Ninja… The name conjures images of stealth, danger and adventure… Combined with Kawasaki the Ninja badge has always meant peak performance and cutting edge design. For the last few years however (since 1984 in fact) Kawasaki has endowed sport bikes in the midsize to supersport ranges with the Ninja moniker... till now.

You are a learner, you just got your licence and your local bureaucracy says you can’t ride a ZX10R as your first bike… you are limited by engine size or horsepower output. However you wouldn’t be seen dead on a small capacity, slow motion cruiser, anything that the mail would be delivered on or, god forbid, a scooter. You want a fully faired sports bike with modern styling and performance to match. However you don’t want to spend a fortune and you want something that doesn’t need constant maintenance. Those criteria used to mean you had a choice of one bike.

The Kawasaki Ninja 250R doubles your choice. I personally couldn’t handle riding any 250cc machine for long so I just… um… ignored the laws and bought a 400cc 2-stroke however if you want to be legit in the eyes of the law the Kawasaki is probably the bike for you. The 4-stroke, parallel twin makes around 32hp, making it legal for those countries with a 34hp upper limit along with the 249cc displacement for those territories that have a cc restriction. The brochure says that the engine has been tuned to deliver “just the right power characteristics for city riding”. The Canadian spec, carburetted version we tested held this to be true enough, around town it had enough power to be relatively entertaining. On the freeway I have to say it lacked power, in saying that to be fun on a freeway a motorcycle needs in excess of 70hp… at least.

The low weight (333 pounds) and reasonably fast direction changes meant that entertainment could be found on winding b roads. This is where the rest of the bike comes into it’s own, the suspension set-up comprising a conventional 37mm front fork and 5 way preload adjustable bottom-link rear worked well when pushed through corners. Along with solid braking from 290mm disc with twin piston calliper up front and twin piston 220mm rear disc brakes in the rear gave even a new rider confidence when attacking the twisty sections. I must warn you however that if you have a big hoof your right boot will melt to the exhaust… the test bike went home with a fair sized patch of boot heel permanently affixed to the exhaust… which is mounted a bit close to the right peg.