Due to weather and being a little sick, I haven't had much time to ride or work on the Ninja.  However, I finally got around to pulling the plugs in the carbs and accessing the air/mix screws. Had time off Friday afternoon and worked on tuning the carbs and I think I got them dialed in pretty well.  The bike starts great with little choke, idles well with no dips or surges, drops to idle immediately when you dump (close) the throttle with no hanging high RPMs, and the overall throttle response on and off the throttle is spot on.

Rode with a friend today about 125 miles and the Ninja purred like a kitten the whole ride. It is a little bit of an adjustment getting used to the high RPMs and letting the bike wind up into the powerband, but when you do, it's a pretty fun little bike. It handles great and goes right where you point it without a fuss.

I found a good road with a LOT of tar snakes and other untouched grooves and small cracks in the road.  I purposely rode all over them as much as I could and I never felt like the bike was getting away from me. It tracked near perfect the whole time.  FWIW the bike has Pirelli Sport Demon tires at about 800 miles on them.

If the weather and time work out, I hope to get out for a good day trip tomorrow as I have the day off work.

I love the Savage and it will always be my primary bike, but when you're feeling itchy and want to zoom zoom around for an afternoon it's just what the doctor ordered.

Well you know the littlest Ninja gets my vote as a really fun bike.  It has all the good things we love about the Savage (easy to work on, light, comfortable, flickable) - but even more so.  Surprisingly they both have about 30 HP - but the 250 lacks the low end torque and needs to be wound up if you want to make some power.  It is not hard to get 70 mpg, and the first time I took mine to the Dragon I was riding alone the first day and took it easy....and managed to get 77 mpg.

I put a 1 tooth larger front sprocket on mine and it does 70mph on the interstate a bit easier - it did lose a bit of acceleration with the change.  The little bike goes great at 70 mph speeds, and could do it all day long.  One forum member got 86,000 miles on his first engine riding it at those speeds (his engine still ran fine but the cam chain had become worn, and it is easier/cheaper to buy a used engine than it is to rebuild one).

I think my isolated tar snake experience most likely was a result of the tar snakes being really fresh, and the 90+ temperatures.  I never noticed anything weird with tar snakes at any other time - but I did have that same experience 2 days in a row on that section of highway...and Oldfeller was behind me on the second day and will testify the bike would jump sideways a couple of inches whenever I was leaned over and hit a snake.

The little Ninja is a very capable bike for those of us who are a bit on the smallish side.....and are content have a limited amount of HP.

Stew.... it's the same with the 300 ninja... cept, mine is fuel injected, water cooled and maintenance is near to nil.

I also did a one tooth up on my 300, like dave did on his 250, and did notice i would have to rev higher to get the acceleration results i like.

I smile every time I ride it.....  most young guys hate the constant in traffic shifting of gears, but I don't mind it at all, I just pretend I'm at the Le Mons or some such.

I have  JT sprocket part number as JTF 516.15 and Sunstar 34115 written down as part numbers in my file.

I believe I got the JT one.

Hehe.... maybe we might outta have an suzukisavage.come ninja attack on the dragon or some such....

I'm in!  The weather here is in the ~65 range in the mornings so hopefully the hot weather is starting to break and there is some good riding weather in the near future.

Since I truck my bikes anyway, I am trying to imagine if I can get both the Savage and Ninja in the back of my truck "69" style but I am not sure if my toolbox gets in the way. It would be fun to have both bikes up there.  I do have a utility trailer, but I try to avoid using it because I feel like it gets jostled around a good bit being such a small and light trailer with stiff suspension. I am always afraid I am going to hit a big bump and snatch a strap loose and dump the bike.

FWIW, I rode the Savage to work yesterday after riding the Ninja all weekend and it's funny seeing the differences in the two bikes the more I get comfortable and familiar with the Ninja.  I am trying to see how I can incorporate a sheepskin seat on the Ninja without looking like a pimp.    I think I'll have to let that go for now.

stewmills wrote on 09/08/16 at 06:59:04:


When I hauled my ST1100 to MI, I bought a foam "Noodle" that they make for floating in the swimming pool, and I cut it up into short lengths that were about an inch less than the clearance under the bike, and I Duct Taped 4 pieces together into a small block.  I put it under the sump of the bike before I cinched the straps down, and it limited how far the bike suspension could compress when the trailer hit a big bump....it worked really well.  I kept the foam block in place with a few bungee chords.

Hmmm. I'm not sure how well I like that look. I have been thinking about the lack of any storage on the Ninja but that looks like a beanbag on the back of that little bike (to me). If it is mainly for helmets, I always carry mine inside with me. That black and red does go well with my black and red bike though!