...it "seems to be" a good entry-level starter-bike, to you? Based on what criteria? Seriously if you think that then wouldn't a 150lb bike with 20hp be even better, especially if it's half the cost of the 390? Let's go for a 15lb bike with a 2hp motor at a 20th of the cost! To borrow a catechism, should bikes be so weak that you can ride them at full throttle through the first 3 gears without any fear whatsoever? Hell, no. The problem with these 300cc bikes is that they are like weaning high-school batters on a pitcher with a 40mph fastball and thinking that this has any relevance to real high-school pitching. These are not motorcycles, they are just glorified scooters. They suck as anything more than either a high-MPG low-cost bike, or as a lever to inspire fear in and intimidate new riders with even 600 performance. Just think of how dangerously-fast a decent bike must be if this is the type of bike that is safe for a new riders. These bikes successfully dumb-down the conversation to a level at which true idiots feel comfortable and competent talking about riding motorcycles and as such these 300cc bikes are unsurprisingly popular and well-received with people who are literally afraid of riding real bikes because of their power. Just as how handguns would be highly popular with even the gun-haters if you could buy a 3mm automatic (.25ACP is 6.5mm) that carried only 6 rounds that could penetrate no more than an inch of ballistic jelly. Virtually harmless unless you shot someone in the eye with it, you could just barely put so many holes in them that they actually would bleed enough to pass-out, but the 6 holes would be so small and shallow that they would all clot before the target died of blood-loss. Basically you'd have to try really hard to kill someone with it. This bike is even more dangerous than such a gun because all you'd have to do to kill yourself on it is run it into a large fixed object or off a cliff. What is wrong with our society these days, seriously. It is like we have to neuter everything...unless certain people are involved with it...basically for these certain people. High-powered cars are bad until they want powerful SUVs, large vehicles are bad until they want large SUVs. And so on. Fast motorcycles are bad until they want powerful ADV bikes and commuter-bikes. "But still, before you buy that GS1200 adventure, you need to practice on this Ninja 300. Because that's great practice for riding a 1200cc bike". Just like flying a Cessna 182 is great practice for flying an F-16. It's not whether it makes sense or not. It's how many people believe it. I really have to say, that is the Achilles Heel of democracy. We don't do what is smart. We do what is popular. And in fact the smarter something is the less-popular it is and the more anti-democratic and wrong it is seen to be. And then the "democratists" swoop-in and take away your "right" to do what is smart. Arguing that it is bad for the public. Turning this country into one giant collective "fail". It's like the dopes wearing camos and baggy pants and chains like soldiers and gangsters trying to look tough without actually having to be tough. Apparently it's ok to look like a bad-ass as long as you clearly aren't actually a bad-ass. I can just imagine the conversations now, "oh that's an R3, your bike is a dog-ass slow pice of shit man" "oh yeah, let's go out in the twisties and I'll show you who is slow!" blah blah blah and they ride out to the twisties and have to wait for the guys on the 300s to get there. Do people who buy these bikes seriously think that they will be able to corner on them like an AMA pro racer, fast enough to make up for the virtual absence of acceleration? The only way that you can really beat someone on a faster bike with one of these things is to ride it at a steady 65mph and wait for them to run out of gas. Please do not be the idiot who tries to beat experienced riders on faster bikes by outcornering them. Just admit that you are on a dog-slow learners-bike and sit back and learn from your betters. Both their successes and their failures.

• published: 28 Jun 2015
• views: 24