[Gearbox Paul]

These are my first impressions of the 2018 R3 I just purchased. The bike is blue and has a full Yoshi R-77 exhaust (no fuel mapping), a tail tidy, TST integrated LED tail light, and TST flush mount LED front turn signals. My previous bike was a 2010 Ninja 250R in Passion Red with Yoshi TRC slip on, tail tidy, flush mount LED front turn signals, and a few farkles.

Looks: the R3 is blue and black. The blue rims looks terrific, much better than the Ninja's black rims. Although, I had some red reflective rim tape on the Ninja rims which looked nice. I also love the front fairing and headlights design on the R3 - it has a nice aggressive look. The TST integrated tail light looks really good too. The clear windscreen on both bikes is not that attractive. I replaced the Ninja's screen with a black one and I'll likely do the same to the R3. The only thing I would critique on the R3 is the color scheme. It's certainly not ugly, but dark blue and black is not a great contrast. A lighter color for the accents, like blue and white or black and red might be nicer. I'm not a huge fan of the R3 graphics on the side fairings either. But's the R3 is still a really good looking bike, as is the Ninja.

Performance: I've only had the bike for a few days and I haven't put it through its paces, but so far the increase in power over the Ninja 250R is quite noticeable - not surprizing given the difference in displacement. On the highway at 80 mph, the R3 runs at 8000 rpm vs 10000 for the Ninja. So the R3 is obviously better on the highway. The R3 pulls evenly throughout the rpm range as far as I can tell. I find the R3 first gear rather short - much like the Ninja's. On both bikes, the first gear is not that useful and I can easily start in 2nd on both. The R3 engine braking is much more prominent than the Ninja's. The R3 has some popping when I shut throttle off after accelerating aggressively, which is likely caused by the full exhaust without fuel mapping or block plate. Fuel efficiency is better on the R3 - likely due to the fact that it is fuel-injected compared to the carburated Ninja.

Fuel injection on the R3 is a nice improvement over the carburators and manual choke on the Ninja. The Keihin carburators on the Ninja are very hard to clean so having the bike not run for few weeks (old fuel) was always a concern.

Sound: The Ninja with the Yoshi slip on sounds better. A little louder and noticeably raspier than the R3 with the Yoshi full exhaust. Still a nice sound for the R3 but I prefer the Ninja sound. Perhaps this is influenced by the fact that the Ninja revs higher for the same speed compared to the R3.

Ergonomics: The R3 riding position is more upright than on the Ninja. I would prefer a little more aggressive riding position. The R3 seat seems to have more padding than the Ninja which has very little. The windscreen on both bikes is equally useless with the wind being directed towards my upper chest. The handle bars on mounted high on both bikes - too high (not aggressive enough) in my opinion/preference. The R3 is actually a little lighter than the Ninja - surprisingly.

The R3 has a much better dash, with a digital area with lots of information (fuel efficiency, several trip meters, low fuel warning, coolant temperature, etc), a gear position indicator, and clock on it. The Ninja just has three analog gauges - so quite primitive.

Both bikes have halogen headlights which are not that powerful. I upgraded the halogen bulbs to LED's on the Ninja and will do the same to the R3.

ABS on the R3 is a nice feature.

Maintenance wise, the R3 has the advantage because the valve clearance adjustment only needs to be done every 26000 miles vs every 7500 miles for the Ninja.

All in all, I'm impressed with the R3 so far. At this time, I'm contemplating purchasing a power commander/fuel controller and a block plate to avoid the bike running too lean and reduce the popping. But I'll miss the Ninja and I'll miss that really cool sound.