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From a Bajaj Pulsar to the Kawasaki Ninja 650: My upgrade story

18th August 2023, 14:07 by Ananth Iyer

I was interested in KTM 250 street model and Kawasaki Ninja 300. By the time I decided to have a test ride, the BS4 Ninja 300's Production was stopped.

BHPian Kashief recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Rejuvenate yourself each day by doing what makes you feel good - read this quote somewhere and I feel rejuvenated every time, when I ride my Green Horse.

What I like:

Torquey parallel twins pulls like a locomotive.
Suspension is compliant with the chassis and provides good balance.
Toned down front design derived from flagship model ZX-10r works well.
Excellent fit and finish, it will long last.
Top gears are well tuned for touring purpose and not required to downshift unless a very quick pass required.

What could be improved:

130mm GC is very low for our road conditions. Have to be extra careful in speed breakers.
Miniscule dealership in Tamil Nadu. There was only 2 till last month and luckily 1 more added near my place. After sales service could be a problem for potential buyers.
Headlight illumination is insufficient especially during rainy conditions.
Underbelly exhaust can gets grease dirt from the chain and cleaning is a time consuming process.
For riders 6 foot and above, there is a slight inconvenience with rider triangle.

A short background about my learning phase. I learned to ride motorcycle at a very young age, thanks to Bajaj Chetak 12v electronic. It's a 150cc engine mounted in a way that makes you feel maximum weight towards the right side, eventually helping me learn how to ride with uneven weight distribution. Although tyres are of smaller size(don't remember the tire size) it helped me understand how to ride in gravel and rainy conditions. Special mention - The Hand Gears for teaching me gearshifts precisely very early in my learning Phase.

I feel that movies do have some influence in teenagers when selecting their 1st bike. To name a few Hollywood - MI Series, Bollywood - Dhoom Series and I fell in love with Pulsar when I saw it for the very 1st time. 1st gen was a beautiful bike with the round light and twin pod speedo. 'Definitely Male' tag line was an instant hit and I had my share of influence from Kollywood movies - Run and Polladhavan where the pulsar was used by the Protagonist. After graduating from college, I got a job offer and my work location was Pune. Far away from home, new place, new people, new culture and my work hours are between 3-11pm. Even though the company cab facility was available, I went ahead and bought my 1st bike Bajaj pulsar 150 - 2nd gen in 2007. I Still have lots of good memories associated with that bike especially the monsoon rides in western ghats - just awesome.

Finally after a decade its time to bid farewell to my beloved pulsar(with a Heavy heart). As I enter in to the next phase of my Life "Marriage". Being a family man necessity’s change and decisions are greatly influenced by mind over heart. So this time we decided to buy a scooter for its practicality and better-half can also use it. Our 2nd ride - Suzuki Access 125 bought in 2017.

In my Opinion owning a scooter is a sensible decision to run family errands but somehow it doesn’t satisfy the riding desires like a commanding position, wringing the throttle with manual gear shifts.. So adding a bike to my garage was always in my mind and my expectations are,

Above 150 CC.

Good after sales service.

Japanese make would be a plus for trouble free ownership.

I was interested in KTM 250 street model and Kawasaki Ninja 300. By the time I decide to have a test ride, BS4 Ninja 300's Production was stopped. Covid put my plans on hold and in the mean time my friend bought an Interceptor 650 and I rode it for a short spin. OMG! Is this a RE, that’s what I told my friend after the ride and I appreciated him for buying it. RE classic 350 was in my consideration around 2013, but the vibrations and weight that I felt while navigating in traffic conditions made me rethink my choice. Time passed and this time I was more attracted towards the twin cylinder for its beautiful torquey nature. Thanks to my friends interceptor ride. Then comes the Big announcement BS6 Ninja 300 launch. We visited the JMB motors showroom in Chennai however there were no test ride vehicles available and I only got to look at Ninja 300 waiting for delivery. With the Information from sales advisor that Ninja 300 takes upto 3 Months for delivery (once booked) we checked out other vehicles from Kawasaki lineup and felt that there is a noticeable difference in build quality between Ninja 300 and other higher CC models may be because they are CKD units. Got the Quote (which had all Kawasaki models price breakup) and left the showroom. Few more days passed and my mind started thinking about 650 for its superior build quality and extra power/torque offered. Before making the Choice I considered,

It’s 4L expensive than ninja 300. Heck, 9 years before I got my first brand new diesel car for ninja 650 price.
Usage pattern is solo rider and not even occasional pillion. On top of that, I'm spending 8L for 1 seat instead of 4 with a roof.
It’s not like Pulsar days where lot of unplanned rides done.
I don’t want it to be a garage queen, at least 3k/year odo will do justice for the amount spent.
It will not be used for regular commute and I cannot plan rides with overnight stay at least few more years, as there is an infant in home.
One of the reason to sell pulsar was to free up some parking space. How can I justify by filling again with bigger size.
How to inform my father about spending large amount of money on a depreciating asset?

I had a casual discussion with my better half about my interests on ninja 650 and her opinion is to go ahead with the purchase but also suggested that it will be good if we add this amount to the car budget (we were also discussing to buy another car at that time), so that we can buy a car from luxury segment and all of us travel together comfortably instead of me touring alone. It really makes sense.

After much deliberation my heart says, go for it man, you are in middle of 30’s and it’s now or never. In the following days visitied JMB Motors with family to book MY 2022 Ninja 650. As per their T&C, booking amount for CKD vehicle is Rs. 50,000 and it’s non-refundable. Paid the booking amount on 18th Dec and they agreed to deliver it by the second week of Jan 2022. I didn’t opt for K-care package, Extended Warranty and Annual Maintenance contract or any accessories. They agreed to get insurance from outside with a condition that I have to give a consent letter mentioning that I'll be taking insurance on my own and I opted for Royal Sundaram Insurance. In the meantime, I read through all Kawasaki Bike related blogs/threads and found a very useful and detailed thread from the bhpian Mr. KarthikK. Thanks to him for logging each and every important events of his beautiful bike journey, it helped me in many ways.

I got a phone call from JMB motors that bike has reached their Service Centre in Ambattur and will reach Kilpauk Showroom by 7th Jan. I reached showroom and anxiously waited for the big arrival. Finally, got to witness My Green horse as it was offloaded from the truck and very excited.

Keeping the excitement aside, the sherlock holmes in me started inspecting the bike for any damage and did a PDI, thanks to team-bhp checklist. The Inspection passed with flying colors so proceeded with the registration process. While the registration process was ongoing I handed over the basic accessories to the sales personal and requested it to be fitted before delivery. As soon as registration is completed (4 days), without wasting much time I reached showroom on the same day for delivery. I was happy to unwrap my Green horse wrapped with a satin green cloth and shared sweets to cherish the happy moment followed by a short Demo about the features.

Fired up the Green horse for the 2nd time, as I already did once while performing PDI.

It is comfortable for the rider with the height from 5.5 foot to balance the bike with both legs touching ground. It will not take much effort to bring the bike to straight position. 200Kg Kerb weight is very well masked and you don't feel on the move. It is nimble, visor is effective and I can lean and duck in certain angle to avoid the head wind. The fairing with air duct on both sides of the head lamp aides in better aerodynamics and agility.

Rider View:

Simple Key that lights up the electrical, electronic and mechanical things.

LCD Display shows various information:

Gear position indicator
Tachometer
Speedometer
Clock
Coolant temperature
Odometer
Trip meter
Avg mileage
Cruising range
Service/Bluetooth/eco indicator

To enter menu mode, push and hold the left and right meter button to enter or exit. Left button used to move highlighted item or choose item. Right button used to shift next screen or go back to previous screen. There is a Kawasaki Rideology app which provides various information about your driving style and logs.

Right handle bar - Starter button and Engine stop switch.

Left handle bar - Dimmer switch, Hazard switch, Turn signal switch, Horn button

Brake and clutch levers are adjustable from 1(far) to 5(near). Marker indicates the current position. You can notice Pass button. The Clutch lever is smooth to use and slipper clutch aides while performing high rpm quick shifts .