08 Ninja 250 or 04 FZ6 for first bike?

Question

I'm trying to decide what to get for a first bike, I can get an 08 Kawasaki Ninja 250 or a 04 Yamaha FZ6 for about the same price. I know the 250 would be a better beginner bike, but I want the extra power of the Fazer when i need it (passing on the highway, I drive about 70% city 30% highway.) Plus everyone tells me I will get "bored" of the 250. I'm taking the MSF Course soon, and after that I'm gonna get a bike. I've heard the Fazer only really behaves like a 600cc bike when you take it over 6k rpms, so if I shift around 4k I should be good right? My main worry is how much more insurance would be for a 600cc bike (I'm 17 and have a clean driving record), I know I should get a quote, but can you please give me an estimate of how much more the Fazer would be than the 250? Also I heard that larger engines last longer since they are usually kept at lower rpms. I'm looking for the most economical bike I can get thats still a lot of fun. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I wouldn't recommend any kind of sport bike for your first bike.

Get something cheap and relatively beat up, that way when (not if) you drop it, you aren't destroying a perfectly good motorcycle.

Then - once you get some experience, try out a few different bikes and see what you like.

Be careful - people can barely see other cars when they drive, much less a motorcycle.

Answer 2

Well I gotta tell you- I keep seeing the exact same c**p coming from "experienced" riders: a 250 will get boring, you'll get blown off the road, the higher RPMs will kill the engine, blah blah blah. I have ridden for over 30 years, and have owned 61 streetbikes. I've raced (roadracing on a track, NOT drag racing), ridden way too fast on the street, and ridden thousands of miles off-road as well.

I've owned three Ninja 250s, and one is a race bike..

I've also had a Yamaha YZF1000, two CBR1000s, a Ducati M900, a Kawasaki ZRX1100, and my other roadrace bike is a built CBR600.  There is a real good reason that Kawasaki has made 250 Ninjas for so long. They have their place. You could call them "beginner bikes" if you wanted, but you could put 95% of "riders" on brand new CBR1000s, and I'd eat them alive on my 250. No, not dragracing, that's retarded. And no, not in a top-speed competition, that's also retarded.  I mean in the real world of trying to maneuver in a parking lot, servicing it, insuring it, being comfortable on it after riding all day, keeping it from falling on over onto its side IF you happen to s***w up and it starts getting away from you because you happened to put your foot down into slick goo on the pavement. Things like that.

No matter how experienced you are, there is always a place for the right machine. You even have different gloves in baseball: catcher's mitt, first-baseman's glove, fielder's glove, even a batting glove. So you also have bikes for different missions:

R1 = racing, or acting like a racer and driving way too freakin fast on public roads

CBR1000 = ditto

GoldWing = Luxury Touring over long distances

Katana 600 = Sport Touring,  or touring over not-so-long distances with the ability to go nuts every so often and act like a racer

Et cetera.  The issues you mentioned:

Want "extra power" of Fazer for passing

     Both bikes have PLENTY of power to pass, but you are mistaken if you think that the Fazer has some magical passing ability. If you're in the wrong gear, NO motorcycle will pass worth a c**p.  If you are riding correctly, you should always be in the proper gear to execute a pass, long before you commit to executing said pass. The 250 will simply require a different "proper gear" than the Fazer.

70% city, 30% highway

     Precisely why a small bike would be better

"Everyone says" you'll get bored with a 250

     Not everyone. Only MALES, for one, would say that, and even then only those who have not been smoked by a 250 out in the Real World. How many times must we repeat "It's not the bike, it's the rider"?

The Fazer behaves like a 600 over 6K rpms

     That is just an opinion based upon inexperience. Just how exactly is a 600 supposed to "behave" anyway? A 600 single, a 600 twin, and a 600 four all act totally different from one another. Even among 600cc fours, you have the milder ones that redline at around 9K, then you have the race-replicas that go upwards or 12K.  THOSE act differently from one another. Again, if you get in a pickle and find that your only way out is hammering the gas (which is totally possible), then if you're in the wrong gear, you're meat. No matter what you're riding.

Insurance

     No one here could get you an accurate quote. We need credit history, DMV report, where you live, where you park the bike at night, all kinds of c**p. Get a quote.

Larger engines last longer

     Absolute nonsense. If your engine is designed to rev to 14,000 rpm, then it's perfectly fine if you spin it up that high. h**l, my Dremel tool will go to 24,000 rpm. Yeah, if you constantly go as hard and fast as your engine was designed, it will fail faster, but no one does that. If you toodle along at 9,000 on a 250 Ninja, it honestly yawns at that. The thing is, it doesn't even start making aggressive power until 11K.  The Fazer may require fewer RPMs to go 60 mph in top gear, but that doesn't matter since the design of the engine accounts for that. It's a matter of different designs, not one design that's inferior to the other. There are engines that redline at 1,500 rpm.

Being blown off the road on the 250

     Again, nonsense. Of all the bikes I've owned, none was noticeably different with regard to wind because of its size. Any bike will be deflected by side winds, or wind deflection (made by the wake of a truck in front of you, or the pressure wave of a vehicle coming toward you). A 250 NightHawk is more stable on the highway in side winds than my CBR1000. Why? Aerodynamic side profile. Wind hits a full fairing and has nowhere to go, so the bike moves. Plain as that. The length of the wheelbase is a factor, how hard you're holding onto the bars, whether or not your mirrors are bar-mounted, all kinds of things. A 250 Ninja's mirrors are mounted pretty narrowly on the fairing, so that helps. My GB500 and 400 Bandit had mirrors mounted on the ends of the bars, and THAT made a huuuuge difference in stability, because it  

Answer 3

If you think you are a safe driver and for sure u are, get a higher cc cuz 250 will be boring as h**l after,probably, a week? I rode my dad's cruiser (750cc) to start with and got a motorcycle license with it. Then a few months later I got a honda cbr 1000cc. If you can control it, any bike will be find. If you think ur not, and for sure ur not.. get a 250cc.. good luck

Answer 4

i agree with what everyone is telling you about the 250 people told me the same thing plus if a semi passes you it will blow a 250 right off the road  have you looked a katana 600 they looked good but don't have the power of a rocket i loved mine

Answer 5

Well, also you should consider "weight/body-size" of bike as well as the size of engine. Yeah, 250 Ninja is like a bicycle after you get used to bigger bikes(and 600cc Ninja feels that way too since I ride 1100cc Ninja) but that does not mean it's a safe bike, or no fun. My bike is too heavy for a short distance riding. I mean, it's a pain for low speed turn, parking etc. So, actually I've been looking for a classic 250cc bike for a short distance riding this summer. And my ZX11 gets only like 32mpg... 250cc should go 60+mpg? See? there are benefits from 250cc bikes, other than being a beginner bike.

Anyhow I recommend you to sit on those bikes and chose the bike that you are most comfortable with, such as riding position, etc. FZ6 is a really good bike, but also I recommend Suzuki SV650 for the riding-in-cities factor(and if you worry going too fast on 4cylinder bikes).

Good luck and be safe.