My 2017 Kawasaki Ninja 300 (KRT Edition)— Ownership Blog
Quick History
I learned the basics of riding a motorcycle in college, but I couldn’t afford to own one at that time. So the first thing I did after getting my first paycheque was to get one immediately. Found a used Yamaha FZ-S in excellent condition through one of my friend’s connections and a few weeks later it was all mine.
It was a simple air-cooled 150cc single cylinder street bike and it unlocked a whole new life for me. Rode it long and hard, crashed it multiple times, learned to do basic maintenance works – simply put, had plenty of fun with it.
The piston rings started to wear off at 60k kilometres and an engine rebuild was due. I decided to shell out some money and went with the 180cc big-bore kit from RaceConcepts along with their carburettor and intake mods. The upgrades were super effective and I found myself doing even more longer rides.
On reaching home after a 4200km trip to the Himalayas, I decided that it was time to upgrade to a bigger bike. Two months later, I sold my FZ.
The FZ served me well for 2.5 years and 35k kilometres and has never let me down anywhere during my entire ownership period. It was an absolute gem of a bike to own.
Deciding what to buy
It was almost certain that I’ll be going for the KTM RC 390 as my next bike as it was the most bang-for-buck sports bike option available here in India. But I convinced myself that I won’t jump into conclusions right away.
There were plenty of KTM dealerships in Bangalore so I started off with the one closest to me. I went there on a Saturday evening and found that the test bike wasn’t available at that time. So I took an appointment on Monday afternoon and spent the rest of the time there gawking at the display piece.
On Monday I went to the showroom after receiving a call from them. The guy there was ready for me with the bike and he told me about the route I’ve to take and handed me the keys. The route was simple — a straight, followed by a u-turn, another straight, and a u-turn back to the showroom.
I should say it’s impossible to judge a bike by taking a ride for just 1.6km but what glaringly stood out for me was the vibrations from the bike. I did not expect this at all. I’ve ridden my friend’s Duke 200 extensively and I absolutely love the way it rides. So naturally I expected a similar experience from this bike as well, albeit more power on tap.
But because of this I wasn’t satisfied with the test ride even though the bike felt brilliant in other aspects — the posture, the weight balance, gear shifts and the brakes. I wanted to know if the buzz is peculiar to that particular test bike only or is the characteristic of the model itself. So I decided to take another test ride from a different KTM showroom and confirm it myself.
Daring to stretch the budget
Almost a month has passed since I took my first test drive of the RC390 and I haven’t found the time to do another one. All this while, the thought of vibrations started getting into my head and overshadowed all the other niceties of the RC. And this eventually lead me into taking a test ride of the Kawasaki Ninja 300.
The Ninja had comparable specs to the RC but was way too expensive even though RC trumped in almost all fields in the spec-sheet battle. I had the budget to afford it but the thought of getting more stuff for less money meant I didn’t even consider it in my shortlist.
The test drive of the baby Ninja took place in heavy traffic, and all I could do was just one overtaking manoeuvre to get the revs up.
I was completely smitten by the way the bike behaved.
When the road opened up a bit I gave it the gas while in 2nd gear — it pulled really hard, shifted to 3rd, still pulled hard, shifted to 4th and calmed down. The bike felt absolutely incredible. It was a bit on the heavier side but was a reassuring weight. The ride quality was excellent and the ergonomics are spot on.
The plans of taking a test ride of the RC390 from the KTM showroom next door went down the drain right after this test ride. I was completely powerless. The Ninja had me.
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