r thinking it is gonna be.
It will take you about an year to make it a muscle memory since you have been doing it the other way for the last 30 years but after that one succesfull year you would be ending up being a better rider...so if you ask me its worth a thing trying for.

I back this opinion from experience learned during my trip made last Sunday frm Trivandrum to Sivakashi and back... with it raining on the way back...

The braking was most effective during the dry and wet run when it was a combo.

thank you for the inputs...

LMAO. Ninja has a disk at rear too.....

You can try on the BT 045 from bridgestone , do not know the price or where we can get it...

Try searching for them.

point of view taken. but really the feed back on many forums of front going down esp during the rains on the ninja has left me with little option on experiments on braking with front while roads are wet.

@ TH yeh.. i can still correct myself. the road is still long and one can only see high performance bikes there.

went for a brief jaunt today. idea was to finish off the running in. vellore to bangalore highway till the "aadhar" food joint and back. clocked 300 km today. total on the odo 1501 ,still another 100 to go.

seems that i am having good times on petrol pumps. during my first service to chennai a few days back wanted to fill at the shell pump while coming back and they were on a 20 minute break. missed that and had to go for speed from BP. today at krishnagiri fuel light went on and had to fill up at HP xtra premium. reached the BP joint afterwards which was having the best fuel. missed again. cant be choosy as at vellore i dont have much choice on pumps. its speed only.

Why is a Ninja a Value for Money Bike

Well the only reason why i am posting this here is that (you can find the same on another forum too)..why is a Ninja a VFM bike..
Over the forums have heard about lot of ppl cribbing about the price of the bike and being overpriced when comapred to US. This should shut them up once and for all

My Views on why the Ninja is a good VFM.

When a bike is being prospected the major things the buyer looks into the bike are
1) Style Quotient: How contemporary is the styling. Ninja is a beautiful bike, no doubts on that.
2) Power: 33bhp aint any thing bad on an Indian road.
3) Acceleration: 0-100kmph in 5.75 seconds can smoke 99% of Indian vehicles on the road unless you had the balls to pull up one with a Mitsubishi evo.
4) Top speed: 170-175 aint bad and its dangerous on Indian roads as well. But racing with Accents and Land cruisers on the Pune-Blore highway would make you a sitting duck after 150 kmph
5) Mileage: Ninja doesn’t fare too bad on the “kitna deti” hai part. I did get 36 kms when I was running in and sticking the bike under 60kmph. So if you are a law abiding citizen you should get 36. After the run in it progressively reduced from 36>34>30>28>25>22>20. Your inference is right .I stopped abiding by the law.. But if you ride good, you do get a good mileage as well.
6) Maintenance: Zero issues on maintenance. Nothing spend from the pocket except for the regular servicing which does not come free though. Every 12000 kms is around 5000 bucks though.
7) After sales: The only trouble I ever had it in riding it for around 10K in 2 months (I am currently separated from my bike for the last 6 months so ahave been unable to clock any further) was an FI issue which was promptly resolved by the Bajaj Kothrud service centre. My experience with Bajaj on the Ninja has been exemplary to the current date.
8) Depreciation: The classifieds on XBHP suggests that the depreciation aint bad either. You would probably be able to sell a used bike for 2.25-2.5L in an year. Well if you think 30% is bad for a sports bike check for used Ducati prices and their drops.

Till this point it is a good bike..Hope every one agrees to it.

9) Price: Here is where the controversy arises. Why is it expensive in India for 3.0 Lacs? For this we can compare the global prices
a) Thailand (the country where it is made) -14000 THB = 207200 INR
b) Malyasia – 20400 MYR = 291271 INR
c) UK - 4000 GBP = 280000 INR
d) US – 4300 (MSRP) USD = 193500 INR
As you can see the prices in US are the cheapest .

But do u think owning a Ninja in US is cheaper than India? Read further.

Factor in the insurance costs. fuel costs, servicing costs and see what it tells you. (assuming an excahnge rate of USD/INR =45).Assume you keep the bike for 5 years and run-up 50000 kms in the process.

Insurance Costs from 50-200 USD a month! Depending on your riding history and the penalties you have had. 50 USD translates to 27000 INR a year and here you pay 5000 INR for an yearly comprehensive insurance. IF you plan to keep the bike for 5 years it would cost you 135000 INR (the minimum cost of 50/month) in US and it would cost you 25K in India just for insurance.
Caveat: The insurance costs might come come down with the depreciation of the bike.

Fuel running costs in US are cheaper due to the cheaper price of gasoline (INR 33/Litre) than INdia INR 60/Litre). So if you run 50K kms it costs you 1470 USD and 120000 INR in US and India respectively. (considering average mileage of 25Kms)..The US version is carburetted and the mileage is considered to be same for it (though it should be lower).

Servicing costs are approx 100 USD for non-12K intervals and 300 USD for 12K interval ones. This list will give you the entire prices approximately.
Total non-12K services = 6 *100 = 600 USD and 6*1500 = 9000 INR
Total 12K service = 4 *300 = 1200 USD and 4*5000 =20000
Total US cost = 1800 USD and INR cost =29000 INR


Now take a look at the cost of ownership in US and India

.................USD INR
Price ......4300 300000
Insurance3000 25000
Fuel....... 1470120000
Servicing 1800 29000
Total .....10570 474000

That transalates into 10570*45 = 475650 INR in the US... Now tell me which is cheap???

Also keep in mind
1) The US version is carburetted. IF it were to go FI the price would significantly go up.
2) The US price is MSRP and not out of the door and Indian price is on-road.

Moral of the story: The lower intial price just tells you one side of the story. So buy a Ninja and be happy

BTW this has been represented in the below thread in a much better way..Copy pasting from excel doesnot seem to work in this thread