My other ride-literally

[Alien DNA]

Nice Sandaro.....Ducatis have such a wonderful tone

That Busa is an evil machine.....lightning quick

I'm not to far from going for my bike licence...always wanted to...never got around to it. Been eyeing off a kawasaki ninja 250 for starters.....i know diddly sh!t about bikes, but i hear theyre a good starter bike. Anyone care to throw some suggestions my way for a begining rider??

[agr071]

while we were living in Medowie but never got around to it in the years we were there.

That's one of the joys of the Mid North Coast compared to Newy. There are a lot of nice roads and are more enjoyable then the Central Coast stuff.

[playwme]

Nice Sandaro.....Ducatis have such a wonderful tone

That Busa is an evil machine.....lightning quick

I'm not to far from going for my bike licence...always wanted to...never got around to it. Been eyeing off a kawasaki ninja 250 for starters.....i know diddly sh!t about bikes, but i hear theyre a good starter bike. Anyone care to throw some suggestions my way for a begining rider??

Not the Ninja. They're pretty basic and agricultural. Honda VTR250 is a much nicer bike to ride. If you have a bit of extra budget then a CB400 is a good bike to learn on and good enough to continue on for a few years afterwards.
The new baby ninjas look good and they're cheap but they just don't have the quality of nice proper Japanese Built bikes (pretty sure the Ninja is built elsewhere).

[V8VAN]

I've heard nothing but good about the ninja 300's but I haven't had anything to do with them personally.

The Honda's are a good bike though. I won't buy their cars but I'll ride their bikes.

[Sandaro]

How bigs that Busa, what a beast. Yeah, I would find it stressful to commute in traffic. Fortunately I'm just out of Sydney, so less idiots to consider, but still some drivers keep you on your toes even out here. I'm a late starter on road bikes, got my first on at 40, and I think that 20+ years of road sense (reading what a cars about to do) has saved me at least a half dozen times. If I'd been 18 and in some of those situations I don't know I would perceived it coming and would have been cleaned up.

[Sandaro]

Nice Sandaro.....Ducatis have such a wonderful tone

That Busa is an evil machine.....lightning quick

I'm not to far from going for my bike licence...always wanted to...never got around to it. Been eyeing off a kawasaki ninja 250 for starters.....i know diddly sh!t about bikes, but i hear theyre a good starter bike. Anyone care to throw some suggestions my way for a begining rider??

Thanks Alien, do you have LAMS rules in VIC? We have it in NSW, but I'm not sure all states have adopted it yet. You can get bikes up to 650cc provided they're under a certain power to weigh ratio. There is a LAMS list of applicable bikes on the net. Plenty of choices, it really comes down to personal taste/budget. There's a few Ducs on there (600 Monsters/Supersports) Harley recently released a scrambler I think they called it that also qualifies.

[V8VAN]

Vic has the same limit as NSW from memory. 660cc

[agr071]

How bigs that Busa

I think they're about 240kgs with oil & Fuel. Some are speed unrestricted and capable of 350km/h.
Not bad for a 1300cc

[Alien DNA]

Not the Ninja. They're pretty basic and agricultural. Honda VTR250 is a much nicer bike to ride. If you have a bit of extra budget then a CB400 is a good bike to learn on and good enough to continue on for a few years afterwards.
The new baby ninjas look good and they're cheap but they just don't have the quality of nice proper Japanese Built bikes (pretty sure the Ninja is built elsewhere).

Thanks for that mate. The VTR250 looks pretty and might be the go. My bro in law had a CBR250 and said it was a great bike to start on....so thats an option as well. But being a beginner bike, it will only be around for a few years until its upgrade time. I'll keep my options open though

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Thanks Alien, do you have LAMS rules in VIC? We have it in NSW, but I'm not sure all states have adopted it yet. You can get bikes up to 650cc provided they're under a certain power to weigh ratio. There is a LAMS list of applicable bikes on the net. Plenty of choices, it really comes down to personal taste/budget. There's a few Ducs on there (600 Monsters/Supersports) Harley recently released a scrambler I think they called it that also qualifies.

Yes, we have the LAMS rules down here. Bikesales is helpful in the way you can just choose from LAMS approved rides. And you're right, personal taste/budget will dictate which way i'll go. I'm pretty impressed with the Harley Nightrod.....although out of my reach at the moment, but that bike really floats my boat.

[playwme]

The CBR250RR is a cracker of a bike. That was my first bike about 12 years ago. Of course, back then you could find a mint Aussie delivered one with low km's. They're mostly getting a bit long in the tooth now and have been flogged by Learners for 20 years. The newer versions are better built than the Ninjas (IMO) but still don't have the level of quality that the old BabyBlade did.

Wife has the Yamaha WR250X Motard with full sticky road tyres. Fuel injected, single cylinder and great in the city due to its high upright position. I picked it up in Melbourne with 1200km on the odo for $5k. Even came with a pipe and power commander. They were close to $10k new so good value for money and easily as good as (if not better) than any other 250 road bike on the market.

Learner Legal versions of Suzuki's SV650 and GSX650F can be upgraded to full power with an ECu change if you felt one of those might be something you could live with after you get your full licence. Can pick the ECU's up pretty cheap now that they've been around a while.