I am planning to take the baby out only on the weekends at most on friday. I hope Ninja s resale value is decent compared to GT - IF Ima getting 250 , the soon i d feel like having an upgrade -- esp looking at those Ducats nd Kawaks launching every year... Thanks for yr review, I am a fan of Ninja

buddy it seems you like the presence and aura of Hyosung better.
if that be the case, suppose:
you took a ninja 250r, while riding it you came across a Hyosung, would you think - wish I had that beast, alas !
or
you took Hyosung, later on would you become "more" brand conscious(not that Hyosung is cheap) and think, shucks should have got the baby ninja, saved that extra 2L for now and waited for another year or two for an imported honda/yamaha?.

it's ultimately your decision and it should put your mind at ease.
my 2 cents

Baby green ! go ninja go............

You are damn right mate, guess it is a nice option to upgrade to Honda, yamahs n couple , damn right.. you are...

Dont worry about bikes depriciating. kinetic ditched aquila and comets, right? you would imagine the prices for a used specimen would be about 40 or 50 k then, right?

The reality is none of the bikes are sold for less than a lac, 4-5 years after they went back.

Resale value doesnt apply to RD350s, RXs, enfield (all of which appreciate like bullion) and then Comets and Aquilas which, though, dont exactly appreciate but defy all logic and reasoning.

To summarize, dont bother about resale value. In theory a N 250R should hold better (relative) value after 2 years but in practice, anything can happen.

For instance, if Kawasaki stopped selling Ninja today and there was no other twin 250s in the market, you will see a lot of people selling used 2010 ninja 250s for 3 lacs or so, if not higher.

Also, I think if you can stretch to 5 lacs, the hyosung is what you should get.

i too plan to upgrade to a 1000cc bike in the next few years.

If you have experience in riding sport bikes go ahead and buy the 650, however in my opinion a step sequence of 250 - 650 - 1000cc is what im gunning for.

Yet to experience the full after sales service... my ride is only ~300km till now ... but so far the experience has been good.. infact better than the guys at Bajaj Probiking.. my cousin owns an Avengar and have been to probiking workshop once with him. the attitude was not very friendly. and also at the showroom when N650 was launched.. the behaviour was very snobbish... Garware guys have been very friendly and helpful so far..

Looking at the opening market for large displacement bikes, you can safely assume that Hyosung is here to stay for longer.. Comet and Aquila were a different story.. market was not mature enough to appreciate those kind of bikes/price/mileage.. but now Hyosung has really good models in their portfolio, if they want to launh in Indian market, which is maturing... the half fairing 650S, or the naked 650 .. These could be killer machines, if launched at a reasonable price point.. like GT650R... and don't forget the 250CC model.. this is a full size bike.. no other manufacturer has a 250CC bike, which has those kinda dimensions.. I am sure, if this is launched at a price comparable (a little higher) to Honda CBR 250, it will sure be a winner...

These are all my speculations.. as I see a reasonably good future for Hyosung... But don't go by my word.. I did a similar portfolio analysis for FIAT while buying my Palio Sports 8 yrs back.. Alas.. Fiat never brought those cars to India.. but it did not make Palio a bad car.. I still love that..

On the other hand, if Bajaj/Kawasaki plan to localize some parts, and reduce the price as it has a direct competition with Baby CBR and the price gap is huge, what will be the impact on resale value ? so it is all very unpredictable..

IMHO, you buy a sports bike for the passion & love for it.. listen to your heart and give your head a bang.. don't do too much of number crunching.. getting 20K (or any larger amount) extra on resale after 4 yrs is not worth compared to have a feeling of owning a bike that you are drooling upon ... if you CAN AFFORD it, go for it....

Exactly my point. Dont bother thinking about resale value for a newly launched product. depriciation %age doesnt depend on the generally known laws of accounting or logic.
On a side note, if parts were localized then you could have people selling their older ninja for 3.5 lacs since now this is the original "Japanese" block and not the indian one. Remember early RDs and 100s?

Go for the bigger bike and some safety gear.

you are comparing apples to oranges

IF you want a bigger engine, better performance, better sound and awesome looks and better value for money, go for the hyosung GT650. Personally i think that spending more than 2 lakhs on a 250cc is a waste of money. You will outgrow it in 3 months and the quarter liter power of the bike won't excite you anymore.

Hyosung is making engine parts for Suzuki for decades and their GT650R and GT250R have done marvelously in Australia and New Zealand. They have tied up with Garware motors this time which is a huge company in India in terms of revenue and size. They have already opened dealerships in all major cities and are delivering the bikes in 15 days. Obviously they have a good network without which they can't achieve this. In fact Bajaj is struggling to reopen bookings and they have a long waiting period while Hyosung is laughing all the way to the bank.
Trust me, i have purchased a white Hyosung GT650 naked last week and I am having the time of my life. Its has got a brilliant V-twin engine and will give the inline 4s and parallel twin engines a run for their money especially in street riding and signal to signal riding as it has got awesome midrange torque and of course not to mention, the glorious V-twin engine sound!

If you ask about Ninja 250R vs Hyosung 650N, there is no comparision. You should rather thing about Hyosung GT250R vs Ninja 250R which is coming out this year and it has done very well overseas. I am sure it will cost less than Ninja 250R

Don't underestimate companies because they are not Japanese or because they don't have as big an image as Kawasakis, Yamahas, Suzukis and Hondas.
Hyundai was another small Korean company not long ago. Now it is competing with the best automobile manufacturers in the world.

If I were you and I had to get a 250cc, i would wait and get the KTM duke 200 which is coming out this year through Bajaj, its gonna be one hell of a bike.

I made the choice recently.

I have a Karizma and was considering a big bike. Around that time the discount on the GT650N came around. That changed my view from just looking around to seriously shopping.

I had earlier gone to probiking to check out the N250 and N650. Naturally the probiking guys treated me like a necessary evil. I never felt welcome there. Of course the question of a test ride does not arise.

The experience at Garware was just the opposite. After a phone call they confirmed that I could have a test ride and that they have the test bike ready. They explained the directions time and again, and called me again in the middle to make sure I was not having any trouble finding the place. The bike was made available and I took a test ride. First a ride with the sales guy and then another all alone. Needless to say, the power was awesome. I went back without any commitment.

That short ride was enough to convince me that high powered bikes were a thousand times more fun than my Karizma, so I no longer had any doubt in my mind that I will soon be upgrading. I just wanted to check if the N250 also provided a good enough upgrade.

I put in a complaint at the Ninja website about the lack of a test ride, and sure enough the next day I got a phone call saying that the test ride bike is available. And guess where was I at that time. I was at the Hyosung showroom for a second time for a longer test ride that would let me check how I felt on it on corners and sweeps. They suggested a route that had a few curves and I was soon darting in and out of traffic and making sweet curves. Not technically correct curves mind you, but just nice and sweet confidence inspiring turns and I could blast out of curves and out of traffic when some space opened up. The brakes were of course much much superior to my Karizma brakes, so I was more than happy with the braking at my disposal. The turnoff was the severe vibrations at 6000rpm.

Finally after this test ride, I went to Probiking to ride the N250. My fear of this being too small for my 6'3" frame was confirmed. But then I went ahead and rode it thinking that if it turned out to be close to as much fun as the GT650, I would save a ton of money.

As you can imagine, it was a complete disappointment. Maybe it was the test bike, but there was not much fun below 7000rpm, and beyond that the vibrations, though fine, were "discouraging". I did not get the, "thousand times better than Karizma" feeling on the N250. My theory is that twice the power does not feel twice as fast. Quite like a decibel or logarithmic scale, it probably takes 10 times the power to make something twice as fast. Thats why, I was not grinning on the Ninja while I was screaming "woo hoo" on the GT650N.

The moral of the story for you therefore is that you should not base your decision on my experience, but actually go and test ride the two bikes. I was completely confused about what bike to opt for before I rode both, but after that there was no confusion at all. In fact I cant remember any other instance where I was so unambiguously clear about a decision.

I'll get my bike tomorrow (hopefully). Im pretty confident that I took the right decision and I'm really looking forward to a ton of fun on the GT650N.

Thanks for the wonderful review!

I got delivery of the bike yesterday and have done about 50kms till now.

Things about it that might help with your decision:

- Its very nice and sweet until 3500rpm, it feels like a Karizma, nicely powered with sweet torque. In other words you can easily take your time getting comfortable with the bike and yet have all the power you need.

- Cross 3500 and you will shoot ahead of all traffic. Crossing 6000rpm in traffic would be pretty scary for a new owner like me. So when you get more comfortable with the bike and its power, you can access pretty significant power.

- The engine is very smooth below 4000rpm and upto 5000rpm is fine. This is where I think most of the long distance riding will be done, so unless im riding fast and furious on the track, I doubt if I will have a problem with vibrations.

- The engine does get hot in stop and go traffic. I had a 40 minute ride in bumper to bumper traffic so first hand experience. But you will only feel a warmth due to the fact that it is a naked. Funny thing is I could distinctly sense the smell of ironing. I doubt it was coming from my pants, because my legs were not hot, maybe it was from the new paint on the engine block. The warmth was very nice while returning from office at night

- The suspension is hard, but the big tyres soak up the road breaks etc, so you will distinctly feel the holes and broken roads, but neither the bike nor you will be shaken or jarred. No noises or jangling either.

- It turns sweetly on U turns - Since you mentioned you are 6' tall, it will be really easy for you. U turns are easier on this than on my Karizma. Initially I thought I was feeling that way because I was expecting it to be much harder, but then I'm seeing that Im doing U turns without getting my legs on the ground. They are off the footpegs and inches away from the ground in case of any surprises, but they dont touch the ground. With the Karizma, I couldnt do a U turn without getting my feet on the ground. The steering lock is also pretty decent.

- Cornering - Havent had a chance to sweep it in a long corner, but will remedy that this weekend. Will add my comments on this post itself after that.

- Brakes are powerful, but still need more time to get that sharp bite. Maybe they will never get a "sharp" bite, but I think it is quite adequate for speeds upto 120 now.

- Talking of speeds, the service guy who explained the bike and its features to me and gave run in instructions at the dealership, told me to try to hit 120 - 140 at least once everytime I take the bike out. I also understand that half throttle translates to about 4500 rpm. The bike gets upto 120 in a flash, I think in about 4th gear without getting past 5000rpm. Gets there really really quickly, distances just disappear. So for me and for you, that would translate into a fun run-in period, not a frustrating period when you are just waiting for the run in to complete. Maybe not a great long term view, but then I was always one for instant gratification

Downsides:
- Well at the moment, im not critical enough to recognise any downsides, and besides the downsides that are most feared are the quality issues, and they would take time to appear.

- Fit and finish - Panel alignments are pretty amateurish, not even hero honda grade. Paint seems really nice - white with metal speckles. Switchgear seems fine. Not special mind you, nothing that you would gaze at and marvel at the richness of material etc, but nothing that would even remotely hamper your riding experience.

- Solidity - Not a downside at all at the moment. I have hit road breaks, and potholes and it completely dismisses them. I dont think solidity is an issue at the moment. I'll be better placed to comment on this maybe a year from now.

Caveat:
- My comments are from the perspective of a long time Karizma owner. Please take my comments and my claims of satisfaction as being relative to the Karizma. You may want to consider feedback from owners of comparable bikes like the Ninja 650 etc before making such an expensive purchase.

- My comments are about the new bike, I really have no idea how it will behave after 50,000 kms.

I'm thinking of posting this in the GT650R ownership experience thread as well. Hope I dont get banned for it. Guys please let me know if it is okay to post the same message on multiple threads.

@Crusoe GTN:- Your last two posts are gems, wish we had more such meaningful posts. Thank you very much.

Once you have read the kamasutra, it doesn't matter whether the girl you are trying to please is a blonde or brunette or both of them.

the ninja250R is kamasutra.

Once you have mastered it, you will find no problems in mastering any other sports bike. if that is the goal, go for it. save the money invest it right and in 3 years it will be the downpayment for your new s1000rr or anything else that catches your fancy.

the hyosung is a very good value for money. also it is a v twin. and the engine is a direct one off from the suzuki sv650. v twin are very good around town. with their good torque they can rumble along at decent speeds without a sweat.

but and it is a big but, if it is corner craving and rev limiter that you are trying to hit ninja is a better option. it will tingle your taste buds about the smattering of high explosive chillies that the litre class bike will be.

on it's own the hyosung is a better value, though am not very sure if it is a better bike. like i think r15 is a better bike than cbr 250r but i still went and bought the ceebeer. because i wanted power also.

so it is tricky.

and it will only be solved by a test ride. go take one. and do the kind of riding that you are looking for, or dream about. if you dream about the toes of your shoe's sole scraped no need to look for which is a better bike in city at 60 kmph. if city riding and an occasional red light gp is your thing don't give much points to how good it is in the corners.

whatever you do, buy a good helmet, and when you are doing what you wanted to do with that bike, grin inside it.

have fun.

What is the basis of this remark, may I ask? Is it from experience of owning a Ninja 250R?

I had it for two years, and did not outgrow it.