KAWASAKI NINJA 300 (2012-on) Review

Bought 2nd hand with 3400 miles on. I have done around 2k of mainly daly commuting. Pretty much all seems great. Bought for a few reasons one being mpg which I can get around 73-74mpg but don’t get near the quoted 280 miles per tank. Around 205 the light is blinking away at me. Thoroughly enjoy the bike though and performs as well as you would expect a 300 to. Quite a narrow bike (part of the reason I bought it, so it can get up my side alley and in the back garden).

Happy with the bike overall. Rev happy if you need it to be but easily manageable. It will react quickly if you open the throttle like an idiot. Very easy to manoeuvre in town between traffic. I do mostly B roads followed by centre town traffic and the bike glides trough it all. Would not recommend this bike only if you are doing any frequent motorway miles. She can do it but it feels like she is giving it all she has, all the time. I felt this at 80mph... As a whole, this bike works best as a in town commuter and B-road fun. It feels solid and powerful enough for a 300. I also ride a Suzuki GS500F 2004 and other than comfort and overall stability due to weight, the Ninja would still be my choice.

Decent engine, Kawasaki cheaped out big time on something's though. The OEM chain has to be replaced in the same amount of time the one I replaced with took to need it's first adjustment, which isn't so bad chains I expect to replace but come on Kawasaki that's pretty poor. The biggest issue I have with this bike is that I had to replace to fork springs. At about a year and a half off the showroom floor the front got very soft. I contacted Kawasaki and the rep said to replace the fork fluid, I told him that seemed like it was not likely to the problem based on the performance but eventually against my better judgement has the fluid replaced. It did not improve anything, and Kawasaki had told me that it's considered normal maintenance that they don't publish any thing about. Yes I do know that it is a normal maintenance thing, but on other bikes I've owned it's been anywhere from 7-8 years or the bike needed other things replaced and was getting to be such high milage (150k+) that doing the forks and then everything else wasn't really worth it so I just went ahead and got a new bike. The suspension on the ninja got to be so bad that it was a safety concern for me, I had rear wheel locks when I never would have expected it on any of the other bikes I've owned it the ninja during the first year, it felt unstable during anything but the most conservative commuter cornering, the front end would dip badly when letting off the throttle, etc. I tried to contact Kawasaki about it again and one of their reps just quit responding while I was emailing back and forth. So finally I just went ahead and replaced the springs. And all the sudden the performance was like it was during the first year of the bikes life. I contacted the BBB seeking reimbursement from Kawasaki figuring that they would at least do something, but no. No reimbursement for the first reps poor advice to charge fluid, and nothing for the replaced springs. Long story short I've been recommending against Kawasaki when friends ask about getting into a motorcycle, and I'll be going back to either Suzuki or Honda when I get my next bike. I know that the dealer's will say it's an entry level bike so it's not as well manufactured as some of their others, but my Suzuki was an entry level 250cc and never had any problems that got me to contact the manufacturer over owning it for 8 out so years.

I just purchased this bike yesterday. Put 75 miles on it. Love this bike. I rode a GS500F, then went to a Shadow 750, and now here. I do a lot of street riding versus open road with big curves and this bike has been great for it so far. It's a lot more nimble than the Shadow and just as quick as the GS500. Seat position is a little more straight up versus your typical sport bike which is nice when I cruised on the highway for a little bit. I was able to get up to 95mph and still had some to go before redline (I'm 5'11'' and ~210lbs). Would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a practical yet fun motorcycle.

Top speed is a lot higher than 93 test rode one feels smooth in the gear changes acceleration is pritty much instant, if the 250r can do 110 I'm sure the 300 can do a little bit more