12-28-2024, 04:23 PM
Hello all, hope you are having a good holiday season. I have been wanting a smaller bike but nothing really jumped out at me till Kawasaki came along with the Ninja 500.
In Oct. I took it for a spin, and it was in my garage the next day. No buyers remorse here. The only one there was the anniversary edition. I have put 900 mi. on it so far. This is a great little bike. I did get the taller seat for it which made it much more comfy. I did a 150 mi. ride pretty much nonstop on it and I wasn't hurting. My biggest concern was will it do interstate speed, 85-95 mph. Traffic moves along here sometimes. It keeps up no problem. It does well into triple digit speed. I had it on open interstate sailing past trucks at 95mph with a 30-40mph cross wind. It was surprising stable in those conditions. Gas mileage is showing avg 62mpg. Seems a little low for a 450..... My Z900RS gets in low to mid 50s for mileage. Hey, if it's half the size it should get twice the mileage right? lol... I am tickled pink with this bike. A few things I don't care for are front suspension is a bit stiff. Not a big fan of the video game dash, I'm old school.. Even less of a fan of that key fob thing.... The old key and switch is so tried and true. And they didn't address the exhaust where your right boot keeps resting on the pipe. But no bike is perfect, but this bike is a blast to ride, like it wants you to ride the snot out of it. Didn't mean to write a novel here but wanted to give a perspective on it in case anyone here was thinking of one.
In Oct. I took it for a spin, and it was in my garage the next day. No buyers remorse here. The only one there was the anniversary edition. I have put 900 mi. on it so far. This is a great little bike. I did get the taller seat for it which made it much more comfy. I did a 150 mi. ride pretty much nonstop on it and I wasn't hurting. My biggest concern was will it do interstate speed, 85-95 mph. Traffic moves along here sometimes. It keeps up no problem. It does well into triple digit speed. I had it on open interstate sailing past trucks at 95mph with a 30-40mph cross wind. It was surprising stable in those conditions. Gas mileage is showing avg 62mpg. Seems a little low for a 450..... My Z900RS gets in low to mid 50s for mileage. Hey, if it's half the size it should get twice the mileage right? lol... I am tickled pink with this bike. A few things I don't care for are front suspension is a bit stiff. Not a big fan of the video game dash, I'm old school.. Even less of a fan of that key fob thing.... The old key and switch is so tried and true. And they didn't address the exhaust where your right boot keeps resting on the pipe. But no bike is perfect, but this bike is a blast to ride, like it wants you to ride the snot out of it. Didn't mean to write a novel here but wanted to give a perspective on it in case anyone here was thinking of one.
