[A.J.]

Originally Posted by MrAtom

This again.

If someone asks what it is, you reply "Ninja 250," they reply "Oh..." and don't have anything else to say, it's not a knock on you or the bike. They just think your bike's cool and don't know anything about motorcycles and can't carry the conversation well. Half the time it goes, "Yeah my dad rode a Harley!" "Which one?" "I don't know." You'll get the same reaction if you tell them it's the wrong bike; there are a few people who I've told my 250 is a Ducati Monster, Hayabusa, and a Harley Sportster.

I still think that this "250 hate" mentality is mostly imaginary. The only people I've seen actually criticize a smaller bike are people who don't ride, or haven't ridden a bike made past 1979. The most I've ever gotten was an unoriginal comment from someone who doesn't know that they're going for the low-hanging-fruit (Played-out displacement jokes are like Prius jokes; Real car enthusiasts don't usually make jabs at Priuses because they're about as sick of them as Prius owners are).

What I see way more of is 250 riders feeling the need to defend their selves or preemptively getting their feelings hurt before anyone allegedly says anything.

Have to agree here. I get nothing but compliments and waves on my '06. Met a guy on an R1 the other day at the Hardware store that went nuts over my bike. We talked for a good 20min and 90% of it was about my 250. Also I'm a 36yr old female so what people think of my 250 is irrelevant to me. I would love to own an R6 one day though but that's as high as I'll go. My bike came with a full Muzzy so I could tell people it's whatever and they'd believe it by the way she sounds.