Rider down and a word to fellow 250 owners.

[Buffalony]

A Schoolmate of mine picked up an 06 CBR 600 RR this spring. Though he had years of riding experience, I found his attitude towards gear and riding disturbing. He was stuck in the "bigger is better, faster is just bad ass" mentality that I'm glad to see still fought here on these forums. His approach made no sense to me because he was a level headed and genuine person.

Actually, He and I had alot of things in common. Attitude towards riding was not one of them.

He posted a pic on FB a month ago of his rear tire. The center was ripped down to the core "Time for new rubber" He posted. I joked, "plenty of tread left there, just drive in turns" and "Your chicken strips are bigger than mine now"
I went to visit him today, in a funeral home.. .
http://www.stargazette.com/article/2...sey=nav%7Chead

He just got married on June 30th, had three kids, picked up a great job for the summer, and poof.....He's no longer with us. Good person all around believe me, but didnt respect the road or his machine. He never learned the easy way about the importance of AGATT and succumbed to the "Big Bad American" standard. Some where along the lines he fell victim to this warped mentality that kills.

Ironically or not the 25 min. drive to the funeral home from Corning was pleasant weather wise, then while waiting inline to visit the corpse and pay my respect the lights start flickering. Few mins later the power goes out and a tornado touches down.....and to think I was gonna drive "wasabi" down there! Good thing I checked the weather prior.
http://www.stargazette.com/viewart/2...rnado-reported
Leaving, the area was a trick. Trees and power lines were down everywhere and the roads were like a guided lybrinth. Lightning was still striking.

Anyways, I notice a lot of the noob riders on Ninjette.org seem to be on the right track attitude wise, but please remember it's this attitude that makes this forum great, and keeps us alive and aware. Continue this tradition as it saves lives. Don't be afraid to sound like a "bitch" for talking to others about the importance of rider restraint and responsibility (speed and equipment).
Don't feel socially pressured into moving to a more powerful machine. If your group of friends/riding buddies keep breaking on you because you have a 250R, find new friends.

Most importantly, When you first feel the urge to let the 250 go for something bigger, DON'T. Chances are this is a very premature decision based more on social influences and/or personal misunderstanding and not out of innocent neccesity.

Over the past 4Yrs. of owning this bike, in short my experience has been:

First week - This is sweet...Scared to get on the highway, but here we go anyway....Whoa FUN. And, Those guys on the kawiforums are dicks. Then I got an invite from KKIM for Ninjette.org. Like a breath of fresh air over here in comparison. Winter: reading all things mechanical..learning the bike. Order farkles to express myself.

Begining of second year - Crash....Got it out too early, cold tires+fresh cold pavement, second turn from the house = lesson learned.. Sh!t, that costed the money I just spent on farkles! Chains are a bitch to maintain. Emergency stops made...3..glad I took that course last year! WOT to pass someone and they flew out in front of me after riding in their rear view for many miles. Glad I had enough passing power.

Third year - Highways are boring. Happy I learned about this 15t CS sprocket, this seats hard as a rock, my arse an wrists are killing me, maybe I should do the gel mod cause I'm not paying that much for a Corbin even if Kelly has one! Backroads are the best, but I'm still scared from last years crash. Maybe I should do something about this seat and bars soon ooor I could get a different bike? Emergency stops again. people pulling out infront of me suck. These guys on these 600's are fun to ride with I wonder if they work on their own bikes? Why do I catch up in the turns (seriously)?

Fourth year - Damn it...Valve jobs approaching, glad I've done 3 so far this year on other vehicles and read 40 DIYs on how to do it to the 250. Man these chicken strips are getting big, I know this bike is nimble, so I must be babying it too much. This tire pressure suspension set up combo is great, thank god for forums and all the online reading I've done over the years.
Time to push my comfort zone.
Last month = knee down....Win, except on the same ride I had a turn creep up as I was trying to keep up with another rider and I ended up in oncomings lane....major fail. Disastorous fail if there was an oncoming vehicle, and possibly off the road into a tree fail if it were the 650r I almost bought. Immediatatly after the turn I had to make an emergency stop, tractor in the road....damn it....and still too much pressure on the rear brake..locked it up AGAIN..!

I understand that the time frames and experiences for every rider are not the same. If you ride track every day or are lucky to be in an area of mostly sun, then you may or may not advance at the same pace. One objective of this post was to get the readers mind going regarding premature advancement, to point to the fact that the lessons keep coming, and the 250 is an excellent decision in regards to the later lessons.

Also, if you havent got it yet, my point is that the 250 is just as capable as any other bike out there (except for raw acceleration and if your only concern is that...why are you reading this??? AND maybe you should stop riding now because your not as sweet as you think you are).
From taking an overall read of my own experiences and progress, common sense tells me that while the lessons are getting far and few in between, the rarer the lessons become the more important they are to the future of my riding career. I'm sincere in my belief that the 250 is the perfect combination of power, handling, and cost for any begining rider no matter the budget. 99% of riding skill can be learned on this ever forgiving, inexpensive, and capable machine. Those lessons will at first be many and turn to far and few. But, I'm sold on the 250 for being the ultimate piece to learn those lessons on first before I get on a bigger, badder, faster machine. It is the lessons that come after the many basics and mistakes you will make that will give you a fruitful and succesful riding career. I believe this should be "The American way" instead of stepping up prematurely to a more capable track ready machine.

A safe and fruitful life on two wheels to all of you.

Buffalony


Btw: Will edit post for grammer and flow.

[joshuajcrouch]

Great post.

[lgk]

Sorry about your friend.

Lots of good advice, hope people learn from your experiences.

[Motofool]

Sorry for your loss, Joe.

Condolences to his family and friends.

There is no reason for a young man to die riding a motorcycle.

Two wheels, weekend's night, street riding and 100 HP definitely don't mix well.

[NinjetteNewfie]

Great post, reminds me why I love my 250 and don't need a bigger bike. Sorry to hear about your friend, terrible that he left behind a wife and three children.

[ninjamunky85]

Sorry to hear about your friend, I feel bad for his wife and kids.

After 3 1/2 years of riding the ninjette as much as I can, I also have begun to realize a lot of things. I no longer am embarrassed to say that I drive a 250 and am proud to be one of the few riders that I know who preaches ATGATT or even knows what that means.

As the saying goes, "There are old riders, and there are stupid riders, But there are no old stupid riders." I want to ride until the day I die... as an old man.

Ride safe, and be careful out there.

[toua70]

My prayers goes out to his friends and family. Sorry for your loss. It sucks when a rider goes down and horrible he didn't make it. He has been married for less than a month too. Very sad :/ I hope others will learn from this. It doesn't matter what bike you have, if you respect it, it will respect you back. Even the awesome ninja 250 can be a dangerous machine but it will only do what you tell it to do.. ride safe guys.

[rainking]

Yea, I heard about this. I live in Binghamton, NY which is not very far from Elmira. Yesterday's weather was crazy for sure.

[csmith12]

Sorry man but excellent post.

[blackoutt]

Sorry for your loss. I'm from the same area originally, so weird to see star-gazette and hear of service machine on a worldwide forum.

[ninjaone]

Originally Posted by Buffalony

Most importantly, When you first feel the urge to let the 250 go for something bigger, DON'T. Chances are this is a very premature decision based more on social influences and/or personal misunderstanding and not out of innocent neccesity.

If you don't have a respect for the machine, a Ninja 250R can kill you just as fast as a CBR 600RR.

No disrespect meant to your friend but it's more about the rider then the machine.

[folky15]

OP: great post and sorry to hear about your friend

Originally Posted by ninjaone

... it's more about the rider then the machine.

I think this is a good reminder for all of us, not to get overly confident simply because we 'only' ride a 250.

[massacremasses]

stuff like this makes me wonder how much longer Ill ride. While I have a "safe" attitude, I also have a wife and kid. I want to be around for them. And even though my current bike only has a top speed of 85 MPH, I can still be hit... or crash. Be safe out there guys.

[bfpower]

Originally Posted by folky15

I think this is a good reminder for all of us, not to get overly confident simply because we 'only' ride a 250.

Truth. There is no 'only' - it can still put you into a wall at 90. I've only been riding a few weeks but I am painfully aware that, while it's amazingly fun, I suck at it. MSF helped a lot.


OP: My condolences. I really appreciate your words of wisdom.

I'm 30, married with 3 kids as well, and I swear I could see my name in the obit when I read it. The grandfatherly guy who sold me my bike spent a good ten or fifteen minutes drilling on me things like "every time you get on that bike, remember you have three kids." That's wisdom right there.

[ai4px]

The first post of this thread needs stickied or something so that noobs can easily find it. A real eye opener for sure. We are all mortal but don't seem to realize it when we are young. We think we are 10 foot tall and bulletproof.

So sorry for his widow and children's loss

[ai4px]

I'd like to take an opportunity to throw some food for thought out. We think we can handle speed... it's all about my skills, right? Nope. It is about others seeing you!

How many times has a cager turned infront of a bike because he just didn't realize the bike was going that fast? Or the cager that looks and pulls out. The bike suddenly appears around that curve that is 100 feet upstream from the cager. He had no chance to see the bike.

In the curves, the speed limits are not about how skillfully you can lay your bike over and drag your knee. The speed limit in curves is determined by a line of sight chord through the curve. You know that two second rule? The highway engineers specify a speed limit based on you being able to see so many seconds ahead.... and the same rule applies for people who might enter the roadway... they need time to see you. If you go faster you reduce their opportunity to see you. Sure, people roll through stop signs and people don't always look before pulling out, but for those that do, they need those precious seconds to see you. The life you save my be your own.

[ninjaone]

Originally Posted by ai4px

The first post of this thread needs stickied or something so that noobs can easily find it.

Only reason I don't think it should be stickied is because the whole post gets pretty preachy about how 250s are the "one true way" and all anyone "needs" to have fun.

I agree about starting on a 250 (and below - 125/150's exist too ya know?) to develop your skills, but there is a good reason why supersport bikes are so popular. In the same way that people buy cars faster and sportier then a Corolla even though it's more then they "need", it's possible to have a lot of fun even on the streets at the speed limit with bikes well over 250cc.

If you have the attitude that you don't need to wear a helmet and that the bike (any bike really) is not something to be feared and respected, it really doesn't matter what bike you are on, you are rolling the dice every single time.

[ai4px]

Originally Posted by ninjaone

Only reason I don't think it should be stickied is because the whole post gets pretty preachy about how 250s are the "one true way" and all anyone "needs" to have fun.

How about a forum called "Reality Check" for obits? Hate to make it too dreary, but I'd also like to help keep the noobies alive (whew--- I almost typed boobies there).

If you have the attitude that you don't need to wear a helmet and that the bike (any bike really) is not something to be feared and respected, it really doesn't matter what bike you are on, you are rolling the dice every single time.

Absolutely... and someone said on this thread a few posts ago, when you get on the bike think about your kids. There is a German rap song that deals with this.... http://lyricstranslate.com/en/danke-thanks.html-2 Pretty deep (and clean) for a rap song.

[jman511115]

Sorry to hear about your friend. It always sucks to lose someone close.

[alex.s]

my condolences, not that it changes much. sorry for your loss.

i've been thinking about getting a 50cc scooter to use on the street lately

[xSean13]

Sorry to hear about your friend.

I am wondering though what you did about your seat...gel mod?

[psych0hans]

Sorry to hear about your loss it really is disturbing, the attitude of people towards atgatt... I practice it as much as I can...

[ninjaone]

Originally Posted by psych0hans

Sorry to hear about your loss it really is disturbing, the attitude of people towards atgatt... I practice it as much as I can...

Atgatt can go both ways in my opinion. Some people think practicing atgatt implies invincibility and means they can go as fast as you want. Outside of a helmet, gear is mainly protecting you from road rash. Don't get me wrong, road rash can put you in intensive care just as quickly as a broken femur or collarbone, but there isn't any gear which will prevent breaking your bones if you land the wrong way.

Dress for the crash, but don't use atgatt as an excuse for not managing your risks while riding.

[namdamyo]

Recently I've been tempted by bigger displacement bikes. Your post has put me off them again. Not so much the tragic crash (which are always sad news), but your summary of your 4 years riding.
You've reminded me how much I still have to learn, and how much fun there is to be had.

Maybe when I want a change I'll buy another 250 and make it a track bike!

[userjh160]

So sorry to hear about the loss of your friend.

[JustRidin]

In my excitement about getting a bike soon, it's easy for me to forget some of these hard realities. Posts like these are why I like this forum so much. People are always doing a reality check to make sure all of us maintain a safe frame of mind when we get on our bikes. It's important stuff; while I can't wait to get my bike I'd never be willing to sacrifice my life for it.

[psych0hans]

Originally Posted by ninjaone

Atgatt can go both ways in my opinion. Some people think practicing atgatt implies invincibility and means they can go as fast as you want. Outside of a helmet, gear is mainly protecting you from road rash. Don't get me wrong, road rash can put you in intensive care just as quickly as a broken femur or collarbone, but there isn't any gear which will prevent breaking your bones if you land the wrong way.

Dress for the crash, but don't use atgatt as an excuse for not managing your risks while riding.

There's no gear that can completely save you in a crash, but it does reduce the risk of serious injury.

[Mocha Man]

Sorry to hear about your friend.

I pray for everyone on here to be safe riders and avoid a tragedy

[mariorivera830]

My regards for your friend and his family...

This post is perfect for new riders (and old apparently), I am still getting past the freeway fears. I live in SoCal Inland Empire so I'm going to have to get over that real soon, especially if it's as great as it looks (without traffic or course).

I am super glad that I went with a 250. Once I get everything down, I am glad know that even after year 4 I will still have plenty of ninjette riding to do. Thanks for this and again, I am sorry about your friend.