[ba$h]

Hey folks. I am a newbie to Team-BHP. Really impressed by the whole network of motor-heads on here & it’s a pleasure to be a part of it. I have a Kawasaki Ninja 250R & have been thinking of writing a thread on it. However, it was not always a Ninja. This is how the story goes:

March 2005
Thousands of square feet above earth surface, I was on my way to New Zealand. An 18-year-old lad was off for a 3-year Bachelors course.


Coast of Australia


Coast of Australia


November 2007
I successfully graduated and started looking for a job & was lucky enough to get one during tough times of recession.


Graduation day


Me at work


When I made my mum n dad proud (Their visit to my office)


May 2008
Tired of the inadequate city transport in Auckland, I decided to get myself a bike. I wanted a 600cc but parents were quite apprehensive about it. I had converted my full Indian license to a New Zealand Learners license, which allowed me to ride a 250cc bike. I decided to settle down with a Suzuki Intruder VL250 (250cc), as it felt like a decent upgrade from my Pulsar 150 DTSi. I loved it & I chose a cruiser because I though it would be more comfortable and it was.



Horribly scheduled bus time-tables!


Me enjoying the bus ride Not really.


Suzuki Intruder VL250 - My first bike in New Zealand


Suzuki Intruder VL250 - My first bike in New Zealand


November 2008
But as I got my full New Zealand license, there was no limit on the cc’s and the desire of owning a super-bike ignited once again. I couldn’t have bought it without my parent’s permission so I kept on persuading them. My dad says it was I being stubborn rather than persuasive and to date the debate is alive. And where does my mom fit in this whole scene. Well, let me put it this way, if my dad was the ship, then my mum was its anchor. But she gave in to my dream & I can never thank her enough for supporting me and overcoming her fear. Test rides started left right & centre. I had to stick with the Suzuki guys as they were giving me a great exchange offer. I test rode the Gixxer600 (my first 600cc test). Absolutely loved it! Was blown away by its power to notice any other positives. Then I got a bit greedy and tried the Gixxer750. Obviously it was better than the 600. Or the numbers were playing games with my head! From being a ‘bit greedy’, I became very greedy & decided to test ride the Hayabusa. However, the day I was supposed to test ride the Busa, I spotted a brand new Suzuki B-King at the showroom. Just could not get my eyes off it. From being on my desktop wallpaper to standing right in front of me was a surreal moment. From then on, I knew it was going to be the B-King. I test rode it and somehow convinced my parents to add another 700cc to the already agreed upon 600cc’s. I will keep this thread as personal as possible and wont be doing a critique on its handling, brakes, stability, etc. unless one of you folks want me to. I had great two years with the bike, doing 30,000kms. It was my ultimate buddy. Here are a few shots from my road trips in North Island, New Zealand on THE KING.

Pics from ride to Awhitu Peninsula with mates:



Ride to East Coast Road:









Thats my niece trying to ride the beast


December 2010 to date
After staying away from family for 6 years, cooking my food, doing my own laundry, a Bachelor in Graphic Design Degree in hand with 3 years of work experience with a NZ based broadcast company, I finally decided to come back home. With a rock (the size of Himalayas) on my chest, I had to part ways with THE KING. Being my first super-bike, THE KING will always continue to rule as one of my favourites.
I miss the adrenaline rush and the hardcore wrist-to-throttle connection THE KING offered. Today, I am a proud owner of a Kawasaki Ninja250R (it had to be the Green colour). This 1 year old is perfect for my daily transport & weekend rides.

Shots from a recent ride to Lonavala




However, the greed hasn’t completely faded. Hope to share the news of owning a super-bike (once again) with all you guys sometime soon. Hopefully. Till then, GO GREEN!!! So folks, do send me a post or PM if any weekend rides are on the radar. Always keen!

[Ricci]

What a story ! Let's hear some more about the Bking , the rides done and likes/dislikes.
Which year did you buy the N250, I guess you bought in 2010, before the 650 was launched ( 2011), that might suit you better .

PS : thousands of square feet above ground ? for building castles in the air

[pgsagar]

Bash, Suzuki B-King looks stunning and bugtch. BTW, square feet denotes area and cubic feet denotes volume. Aircraft flying at linear height can just be denoted in feet. Ok, 30,000 feet is more like it generally.

[ba$h]

Originally Posted by Ricci

What a story ! Let's hear some more about the Bking , the rides done and likes/dislikes.
Which year did you buy the N250, I guess you bought in 2010, before the 650 was launched ( 2011), that might suit you better .

PS : thousands of square feet above ground ? for building castles in the air

Thanks bro & you are definitely right about building castles in the air. Haha "Thousands of square feet"... must be dreaming of some high-powered super-bike when I was writing this. haha... nice spotting. I was way too excited writing the thread I guess.

A bit about the B-King now.

The positives:
A beast to look at. Rock steady. Massive power delivery with a gentle twist of the wrist. It was fairly heavy but that weight generated a lot of confidence in me as a rider. In spite of weighing around 240 kgs dry, it had the ability of becoming feather-weight every single time the traffic lights turned green. Handling was superb, be it straights or even twisties. One could easily flick it from left to right. All these positives make me wonder as to why Suzuki stopped its production!!! I did a lot of touring around North Island. Could not do a longer trip as work never permitted the same. I made frequent rides to Awhitu Peninsula, East Coast Road (which had a beach cover with shells rather than sand), rides to Raglan, Pios Beach, Wangatama & Coromandel.
New Zealand is a beautiful country and it taught me a lot about riding bikes. Getting back to the bike, the B-King has a very wide rider seat & no compromise in comfort for the pillion too. The exhausts under the seat never heated real bad. The brakes would never let you down too. Extremely sharp but safe. A full tank of gas would give me around 250 kms which was decent enough for a bike this size.

The not so positive:
Having the same heart as the Busa, the only thing it lacked was Wind Protection at very high speeds. Would not want to mention my equivalent to "high speed" on here

I ran the stock exhaust for abt 6 months and then got a Yoshimura system fit to it. I will let the Yoshi's do rest of the talking:

yoshis2.MOV - YouTube

Ninja250R:
I bought the N250 3-4 months before they launched the 650. Was a bit gutted at first but I am pleased with the Baby Ninja. N250 is great for city use and for my next one I would love to look at the liter class. The 650 would not have satisfied me entirely (though I have heard its a great all-rounder) so I might as well save the money for something bigger and better.

Thanks once again bro and I see your location is Pune. Not very far from Mumbai so would love to catch up sometime. Keep rolling!

[ba$h]

Originally Posted by pgsagar

Bash, Suzuki B-King looks stunning and bugtch. BTW, square feet denotes area and cubic feet denotes volume. Aircraft flying at linear height can just be denoted in feet. Ok, 30,000 feet is more like it generally.

Thanks man. Dont know what I was thinking when I wrote "square feet". My apologies. Its good to know you liked the bike. Cheers!!! Also I have uploaded a clip of the yoshis. Check it out, its pretty cool. Tc bud!

[ku69rd]

Fantastic narration mate, would you want to write some more detailed mention of the B-King? And also how easy was it to maintain. Would be great if you can cover your TL's with some good pictures of NZ
Congrats on buying the Ninja (belated) and hoping that you get to realize your SBK dream very shortly.

[n_aditya]

Excellent narration ba$h. Your post exudes serious passion from the biker inside you. Welcome to the Ninja club and wishing you many happy and safe miles.

Like the rest have already asked, it would be great if you could share your experiences with the B-King on a separate thread.

There is one in Blore and it sounds mad, looks huge and scared the daylights out of me when it blew past me. Luckily the rider stopped at a signal ahead so i got a closer look.

Originally Posted by Ricci

Which year did you buy the N250, I guess you bought in 2010, before the 650 was launched ( 2011), that might suit you better.

Its the 2011 model since it has green tail panels and a black pillion seat.

[ba$h]

Originally Posted by ku69rd

Fantastic narration mate, would you want to write some more detailed mention of the B-King? And also how easy was it to maintain. Would be great if you can cover your TL's with some good pictures of NZ
Congrats on buying the Ninja (belated) and hoping that you get to realize your SBK dream very shortly.

Thanks bro! Really appreciate all you guys reading this. As you asked, below are a few tech specs of B-King and then my take on its maintenance.

B-King Technical Specs:

Source: Global Suzuki Website
(B-KING/ABS Specifications : MOTORCYCLE | GLOBAL SUZUKI)


Mechanical Maintenance:
The maintenance was absolutely hassle-free. Service routines were like most of the other bikes i.e. 1st service (oil filter was the main expense) after 1000 kms and there after every 6000 kms. The service cost me around NZ$200-250/- (Rs.6000-7500/-) A weekly wash, lubrication to the chain & Premium 97 Octane was all that it required from me. I used the premium 97 fuel as it gave me better mileage (2 kms more on every liter). Never once did it give me problem with any of the parts. The tires also lasted for quite some time. If I can remember correctly, the dealers advised changing the tires every 8000-1000 kms. But somehow I managed to have the tires changed only once in these 2 years.

Crowd puller:
With all due respect to bikes like the Busa (its elder brother), R1 (I love these machines) the B-King with its menacing looks was a pure crowd puller. However, I never had to “protect” it from the crowd. People asked questions, took photos but never touched it. New Zealand crowd is very decent that way!

Resale value:
I rode it hard-out & did 30000 kms in 2 years. When I sold it, I got 70% of its purchase cost, which was not bad for a naked street bike with so many kms on it.

Soon I will be posting more photos from my rides in NZ. Also, I am off to Mulshi Dam this long weekend! Looking forward to it & I plan to take quite a few shots from that trip. So watch this space as there is more to come.

[ba$h]

Originally Posted by n_aditya

Excellent narration ba$h. Your post exudes serious passion from the biker inside you. Welcome to the Ninja club and wishing you many happy and safe miles.

Like the rest have already asked, it would be great if you could share your experiences with the B-King on a separate thread.

There is one in Blore and it sounds mad, looks huge and scared the daylights out of me when it blew past me. Luckily the rider stopped at a signal ahead so i got a closer look.



Its the 2011 model since it has green tail panels and a black pillion seat.

Hey bro! I am really happy with the feedback I have got & thats the primary reason I wanted to be a part of Team-BHP. Great network for like minds .
You have recommended I start a new thread. I am new to the whole blogging scene so curious to know why a new thread and why not continue on this thread itself?
The B-King in B'lore - Do you happen to remember what exhast system it had? I have uploaded my yoshi sound on this thread. Check it out if you haven't.
And yes, the Ninja is a 2011 model.
Keep me posted if and when the Ninja club plans a road trip! Thanks again bro. Keep rolling!!!

[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by ba$h

You have recommended I start a new thread. I am new to the whole blogging scene so curious to know why a new thread and why not continue on this thread itself?

You can continue in this thread too. Just suggested so that the ninja and the B-king experiences don't get mixed up.

Originally Posted by ba$h

The B-King in B'lore - Do you happen to remember what exhast system it had?

Don't remember mate. It was a couple of months back.

Originally Posted by ba$h

Keep me posted if and when the Ninja club plans a road trip! Thanks again bro. Keep rolling!!!

Your location shows Mumbai. Keep an eye on this.

[PPS]

Nice narration. If i were you i would have got down the B king here under the Transfer of Residence scheme. Although i guess its too much of a hassle getting it down here. I'm yet to see one in the flesh! Waiting for more pics from NZ.

[ba$h]

Originally Posted by PPS

Nice narration. If i were you i would have got down the B king here under the Transfer of Residence scheme. Although i guess its too much of a hassle getting it down here. I'm yet to see one in the flesh! Waiting for more pics from NZ.

I would have loved that & I tried bro, but as you guessed it seemed like a lot of hassle. Also there was always a confusion regarding the import duty (even though it was a Transfer of Residence, the duty was quite significant). It just dint work out. Anyway, I noticed your location is Mumbai. Catch up for a ride sometime mate. More pics are on their way

[Ricci]

Originally Posted by ba$h

Thanks bro & you are definitely right about building castles in the air. Haha "Thousands of square feet"... must be dreaming of some high-powered super-bike when I was writing this. haha... nice spotting. I was way too excited writing the thread I guess.

A bit about the B-King now.
New Zealand is a beautiful country and it taught me a lot about riding bikes. Getting back to the bike, the B-King has a very wide rider seat & no compromise in comfort for the pillion too. The exhausts under the seat never heated real bad. The brakes would never let you down too. Extremely sharp but safe. A full tank of gas would give me around 250 kms which was decent enough for a bike this size.

The not so positive:
Having the same heart as the Busa, the only thing it lacked was Wind Protection at very high speeds. Would not want to mention my equivalent to "high speed" on here

I ran the stock exhaust for abt 6 months and then got a Yoshimura system fit to it. I will let the Yoshi's do rest of the talking:

yoshis2.MOV - YouTube

Ninja250R:
I bought the N250 3-4 months before they launched the 650. Was a bit gutted at first but I am pleased with the Baby Ninja. N250 is great for city use and for my next one I would love to look at the liter class. The 650 would not have satisfied me entirely (though I have heard its a great all-rounder) so I might as well save the money for something bigger and better.

Thanks once again bro and I see your location is Pune. Not very far from Mumbai so would love to catch up sometime. Keep rolling!

Oh, Lord Of the Rings showed us how beautiful NZ is, you saw the beauty in person , and even rode a beast of a bike on what I suppose given the low population density, are sparsely populated but well maintained roads so making it a brilliant country for bikers - nice roads, lots of mountains and thus curves, climbs and crests. Man , now I'm feeling like I haven't lived at all ! Do put up some nice pictures of the rides, if you clicked often on rides.

Thanks for the video link , that bike sounds sweet indeed. It's not pretty to look at, but not ugly either. There was a lot of interest in the bike upon debut, wonder why Suzuki discontinued it, I'd suppose sales didn't match upto initial interest ?

The baby Ninja is of course now the best 250 available, largely due to the absence of much competition , as far as the mid-90s there were killer 250s - 4 cylinder , 40hp , 18-20000rpm revving beasts. The current Ninja 250R is much sober specs-wise ! I do find lack of interest in modern 250s, or even Kawasaki not updating the 250R perplexing. No pass-beam switch, decidedly 90's looking speedo-tacho console, no fuel gauge. It can't cost too much to have these in place.

Yes, I'm based in Pune, so maybe we'll meet in a future T-bhp meet.

Originally Posted by n_aditya

Its the 2011 model since it has green tail panels and a black pillion seat.

Thanks, I had noticed the change - but didn't know which model year went from icky-green seat to a more palatable black.

[ba$h]

Originally Posted by ku69rd

Would be great if you can cover your TL's with some good pictures of NZ

Originally Posted by Ricci

Oh, Lord Of the Rings showed us how beautiful NZ is, you saw the beauty in person , and even rode a beast of a bike on what I suppose given the low population density, are sparsely populated but well maintained roads so making it a brilliant country for bikers - nice roads, lots of mountains and thus curves, climbs and crests. Man , now I'm feeling like I haven't lived at all ! Do put up some nice pictures of the rides, if you clicked often on rides.

Here are some photos from a group ride in New Zealand. Just bike shots though with only one image of the coast. Pictures of beautiful NZ are on their way.


the ride was all along this coast





NZ dhaba!





cruiser paradise





Ducati 749s + yamaha r1





gixxer1000





halt at bay view





suzuki + kawasaki ninja zx-6r





suzuki intruder m109r





another m109r





this m109r was blasting loud music all the way!!! those speakers were awesome!





not sure which cruiser this is + a kawasaki e6nr





Victory (not sure what the model name/number is)

Originally Posted by Ricci

The baby Ninja is of course now the best 250 available, largely due to the absence of much competition , as far as the mid-90s there were killer 250s - 4 cylinder , 40hp , 18-20000rpm revving beasts. The current Ninja 250R is much sober specs-wise ! I do find lack of interest in modern 250s, or even Kawasaki not updating the 250R perplexing. No pass-beam switch, decidedly 90's looking speedo-tacho console, no fuel gauge. It can't cost too much to have these in place.

The updates you have mention could be easily done, should be easily done, but .

Originally Posted by Ricci

Yes, I'm based in Pune, so maybe we'll meet in a future T-bhp meet.

Sounds like a good plan mate. I might eve drop in your city someday, as my sister lives there. Till then, go safe!

[Ricci]

the second last pic is that of a an Indian , I don't know for sure as I didn't follow up, but there was some little news about resurrecting this brand in the late 90s or early 2000s , along with Excelsior and Victory as well. Not a lot of American Iron in Kiwi-land, seems Suzuki is rather popular there.