Kawasaki Ninja 300

Kawasaki Ninja 300 is an entry-level sports bike with twin-cylinder, improved style, ergonomics, quality and comfort. The brand has made significant efforts in order to eliminate the pitfalls and make the ride more comfortable for the rider. The bike’s refreshed look, with new livery accentuates the overall appeal. The bike now looks meaner than ever before. It sports a removable long rear grab rail that extends from the pillion foot peg to the tail. The high-quality material has been used in the making and refinements have been done at the trivial ends, which is clearly evident. Performance-wise, it is a refiner high revving unit with redline starting at 13,000rpm- can be regarded as the beast on open highways and a delightful machine in the city. It gets a massive 17-litre fuel tank, which offers incredible touring range. One of the major improvements it comes with is the clutch, now has Assist and Slipper function. It is a lot smoother and responds well to the quick gear shifting.  Some concerning points that need to be mentioned include brakes and tyres. The tyres aren’t that grippy while the braking is on a slower side. Hard braking can leave you in ruins as the job is not quite done by the discs on offer. Overall, it is a fine road machine for the ones new to biking. It possesses touring and track capabilities- great to start off with and to have in your first sports bike.

Design-wise it is a typical Ninja- aggressive front with a multi-reflector headlamp, minimalistic tail, eye-catchy alloys, ventilated fairing, floating windscreen design, big muscled 17-litre fuel tank, clip-on handlebars, upswept exhaust, split seats and the new livery. The handlebar and rear view mirrors are pushed forward while the footpegs get a new placement, which collectively accounts for a comfortable riding stance- neither over committed to the track nor to the touring. It gets a low seat height of 785mm which is ideal for short-height riders to manage it across the turf. An optional, removable rear grab rail is also on offer that extends all the way to tail from the pillion foot pegs. Heat management on the bike is masterly handled by smartly-designed air-intakes, fin design and holes in the fairing. The green pinstripe on the alloys looks great while the built-in turn indicators at the front are worth admiring. The instrument console gets the analogue-digital display for necessary readouts.

Dimensionally, it measures 2015mm long, 715mm wide and 170mm high. The ground clearance sits at 140mm and the wheelbase at 1405mm.

Powering the new Ninja 300 is the 4-stroke, parallel twin, liquid-cooled 296cc engine with fuel injection system and dual throttle valves. The engine is capable of pumping out a max power of 39PS at 11,000rpm and a peak torque of 27Nm at 10,000rpm. The engine is coupled to a six-speed transmission which gets an Assist and Slipper function making downshifting easy as you’d like. The clutch feels a lot smoother and lighter on highways as well on the city streets. The approximate mileage of the bike is 32Kmpl and the top speed is 160Kmph (estimated). The refinement levels are worked upon by the brand which can be seen via improved NVH levels and the smoother and lighter clutch.

Built on the tubular diamond frame, the Ninja 300 rides on the 37mm conventional telescopic front fork with 120mm travel suspension and Bottom-Link gas-charged rear shock absorbers with adjustable spring preload and 132mm travel suspension. The braking duties on the bike are taken care of by the single petal 290mm disc at front and 220mm disc brake at the back. ABS remains absent. The 17-inch alloys are wrapped in IRC tyres of section 110/70R17 and 150/60R17 at front and rear respectively. The suspension is on the stiffer side but capable of soaking the road imperfections. On the flip side, the braking setup is weak and doesn’t have the bite to grant confidence to the rider around corners.

The Ninja 300 gets a 290mm front disc and a 220mm rear disc with dual-channel ABS as standard.