My experience with PBK, Pune has been excellent right from the Bajaj Manager (Mr. Kiran Divekar) to the Ninja Technician (Mr. Satish).

In the past, I have telephoned PBK and they just said you can come down. The moment you are in at PBK the Technician leaves his other tasks and just attends to your bike and starts working on it. They give a wash / dry the Ninja before giving it back. No charges, is that not amazing!! To end this, they remind you that you should visit them after 600 kms for chain lubrication. Wow, I would say .. Great Customer service & care!!

My experience with the third service was not as good as before for the simple reason that Prasanna is on leave.

... and also the Foggy headlight which needs to be fixed

brake shoe change

hi,
got the brake shoes changed, but now the bike makes a kind of hisss while applying brakes, which is very evident when driven on a silent stretch.
is it ok ? i mean will it go off after some time, or i need to take it back and get them realigned.

one more thing, the initial idling of the bike is around 1300rpm but once i drive it for let's say half an hour from then on the idling raises to 1500 rpm, is it ok ?
i drive it daily, so traffic also plays spoil sport.

saw one Ninja at PBK, with some some half baked Andhra number - AA00
it seems the owner bought it last year and never used it for an year and now the oil is spoilt which stinks like hell... amazing 3 lacs just kept in garage, not even registered.

Got the servicing done at ghatkopar. As for the Teflon coating it's for once only. It's 2k for 3 times in the year. I got it done cause I thought it would be a good idea. Other ninja owners now tell me it's not really needed.

@ blabberash, My ninja makes the same hissing sound when i apply brakes right from day one. I've kind of accepted it as normal.

Should i be worried? i donno. They seems to be working normally.

Ragarding idling, If the bike's engine is cold (not upto optimum temp), the idle is around 2.5K RPM. It takes about 3~4 minutes to reach around the normal ~1350 RPM.

But after this warming-up session, the idle remains the same in all kinds of traffic.

The hissing sound you hear when you apply the brakes is the friction between the brake pads and the disc rotor. Dont bother about it. Its a natural phenomenon. Nothing is wrong with the brakes.

Regarding the idling, the bike can feel a wee bit funny in traffic due to limited air flowing into the radiator. Ensure there is no mud and muck on the radiator that hampers or blocks air flow. Keep the bike clean, lube the chain if its dry and you'll notice how smooth it is.

My problem in Hyderabad is not with the technician. Arif is good and does the work promptly. The issue is with the infrastructure, there is hardly any place to even stand there. The place doubles up as a godown too.

Did you find a second hand Ninja in the market? Where? And if you don't mind me asking for how much?

Just be aware that there have been at least two bikes that I'm aware of that have been totalled in crashes lying in PBK Chennai - don't get saddled with a heifer!

The Ninja is in the house. No, really it is Its parked in my drawing room

I got delivery of the bike at 5:30 pm from the Probiking Showroom at Indiranagar. Until then, I had ridden as a pillion with Aditya for a short duration and that was the only first hand experience I had had with it.

I sat on the bike and thumbed the starter, the bike came to life and I felt like I just got struck by lightning. All the dreams I had accumulated over the last 17 years just flashed through my eyes in an instant.

Pressed the clutch and put it into gear, smooth. Slowly released the clutch and got the bike out of the basement on to the road.

I was amazed how natural it felt. I felt like I have been riding this bike all my life. Its beautifully balanced, the engine is extremely smooth and makes you feel like you are a part of it. Never have I ever felt so comfortable riding a bike within the first two seconds.

My wife then sat on the pillion, she is about 5'6" but I still had to tilt the bike to allow her to perch herself on the throne. We rode from there to the Bajaj service station where we were to be briefed by the service manager. After completing that formality, we had to go and get it filled with Speed/Shell unleaded. It had only 3.5L of fuel and it is recommended to keep it above 5L so I chose to go to the closest pump next to Leela on Old Airport Road.
6 pm and there was quite a lot of traffic on the road but the Ninja never made me feel like this was its maiden ride. The only issue I was afraid was that of the bike getting heated up. It did but not too much. The temp remained under the red area.

Then I took a shortcut to go back home on OMR and met some of Bangalore's famous speed breakers. But another surprise was in store for me. Even though there were two people on the bike, it didnt touch a single speed breaker. Even the one which I have scraped on the Menace.

One thing is there for sure, it does get you a lot of attention with everyone staring, wanting to touch and sometimes coming too close for comfort though.

As of now the Ninja has done 30kms and I will be maintaining the 4K rpm limit until 800 kms. Have been given some tips from Aditya on running in and knowing him, I know i am in safe hands.

The light is awesome, even in low beam and lights up the road very well.

Here are a few pics

^^ congrats man... and dont fret too much about keeping it below 4000 rpm. If the bike is running too hot and you have a open stretch, let it open a bit so that adequate air comes over the radiator to cool the bike.

Also rather than the rpm limit, the engine should not be stressed at this point. So no engine braking, and also do not let the engine run at too low a speed in too high a gear, no knocking and no stressing like pulling from low speed in high gear.

Thanks a lot JD. If I am at 4K rpm in 6th gear i need to roll off the throttle to vary RPMs that would entail some kind of engine breaking right? If I keep the rpm's low and the gears low too it might start heating. Its like damned if you do and damned if you dont :P

Thanks for the tips, will ensure i take care of all the points.

Congrats dude...

As for the run-in bit, i managed the first 800kms part, the 2nd part... couldnt hold back at 6K RPM, the bike's too tempting at that pace... .. so 9k rpm it was

i dont know how thats gonna affect the engine tho

congrats buddy!!!

Thanks a lot bro. Its really a pain to get the run in complete while sticking to the rpms suggested.

Thanks a lot bro

you can read about running in your bike here: Do I really have to follow this break-in period? - Ninja250Wiki

then decide on your own how to run in your bike ... the running in should be optimal neither too much neither too less ... do too much you ruin your engine, do less and you have an underpowered engine ... the trick is to keep track of engine temperature ... make sure you vary the rpms and remember to warm up the engine before putting pressure on the engine ...