Starter Motors: Kawasaki Ninja 250R, BMW F650GS & Ducati Monster 696

There’s a new generation of sporty little numbers for first-time riders and those of a nervous disposition. We grabbed a relative novice and a grumpy old man and asked them if it’s all about power when it comes to having fun on a motorbike.

Yamaha led the way with their wicked looking new YZF-R125, the teen-friendly novice tool with the looks of a lion and the heart of a cuckoo clock. It sold in big numbers immediately. Kawasaki upped the ante with their funky little Ninja 250R, and BMW quickly added a low-seat option to their new F650GS. The manufacturers had recognised the potential of an upsurgent beginner’s market, and the race was on to produce the perfect starter motor.

Wave after wave of DAS licence holders passed their tests on a Friday, bought a Fireblade on Monday and crashed on Tuesday. Those that survived their first week were so terrified of their 160bhp monster that they read bike magazines cover to cover, desperate for tips on how to handle the monstrosity lurking in their garage.

But what they should have done was buy one of these. Simple, friendly motorcycles that want to work with you and teach you instead of ripping your head clean off. In the face of this new generation of great little bikes at sensible prices, we grabbed a relative beginner and a fella who’s been riding bikes forever and asked them the question: are beginner bikes dull as ditchwater, or do they have purpose beyond the CBT ground?

The Riders

The Novice

Name: Michaela Irwin
Age: 29 Height: 5’2”
Riding experience: 3 years

One in five new motorcyclists taking their test last year were female. That’s an astounding figure, all the more so because I’m not seeing them on the roads. Is there perhaps some alternative Fraggle Rock existence where female riders hang out that we haven’t discovered yet? But then I thought more about this; it took four years before I bothered swapping my 125cc scooter for a proper 750cc bike, and it wasn’t really to do with money, it was more about choice. In 2003 when I passed my test there just weren’t any desirable bikes that were rideable by five-footers like me. Bikes like Suzuki’s SV650 were common and already dubbed ‘a girl’s bike’, so I settled for a Kawasaki Z750...

The Old Git

Name: Colin Goodwin
Age: 46 Height: 5’10”
Riding experience: 35 years

There was a time when all I could think about was 250cc bikes. A year spent pedalling up hills on a moped and then overnight you could swap your L plates onto an RD250 and do almost 100mph and even modest wheelies. Then in 1981 it all finished when the 125cc learner law came in overnight and 250cc was made an irrelevant cubic capacity. Irrelevant legally, but not practically. Although by ’81 I’d owned plenty of 750s and bigger, I still occasionally owned a 250 because actually it’s a lovely size for a bike engine. In motocross it’s the motor size you stop at if you don’t want to spend your whole life going to casualty, and in international road racing it’s traditionally the class you’re in before climbing up to the highest diving board at the pool.

I’d have not slept at all if a bike like this Kawasaki 250R Ninja had come along in 1979. There’d have been riots. It’s a wonderful-looking machine but is it just a toy? What’s the point? There are several good reasons why the 250R makes sense and not just because those of a shorter stature can get both feet firmly planted on tarmac when they’re sitting on it.

There’s another really good reason for letting the little Ninja live and that’s because like the F650 GS and Monster 696, it’s not an intimidating bike to ride on a day when it’s very cold, damp and the Autumn leaves have made road surfaces challenging to an Olympic skater. And it doesn’t make a jot of difference whether you were biking when there was only one Kenny Roberts in the world or if the ink on your licence is yet to dry: riding in these conditions is daunting and challenging. Which could be why we haven’t seen many other bikes today. And if we were coming across hardly souls taking their R1s and 1098Rs out for a blast I bet they wouldn’t be riding much faster than us. Or not for long, anyway.

I have a friend who used to race with James Hunt and is a pretty handy driver. For years he drove an old 2CV because, he told me, driving it kept him on the pace because its lack of power meant that he had to drive it very smoothly to keep up a good speed. And being smooth makes you go fast, four wheels or two. And this is the beauty of the Ninja 250R. The little twin produces its 33bhp at 11,000rpm (that’s 2bhp less than Yamaha claimed for the RD250LC) and you need to be well over 5,000rpm to get it shifting. You are highly unlikely to highside, however clumsy you are. It’s got a sweet gearbox, a strong single disc brake because that’s all it needs and a good chassis. Scream it through the gears and carefully choose lines and I can’t see that in mucky conditions anyone on a 160bhp superbike is going to blast past.

Moving on, let me make an announcement: not with your bikes as well, BMW, please no! BMW has always enjoyed catching people out with its cars by putting badges on the back that bear no relevance to the actual engine size. And now they’re doing it with the bikes. The F650 uses a detuned version of the 798cc parallel twin used on the F800GS but BMW fibs with the badging so that novices aren’t intimidated by the engine size. They won’t be put off by any part of the F650 despite the fact that it’s a grown-up bike. This one has ABS and there’s a whole load of optional kit that you can buy for it from panniers down to the essential heated grips. And you can have it with a low seat option, too. Unlike the other bikes here the F650 GS will do virtually every job really well, including touring. It’s easy to ride, the engine is very smooth and the power delivery gentle.

There’s not a lot that’s boring about the Monster. I can never remember which came first: was it Richard Trevithick’s first steam locomotive or the Ducati Monster? The latter I think. So many years in production and only now a comfortable riding position. When the people from Bologna get it right they really do. The Monster 696 looks bang up to date yet it’s unmistakably a Monster. The engine has a bit more power and the lightest clutch ever. There’s more ground clearance than on the old bike and the handling is sharper. Best of all, it feels incredibly light and manoeuverable, just as much so as the little Kawasaki. The Monster 696’s seat height is incredibly low. If you are tall you have to be careful when pulling away otherwise the bike will drive out from between your legs.

Assuming that all three of these bikes are solely for people for whom basketball was out of the question and painting ceilings a neck ache, or for people inexperienced on two wheels is a nonsense. They’re affordable bikes that you own and not the other way around. The £5,495 BMW can be bought on a fantastically simple deal – you put £1,545 down then pay £165 in the first month and then £65 a month. At the end you either buy the bike for £3,000 or trade it in for the same sum for a new BMW. Just like a personal finance plan on a car. I read a report on the Monster that said “the 696 is rather expensive compared to a Suzuki SV650 but then it is a Ducati” which is a bit like saying the Maldives are a bit more expensive than the Isle of Wight but then it is warmer there in December. That said, the Suzuki has mirrors that work and that don’t fall to pieces because of dreadful quality and cost cutting.

Riding the Ninja 250R is great fun, but it is really a weekend toy for a giggle and at £3,300 it’s a bit too dear to justify as a part time fun thing. That said, if you’re working your way up towards a superbike it’s a fantastic learning tool and a great stepping stone. It’s also a great town bike if you don’t do loads of miles but don’t want the expense and complication of a big bike. Plenty fall into that bracket because the Ninja 250R sells well.

The Monster is also a bike that has limited uses. Fantastic for blasting around the countryside in nice weather and thanks to the improved riding position a reasonably long trip wouldn’t be a nightmare. But it can’t compare to the BMW for all-round ability. The F650 GS is good in town, smooth and comfortable in the country and perfectly able to take you, a passenger and luggage to the Pyrenees for a touring holiday. It’s a great all-rounder.

How DAS murdered biking

It used to be that you learned how to ride a motorbike on something slow and rubbish. When you fell off (which you did, a lot) you were only doing 45mph so it didn’t matter. All you destroyed were another pair of Lee Cooper jeans. If you were below the age of 25 you couldn’t get insurance on anything bigger than a Kawasaki GPz305 (which was slower than an RD125LC with Allspeed pipes, anyway), so you were self-limited to 125s, 250s and the odd 400. By the time you could afford something decent, you knew how to ride. Today, however, thanks to Direct Access you can take a week off work, hand over £650, have a guaranteed pass on a Friday and buy your new GSX-R1000 on 0% finance for the princely outlay of £1. They’ll even chuck in the insurance. And you have simply no idea how to ride the thing. Excuse us for being old, but this system is ludicrous...

MICHAELA SAYS...

Kawasaki Ninja 250R

Lurid green and packaged to emulate its big ZX brothers, this is one stylish little bike. The baby Ninja’s appearance reeks of speed and sport, and to a layman it would immediately be picked out

as the fastest motorcyCle in the pack. This credibility – real or not - is a massive appeal factor to me. It’s such a deceptive package for a 250cc engine, you think it’ll be a drag to ride but this new breed of small capacity sportsbike will change the any presumptions that such bikes ‘should’ look scrawny.

On the road the Ninja is (obviously) very easy to ride but it’s also bloody good fun. The throttle needs to be twisted off its stops and all the way through the gears to get to the performance, making it ideal for anyone shy of slippery conditions and loads of horsepower. Power delivery is smooth and under about 5,000rpm the Ninja is completely tame, but it springs to life after 10,000rpm and will happily squirrel up to 90mph. It just doesn’t intimidate the rider, meaning you can push harder and explore your skills as a motorcyclist quicker. Any bike, from Valentino Rossi’s M1 MotoGP monster to a pizza delivery scooter, handles and reacts in the same way to rider input, and the Ninja lets you explore in safety. Something I couldn’t say about the Monster.

Twisty country roads are childish joy on the Ninja, handling is light and easy to lift and turn into corners. It’s a guaranteed Sunday pleaser without knackering or worrying the more nervous rider. In town both feet sit firmly flat on the ground so worrisome approaches to off-camber traffic lights or unexpected pot holes don’t exist, paddling backwards into bike ranks is a doddle due to its light weight and the Ninja is more suited to these boring practicalities than the BMW 650.

I hate motorways and will always plan routes to avoid them, even in good weather, because blustery crosswinds just scare me.

So when we ventured onto the M25 with torrential freezing rain, a salted and fogged up visor, and blowing a mini-gale, my whole body tensed right up and, jaw clenched, I buckled down to get through it. But with its light weight and useful weather protection the little Ninja got us through winter’s worst with no horrors at all. I became convinced that the fuel light must have broken (no gauge on these) having just ridden 140 miles without filling up.

I lived with the Ninja for a while, and it created quite a stir. Not the guys, but the girls. Office dollies even got up to go outside and have a look at the Ninja. You might not realise how significant that is, but these birds never leave their desks unless it’s going home time. I was offended that they’d never even glanced at my Z750 so explained the Ninja was a learner bike, and my 750 has three times the engine size, but by the end of the week I had stopped trying to educate and just went “yes, yes, it is very fast.”

Ducati Monster 696

There’s no doubt the sexy growl of the Monster’s V-twin engine beats the BMW and Ninja hands down, it announces proudly to the world that you’re coming and you mean business. The agressive

styling, for me, is a marked improvement on the old Monster. However, despite it’s popularity the Monster has never held great appeal to me. I hold a complete stereotype that this is the bike that the Tarquins of this world lust after. I can only liken it to Foxtons bastardising the Mini Cooper.

The bike is lighter than expected, and combined with a skinny seat suprisingly meant both feet were, as with the Ninja, fully flat on the ground. It instantly makes the rider feel comfortable, even though it’s upfront riding position initially gives you the sensation of being too close to the front wheel. It’s an easy bike to ride, devoid of any heaviness on the controls, and the clutch is light enough to operate even with small hands. Power is instant and lively. Unlike the Ninja this Ducati can intimidate novice riders and you’ll have to temper throttle-happy tendencies if lacking in experience.

Of the three bikes, the Monster delivers the most pure motorcycling experience in that it satisfies the key credentials: a sublime exhaust note that brings an instant smile, power that zips up to 100mph and delivers more than you need, and handling that is agile enough to make you cheer and wave when warning signs about twisty roads ahead are posted.

The detailing on the Ducati is great with some aspects borrowed straight from the 1098. Features like this stamp the Ducati heritage on the bike, an essential part of Italian bike ownership. As with all things built on passion you know your heart will lead to a purchase that your head might have a foot stomping moment with. The Monster is pricey, so when the right mirror decided to take flight while riding at 50 mph it was a disappointment. Where the Ninja is cheap and the BMW has excellent build quality the Ducati can’t even pretend to compete on these aspects.

BMW F650GS

This motorcycle feels so indulgent, it’s cheating in some warped way to have heated handle bar grips! I’m 29, and please don’t tell anyone this, but sometimes I wear slippers. The reason I’m sharing this personal information with you is that riding the GS makes you feel as comfortable as a pair of Totes Toasties.

It has a lofty ride position from where you view the land with authority. For people of my altitude, buying the option with the lowered suspension would be hugely beneficial as the majority of manouevers were one footed on the standard setting. How the others laughed when I couldn’t get the sidestand down, I considered just letting the whole bike fall to the ground. The indicators are an acquired taste and will always take a great deal of getting used to - with small hands you need to take your hand off the throttle to use them; the foot-kick signaling technique was significantly easier.

The engine is a tuned-down 800 to give the performance characteristics of a 650, which allows some slack for any novice’s lazy mistakes. It’s an enjoyable engine to flick up through the gears quickly and tear about the countryside. It’s a spirited bike on the road which can be used as a light foray into the weird world of off-road riding, even if this aspect only ever gets covered in a gravel car park. The Beemer’s ability to tackle roads other than perfectly smooth means that long jaunts are appealing. It won’t tackle Dakar but will inspire you to venture that bit further.

If you had to travel any distance the GS would be the bike of choice; adequate wind protection (especially compared to the Monster) comfy seat, backside-friendly suspension, heated handle bar grips, and the option of panniers so big, even I could fit in them. I’d also bring a snack and thermos of coffee for the road, too – and this is where the BMW falls down. Would someone new to biking really lust after it? I’m growing old fast enough as it is, I want to spend the remaining days of my youth enjoying the ridiculous and impractical. The GS just doesn’t have fun and throttle written all over it. It’s rather grown-up.

Specifications

BMW F650 GS

Price: £6,450
Engine: 798cc, liquid-cooled, 8-valve parallel twin
Power: 71bhp @ 7,000rpm
Torque: 55 lb.ft @ 3,000rpm
Front suspension: RWU, non-adjustable
Rear suspension: Monoshock, adjustable rebound
Front brake: 300mm discs, two-piston calipers
Rear brake: 265mm disc, two-piston caliper
Dry weight: 179kg (claimed)
Seat height: 820mm
Fuel capacity: 16 litres
Top speed: 110mph
Colours: Blue, Silver, Red

Ducati Monster 696

Price: £6,350
Engine: 696cc, air-cooled, 4-valve V-twin
Power: 80bhp @ 9,000rpm
Torque: 50.6 lb.ft @ 7,750rpm
Front suspension: USD, non-adjustable
Rear suspension: Monoshock, adjustable rebound and preload
Front brake: 320mm discs, four-piston radial calipers
Rear brake: 245mm disc, two-piston caliper
Dry weight: 161kg (claimed)
Seat height: 770mm
Fuel capacity: 15 litres
Top speed: 110mph
Colours: Red, White, Black

Kawasaki Ninja 250R

Price: £4,009
Engine: 249cc, liquid-cooled, 8-valve parallel twin
Power: 33bhp @ 11,000rpm
Torque: 16 lb.ft @ 8,200rpm
Front suspension: RWU, non-adjustable
Rear suspension: Monoshock, adjustable rebound
Front brake: 290mm discs, two-piston calipers
Rear brake: 220mm disc, two-piston caliper
Dry weight: 169kg (claimed)
Seat height: 790mm
Fuel capacity: 17 litres
Top speed: 110mph
Colours: Black, Green