My Life On 2 Wheels

[Young gun]

Well I had a friend that got a Kawasaki Ninja 250 and he wanted me to get a bike bad. My girlfriend heard this and told me I would get laid if I got one. So I immediately went and got some riding gear.

Then I didn't really know what to get but I knew I didn't want to die so I just went with a 250. Since the updated version of the ninja 250 looked like a 600 I went and got the same bike as my friend. He rode it home for me the day after buying my gear.

TWINSYS

That day I obviously had to drive it. Got over the jitter bugs running up and down his neighborhood street and around the hood. Did this for some time and decided to take it to the real streets. Got out onto the first street just fine (35mph). Took the next street or back road just fine (50mph and some curves). Then came the next (55mph) and it wasn't the beginning of the street but the middle of it. Busier street then either of the previous. My friend being the great teacher he is took off first, I hesitated and saw a car coming in the direction I intend to turn(right) and I decided I was already committed and went for it. My left shoe lace became tangled on my foot peg as I take off and start turning/leaning right. I notice almost immediately as I was going to shift quick and I became flustered and lost concentration of my lean and steer and just dumped it right in the middle of the road doing roughly 8mph. I immediately look up to a car coming head on about 300 ft away and get up and the car behind me was screeching to a stop as I turned. They ended up stopping well short of me and asking if I was alright. I just yelled back a little bump here or there but mainly a bruised ego. Picked up the bike and got it off to the side of the road. Little rash on the mirror and rear fender and a slight crack in the front fairing. Really not too bad for damage. I got a nice scar on my side for remembrance. Got my shit together and rode it back to my friends house.

Little edit and lots of sun glare but you can hardly tell anything is wrong with the bike. I took the rest of the day off from riding. Come back the next day after regaining some confidence and urge to really ride. We ride a short distance to a large parking lot to work on some low speed skills.

This helped a ton. Hell I feel falling helped me a ton. Made me a safer rider from the get go. Rode this thing everywhere I could. Racked up over 2,500 miles my first year (Summer 2013). The storage in the rear seat was very minimal but it could hold one of my most important items.

Breakfast of champions ladies and gentlemen. My Nephew decided he was going to take it for a spin.

And because Instagram. And yes that is the side I dropped it on. If you look above the “ninja” you can see the crack in the fairing.

Now we are getting late in the season. School is about to start up again and my brother approaches me with an inquiry of me buying another bike from a family relative. Shows me what it is and then how much he wants to sell it to me for, $280. Needless to say I came back that night with a new bike.

Not bad for a $280 30 year old bike right? I was told it just had a clutch issue, started and ran great. It just sat there with school starting and winter rapidly approaching.

Now spring time is rolling around and my girlfriend and I sign up for a motorcycle safety course where you can get your license at the end (assuming you pass) and I had bought some stuff for the ninja over the winter because I just can’t leave anything alone. So since it already had a slip on exhaust I figured I would add to the airflow with a K&N filter and then jet the carbs. Also went ahead and grabbed different sprockets to change the gearing. Needed an oil change so I got supplies for that as well as some chain lube. Needed to put on adjustable levers and a lowering kit for the girlfriend because she was going to be taking the bike over so I ordered these parts as well and did everything at once.

Now I needed to get my new bike situated. I discovered there was no hydraulic fluid in the bike for it’s clutch. I put some in and she shifted great! But now she wouldn’t run off of choke so time to clean the carbs.

Also replaced both front turn signals as both were broken at the stay on the fork and went ahead and changed the engine oil and rear gear oil. Get her all back together and I couldn’t get her started. I couldn’t figure out what exactly was the issue so I started to tear her down again. Upon tear down I found this(middle picture).

Must have crawled into the vacuum line at some point and died and I didn’t notice while reassembling. Once again back together and she started on the first turn over.

At this point I have over 1,700 miles on her now. I’m going to drive it as late into the season as I can to save gas. I drive it to school which is now 40 minutes away so over the winter I’m looking to add some storage to it so I don’t have to carry my helmet around all day at school. I also need to get some new tires for next year and I’m considering some different rims to widen my selection of tires.

[Ringo64]

Nice, looks like some fun toys.

[Young gun]

Nice, looks like some fun toys.

Thanks!

[Ghost]

speed demon toys.

[Young gun]

One from a little photoshoot when we both had time to ride