Hi all, I am a new rider and am 20 years old. I recently completed the MSC and bought a 2001 Kawasaki Ninja 250 with 8k miles. I love the bike it is tons of fun. I do however have a few questions about it as I am new to motorcycles.

When braking I get a slight ABS type of feel (like when you apply high brake pressure in a car and it kind of brakes, doesnt brake, brakes, doesnt brake). Is this normal or am I in need of new brakes?

When downshifting to 1st gear my bike makes a rather loud sound, louder than when downshifting to any other gear (almost grinding but not so bad as to be like wow somethings definitely wrong). Anything fishy there?

My last question is about the choke. When I apply the choke and let it sit for a while warming up (aprox. 2 minutes) the bike will start Revving up to like 6k rpm before I take the choke off and it returns to normal. Whats going on here?

Sorry for all the questions looking forward to learning more about biking in general and the kaw 250. Thanks
Trey

Hi all, I am a new rider and am 20 years old. I recently completed the MSC and bought a 2001 Kawasaki Ninja 250 with 8k miles. I love the bike it is tons of fun. I do however have a few questions about it as I am new to motorcycles.

When braking I get a slight ABS type of feel (like when you apply high brake pressure in a car and it kind of brakes, doesnt brake, brakes, doesnt brake). Is this normal or am I in need of new brakes?
warped rotor

When downshifting to 1st gear my bike makes a rather loud sound, louder than when downshifting to any other gear (almost grinding but not so bad as to be like wow somethings definitely wrong). Anything fishy there?
sounds normal, but it really depends how loud the noise is. is it like a "clunk"? if so, normal.

My last question is about the choke. When I apply the choke and let it sit for a while warming up (aprox. 2 minutes) the bike will start Revving up to like 6k rpm before I take the choke off and it returns to normal. Whats going on here?
normal

Sorry for all the questions looking forward to learning more about biking in general and the kaw 250. Thanks
Trey

have you read your owner's manual? :)

short answers:

warped or otherwise heat damaged rotor, replace it

normal, they're clunky going into first, nice new oil helps to mitigate this just a bit

normal, if if revs too high use less choke.


Long answer for third question:

Normal use of the EX-250 choke during start up is to: Get yourself ready to ride, when you're ready to ride get on the bike and start it with some choke. You'll get good at estimating how much choke you need based on the outside temperature. Less choke if it's a warm day, more if it's a cold day. Now don't just sit there in the driveway with the bike idling. Ride away immediately using moderate to low engine speeds until you see the temp gauge move, reducing the choke as you go.

Here's another description of the process from the FAQs on www.ninja250.org which, by the way, can answer just about any normal maintenance or riding question. http://http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/What_is_the_correct_way_to_apply_choke_at_startup%3F

Good luck.

have you read your owner's manual? :)

I dont have one!:(:doh:

short answers:

warped or otherwise heat damaged rotor, replace it

normal, they're clunky going into first, nice new oil helps to mitigate this just a bit

normal, if if revs too high use less choke.


Long answer for third question:

Normal use of the EX-250 choke during start up is to: Get yourself ready to ride, when you're ready to ride get on the bike and start it with some choke. You'll get good at estimating how much choke you need based on the outside temperature. Less choke if it's a warm day, more if it's a cold day. Now don't just sit there in the driveway with the bike idling. Ride away immediately using moderate to low engine speeds until you see the temp gauge move, reducing the choke as you go.

Here's another description of the process from the FAQs on www.ninja250.org which, by the way, can answer just about any normal maintenance or riding question. http://http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/What_is_the_correct_way_to_apply_choke_at_startup%3F

Good luck.

Thanks for the tips guys, really sorry about the stupid questions.

everyone goes through these (or similar) questions

I'd suggest you spend some free time going through the FAQs at ninja250.org which will greatly accelerate your development as a rider and EX-250 owner. With those FAQs you will fear no maintenance issue.

along with your screen name.

everyone goes through these (or similar) questions

I'd suggest you spend some free time going through the FAQs at ninja250.org which will greatly accelerate your development as a rider and EX-250 owner. With those FAQs you will fear no maintenance issue.

wow now i feel dumb for asking some of those questions, they are pretty much answered in there. Thanks for the tip sorry to repost these questions

Heres a picture of the bike

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/1249/img00037200908071307.jpg

Hey Trey, Did you get your handlebar fixed ?
Glad to see you made it over here.

Hey Trey, Did you get your handlebar fixed ?
Glad to see you made it over here.

Haha hey whats uppp. Yea I get the parts in tomorrow so I will be changing everything when it arrives. Cant wait to have fixed bars!

Haha hey whats uppp. Yea I get the parts in tomorrow so I will be changing everything when it arrives. Cant wait to have fixed bars!
This where i spend most of my time. :thumbup:

First of all, if you're changing something on your bars, know that Kawi uses red loctite on the bar end bolts. You'll need some kind of heat source to break the bond. Kkim has an example of how to do this in one of his DIY's.

http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12960

I have no idea what you're tackling, but good luck with it! :D

Just an added question based on one of his, do you have to buy a brand new rotor or can you get a used one off ebay? I checked the prices on new rotors the only place I could find them and they're upwards of $300!! :eek: Do I really have to pay that much when used ones are $30 on ebay? Also, my bike has only 7700 miles on it right now. If the rotor is warped already, does that mean I'm braking incorrectly, or is this normal to ninjette rotors? Am I going to have to buy a new $300 rotor every 7k miles? TIA. :D

komohana bought a used rotor off ebay and it works fine. be sure to ask the seller if anything is wrong with it before you buy it. if they say no, buy it and install. if something is wrong, see what the seller will do about it. if he proves to be a PITA, give strong negative feedback.:D

And no, it's not a "normal" problem with EX-250s.

I'd be willing to bet that you've got a pretty good chance of getting a good, unwarped one through Ebay.

The two most common ways rotors get heat damaged (on both cars and motorcycles) will be: 1. One that "shakes" the handlebars, and 2. One that causes a "pulsing" feeling.

1. Just a simple case of over use. I've seen rotors glow bright red and simply cease to provide any breaking force during long, steep decents (after all, braking is just wasting kinetic energy by turning it into heat energy). When a rotor reaches that sort of temperature it becomes a critical situation in which only the way and rate at which it cools will determine whether it warps or not. The warped rotor will shake the handlebars when you brake the motorcycle.

2. A more common way of messing up a rotor is a situation where the rotor is somewhat overheated (not always to glowing red, but even close to red is enough to do it) during either a single sustained application or several relatively severe applications, followed by a period of sitting (like at a stop light) with someone holding the brake lever which clamps the pads onto a single spot on the rotor. This will severely overheat only the area under the brake pads. Quite often on rotor will "blue up" where the pads sat clamped on the overheated rotor. Sometimes you can actually see the different colored area on the rotor when you examine it. The area that has been heat damaged will never again give the same braking friction as the rest of the rotor and you feel it as a "pulsing" when you apply the brakes because the brake pads will "slip" across the damaged area.

choke is only needed to get the bike running. Since i've owned the bike, I had to use the choke to get the bike started after i let it run out of gas......then I put it on reserve then put choke on and it started.

For everyday, I never use choke. I started it up today at about 10pm and the temp was about in the high 50's to low 60's, started right up but the only thing was that I had to let it warm up longer like atleast a minute. I usually only wait like 30 seconds before I take off to do my riding in warmer temps after starting. If you need to use choke to start the bike, clean the carbs and do a carb synchronization.

i thought you were supposed to use the choke. I dont have tto use it at all to start the bike, just thought i did. thanks for the tip

And no, it's not a "normal" problem with EX-250s.

I'd be willing to bet that you've got a pretty good chance of getting a good, unwarped one through Ebay.

The two most common ways rotors get heat damaged (on both cars and motorcycles) will be: 1. One that "shakes" the handlebars, and 2. One that causes a "pulsing" feeling.

1. Just a simple case of over use. I've seen rotors glow bright red and simply cease to provide any breaking force during long, steep decents (after all, braking is just wasting kinetic energy by turning it into heat energy). When a rotor reaches that sort of temperature it becomes a critical situation in which only the way and rate at which it cools will determine whether it warps or not. The warped rotor will shake the handlebars when you brake the motorcycle.

2. A more common way of messing up a rotor is a situation where the rotor is somewhat overheated (not always to glowing red, but even close to red is enough to do it) during either a single sustained application or several relatively severe applications, followed by a period of sitting (like at a stop light) with someone holding the brake lever which clamps the pads onto a single spot on the rotor. This will severely overheat only the area under the brake pads. Quite often on rotor will "blue up" where the pads sat clamped on the overheated rotor. Sometimes you can actually see the different colored area on the rotor when you examine it. The area that has been heat damaged will never again give the same braking friction as the rest of the rotor and you feel it as a "pulsing" when you apply the brakes because the brake pads will "slip" across the damaged area.

My problem sounds like your option number 2. I do have a section of rotor that sounds like what you described (a small section of discolored rotor and pulsing while braking). I'll be investing in a new front rotor when I buy new tires, sprockets and chain. Just get them all done at once. :D Should I get new brake pads too?

You only need to bother with new pads when they are getting thin.

Greg737's analysis of the cause of rotor warpage is 100%. One thing I would like to mention is that sustained braking often happens when caliper pistons stick in their bores. This happens most often because they are dirty. The #1 way of getting them dirty is to push them back into the bores when changing pads without cleaning them.

My advice is to always inspect your calipers for cleanliness when they are off the bike and to not re-attach them until you could eat off them. This goes double if you've got a warped rotor: make sure it's not going to happen again!

Wes