Ninja 300, Pros & Cons

I wanted to finally get around to writing a review of the new Kawasaki Ninja 300 I got earlier this year.

Super brief history on me, the Ninja 300 (known also as the EX300) is my first motorcycle. My wife got me a Living Social deal last year for a Motorcycle safety course for my license endorsement, and it was all over after that. After weeks of fervid searching and balancing performance vs responsibility vs cost, I opted to get the new EX300 for my first bike. Having no experience with other bikes other than single rides on friends bikes, this is really my impressions of owning this and only this bike. I'll talk about the pros and cons of the bike, and where I plan to, and might suggest going next.

Overall, functionally, I have very few complaints about the EX300. Most of them have to do with the fact that it is, indeed, a smaller bike, and the physical limitations associated with that. I'll discuss those issues later, but first lets talk about objective facts of the bike.

The first thing I noticed about the EX300 is it's light. I think its about 400 lbs with all the gas and fluids in it (wet weight). It's also small. The bike is so easy to maneuver. I've taken it on canyon roads and quick turns like roundabouts. There's a particular route I like to take on the weekends around where I live which has a roundabout in the middle of the road, maybe 20 yards in circumference which I take around 30-40 and when you throw the bike to the right and then the left, it responds impeccably; like it wants to turn quickly. Once you exit the turn, the engine responds quickly as well to give you power when you open the throttle. There's about a quarter second delay from when you open the throttle to when the engine really gets the message you said "go", but then it obeys. Any speeds under 50 mph and you can get pretty good acceleration out of the engine. Torque from about 4k to 12k RPM is pretty stable which is nice so you don't have to down-shift to get power. Given that you only get about 8 mph out of each gear, that's good because you could potentially have to do a lot more shifting to make sure you're in the power band for your speed. The riding position stock is very "standard", not sporty.

The handlebars are pretty high which means when you're riding around, you're sitting pretty much straight up with a small lean forward. My friend who rides a cruiser (who used to ride a Yamaha R1) says he prefers the upright posture much more as the racing tuck gets uncomfortable very quickly. I've ridden his R1 briefly and the position on the Yamaha is absolutely leaned over and different from the EX300. Personally, I rather like the tuck position. I think I feel faster and more agile. And since highway riding really pushes the engine to the limits, I end up tucked just to eek out every bit of power and aerodynamics I can.

And speaking of highway riding, this is an area the bike really struggles in. As compared to mountains and canyons where you're really going between 30 and 50 the whole time and the bike truly shines, the highway you're trying to go between 65 and 90, which is all in 6th gear. You can get on the highway pretty well as the bike accelerates from 0 to 60 pretty quickly, but as you go faster, as with any vehicle, your acceleration exponentially decreases. You have to plan you moves well in advance. Take, for instance, passing a semi. You're going 65 MPH and need to get around the Semi because he can't see you. You can't just change lanes, open the throttle and get past. You have to get in the passing lane, power down a little to open a gap between you and the back of the semi so you have a "runway" to pick up your speed. Open the throttle and 65 and the bike hardly responds. It will pick up speed, but very gradually. You have to use the "runway" you opened up to really pick up speed so that by the time you enter the trucks blind spots, you're already going 80+. Also since the engine lacks grunt at high speeds, to maintain a fast velocity, as I mentioned before, you end up in a tuck a lot of the time. Personally, I don't mind that position, but it's a bit more of a necessity rather than just looking and feeling cool or being agile on the bike.

Now moving beyond the functionality of the bike, I'd like to talk about simply owning the bike and what doors it opens, or are closed, to exploring the bikes functionality. As I mentioned at the start of the article, once I rode on two wheels, I didn't want to do anything else. Maybe it's just the honeymoon phase with me and my bike, but all I want to do now is ride, and ride hard. I've already dropped the bike once (took a long turn at about 45 and hit some gravel).

Fairings got scratched and had to replace the shift lever, but other than that, the bike was fine. I took my protective gear seriously so I was basically fine to. What's more is it didn't turn me off to riding in the least. What I really want to do is take my bike to the track where I can push the limits of the bike in a controlled environment. I'm also a poor computer programmer so my budget for motorcycle parts and equipment is minimal. To really get serious about track riding or possibly racing, I'd need to make some mods to the bike. New bodywork, safety wiring, tires, etc. Not to mention fixing the thing if (when) it goes down. So how much effort do I want to put into transforming the bike? Well another thing about the EX300 is that (and perhaps just because it's a new bike) I haven't found many (any actually, but that doesn't mean they don't exists) which allow 300's to race. There are 250 classes and 600 classes, but the 250's don't seem to allow the 300s, unlike the 600 classes which have some wiggle room for things like the ZX-6R or Daytona 657R. Which is a shame, because one of the things I really like about the EX300 is I can push the bike to it's limits without shitting my pants. Racing a 300 would be awesome for me, but that doesn't appear to be in the cards right now. So I could get an old 250, work on that and modify it for a race bike, but if I'm going to get a new bike, I might as well get a 600, or something else with enough oomph to satiate my need for speed. The problem comes back to that it's an oddball displacement size, and the future of it's acceptance is uncertain.

So what are the takeaways here? If you're a beginner rider and didn't take to motorcycle riding like a fish to water, this might be a good bet. It also has the benefit of keeping me out of too much trouble. I go fast on the 300 often, and if I had a 600, I'd push it just as hard. It lets me have fun, but self-limits. Difficult though that may be to accept, that's actually a really good thing. I've even given the 300 too much power and almost lost control of it. Were I on a bigger bike, the bike would be in a fence. I hate using the phrase "It's a good starter bike" because that's like saying a child is "spirited". Lets face it, the kid sucks and the bike is weak. But at the end of the day, it's still a motorcycle, and it has more than enough power to get you from A-Z, quickly, or wrap you around a tree if you fail to respect its power. With that in mind, if you want a more reserved but fun riding experience with a sporty feel (i.e. not standard or cruiser), this is the bike for you. But if you took the MSF class and by the end just wanted to get out on the road and open up that throttle, you'll outgrow this bike too quickly.

In short: Fantastic bike, but you'll probably want more, and quickly.