'08 Ninja 250: Real World 1st Trackday Impression Report - Finally! (Long)
Decided to branch out and start a new thread on the finally-forthcoming first trackday impressions report on the new ’08 Ninja 250. The reason for the fresh thread being that the originally started one had gotten way off the planned course by the less-then-ideal events that ended the day prematurely. This fresh thread should allow for focusing exclusively on a discussion of the bike, and its testing of the waters in the track environment.
Hope you enjoy!
Gary J
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
It should first be noted that the “Old-Gen” (’88-’07) Ninja 250 reference points that I was carrying into this Infineon trackday, for comparing the performance of a completely stock ’08 Ninja 250’s performance out on track, are purely from time spent riding/racing on fairly heavily modified track-only/race bikes. Those bikes all had race bodywork, aftermarket shock and front suspension mods, raised rearsets, and some level of expensive internal engine modifications (as much as 35’ish RWHP). The majority of that experience was on a bike with expensive 17” “weld-up” conversion wheels, allowing running modern radial race-compound rubber at both ends.
With my only “on-track” experiences with the “Old-Gen” Ninja 250’s being on machines that were far from stock, it was admittedly difficult to set realistic expectations for performance on a totally unmodified streetbike version of the ’08 bike. With that warning stated up front in this report, please take the “did it measure” up perspective with a good-sized grain of salt.
Preamble info on status of equipment on ’08 Ninja 250 ridden:
To try to make it easy for interested readers to review each of the key elements of a bike’s performance, I’ll present the evaluation in a bulleted , itemized format, with supportive content following each heading. Hopefully that makes it easy to either read, or skim only to topics of interest ….. as each reader may choose.
Power/Acceleration:
For those that had read the earlier “Part 1-4 Real World Ride Reports” on life on the ’08 Ninja 250 in the street environment, you will recall that despite a sensation of a bit less “peak HP” (upper RPM range), that the superior mid-range (7K-10K) “grunt” of the motor in the new model bike resulted in the power delivery being superior for this form of real world riding. The tighter, less opportunity for WFO throttle riding … of even the best of the twisty public roads ….created a environment where the 26’ish HP of the little bike didn’t leave me as a rider feeling all that “inadequate”. It did the job, for the conditions, just fine.
Turn the page to the wide open spaces of the track, with the full width of the paved surface devoted exclusively to going in one direction, at unrestricted speeds, and the feeling of “inadequacy” of the 26’ish HP of the ’08 Ninja 250 is impossible to ignore. Of course the modified “Old-Gen” bikes that I’d had on the track had been far from white-knucklers when it came to acceleration, but the totally stock ’08 machine definitely increased that sensation of “who threw out the anchor?”
In the first ½ of the day, there weren’t any noticeable winds out on track. As a result; though the bike certainly was getting out-pulled in every straight by 99% of the other machines on the track, it did seem that maintaining good corner-exit speed kept it pretty manageable. Unfortunately the afternoon winds of Infineon reared their heads, in the form of very strong North/South (blowing from Turn 7, back towards Turn 6 – “The Carousel”) directional gusts.
The two areas where the little Ninja was absolutely killed on acceleration (as a result of these winds) were heading out of the last turn (Turn 11) …; for the run up the front straight, and even moreso, in the uphill stretch heading out of “The Carousel”, on the long climb back to Turn 7. Watching how painfully slow the speedometer was climbing, as the bike struggled to pull the bike past the 75MPH+ range, I initially had the impression that there might be something going south inside the engine. I swear it felt almost like someone had pulled off one (of only two) sparkplug wires! Only reason I knew there was nothing wrong with the engine causing the sluggish acceleration, was the fact that the bike pulled just fine everywhere on track that wasn’t running into the strong headwind.
When you’ve only got 26HP to start with, giving up 10HP to wind resistance is not something that goes unnoticed, as it would on a 600cc, 100HP+ machine. When other bikes were blowing on past each lap in this section, I was sure they were saying in their helmets, “man, why doesn’t that slowpoke get on the gas?”
Handling:
The geometry of the bike with the currently mounted tire sizes, and setup of the rear preload (“sag”), made for a nice combination of stability in the corners, as well as a willingness to turn-in nicely, and hold the target line all the way through the turns. There was none of the “flexy-flyer” chassis feel that must be an accepted evil when riding one of the “Old-Gen” machines at speed. The only shortcoming came in the form of a little less feedback then ideal from the tires, and the firm, but low-tech suspension transmitting more of the pavement irregularities into the chassis then ideal for a track-based bike.
Suspension:
There’s no comparison on the track-readiness of the suspension (front and rear) on the ’08 bike, as compared to a totally “stock suspended” “Old-Gen” machine. The springs are definitely stiff enough to prevent ever bottoming out either end, not matter the pace; at least with my 170lb. rider weight aboard.
Being low-tech “damping rod” fork technology, the expected excessive high-speed compression damping resulted in some momentary traction losses anytime the bike crossed over irregular pavement sections, while leaned over. One of the most noticeable areas, was going through the off-camber, downhill, Turn 4. You really had to let the bike work gingerly over the bumpy surface on exit, and run nearly all the way to the candystripe curbing, to keep the tires from chattering away and losing grip to the point of getting you in trouble.
The line I was taking must have looked odd to some, as the wide exit, as compared to the actual cornering speed, was definitely a mis-match for a well hooking up regular suspended sportbike.
Even in totally stock form, the front forks were definitely up to the task of resisting excessive bottoming-out diving, no matter how hard I got on the brakes. I was ultimately able to brake later, at the end of the steep downhill run to the AMA Turn 9/9a bus-stop, then any other bike I encountered all day in the “B-Group” where I was riding the Ninja 250.
The rebound damping on the forks could be a bit slower, to improve the ability to come smoothly back off the front brakes, when easing in towards the apex of corners. This was especially true on the hard-braking approach turns … like Turn 11, for example. I found it required a very delicate touch to keep a fine balance between enough trail-braking to keep the front forks from over-extending and causing the bike to run wide, without overloading the limited grip of the front tire and tossing it away. Managed to do that smoothly all day, without any moments during those transitions, so it was obviously do-able.
Braking:
I’d been very impressed with the “one-finger” braking that I’d found was possible on the new bike, from the very first street ride. As a result of taking full advantage of the good front brake during the 4K street miles before heading to the track, I found it necessary to replace the almost-gone pads before heading up to Infineon. Having had good luck with EBC (brand) “HH Sintered” pads in the past, over the course of nearly 90K miles on the “Old-Gen” Ninja 250, I had purchased a set for replacements to the OEM pads on the new bike. Unfortunately I was quite surprised to find that the initial bite of the EBC pads fell WAY short of the OEM pads! The EBC’s would get the bike slowed down effectively, but it really took a lot more physical lever pull pressure, to get the job done. I’ll leave the current set in until they eventually are worn and need replacement, but am going to ante-up for the more expensive OEM pads, next time around. Who’d have thunk that stock OEM pads, on a $3,500 “beginners-bike”, would be so good from Kawasaki?
Not that the rear brake gets all that much use for actual slowing of the bike, but it does seem to be quite linear in its rate of grip; thus allowing a nice resource for “chassis settling” chores on some corner entrances (like Turn 6, “The Carousel”), and mild line adjustments (tightening) mid-corner, if needed.
Ground Clearance:
This has got to be the #1 strength of the ’08 Ninja 250, over the “Old-Gen”! Despite getting around the track at a reasonable respectable pace on my track, and racebikes, I’ve never been known to be a big “kneepuck dragger”. A very light touchdown at corner entry (to set lean angle), followed by bringing the leg in just slightly to keep it barely skimming (or not even touching) the pavement, is typical. Despite this style, I normally do get a puck down a few times on every lap, on my other bikes. On the ’08 Ninja 250, with the extremely high footpegs, and narrow chassis, I found very few instances all day where I actually touched down. Going down the hill through “The Carousel”, where there’s a bit of a G-Out towards the bottom of the hill, was the only spot where I saw any serious puck-to-pavement contact. Even then, it was only on about 20% of the total laps run during the day.
Of course my recognition of the limitations of grip of the tires on the bike (especially the 1K street-cycled rear), caused me to consciously limit the maximum lean angle that I used all day, to a lot less then I’d use on any normal trackday/racebike that I’ve ridden, with pure race-compound rubber. Gotta ride within the limitations of the weakest link in your equipment.
Tires/Grip:
As was previously mentioned at the start of this report, the tires on the bike were low-buck, DOT street version Dunlop GT-501 bias-ply skins. Generally these are quite capable tires to get up to decent speed at the track (from past experience). However my error in the case of taking the bike to the track, was not recognizing that the performance of these tires is directly proportional to their “newness”.
The front worked great! It got sticky, never slipped a single time; whether under tail-wagging, white-knuckle braking, or pushing the front end very hard at the apex of the turns.
The rear however ……… oh the rear!!! That was truly the “Achilles Heel” of trying to ring out the potential performance of the bike all day. Every time I raised the bar on cornering loads to the “fun level”, I was handed a rude wake-up call from the rear tire, in the form of a not-so-stoppable “slide”. The worst places for this behavior, in order of “badness”, were as follows:
Lap Times:
I never had any kind of timing device in place during the event, which was all good, as I had no desire to really press the limits at a trackday.. The objective of taking the bike out there to Infineon, being to have a little fun on the new bike, and get a better feel about the good and bad characteristics, when the conditions allowed for it to be ridden in much less restricted (by laws, traffic, etc) environment.
As such, I really don’t know what the best times on the day were (?). The must-respect limitations that the tires (mostly “rear”) presented, the mixed traffic of a B-Group trackday environment, and the strong winds that were out there during the portion of the day where becoming more adjusted to the bike would have otherwise likely netted the best laps, probably kept things at a far less then spectacular level …….even for a 26HP Ninja 250.
Out of the 45’ish+ (?) bikes that were out on the track during the “B-Group” sessions (where I rode the Ninja 250), based on the passing/being passed ratio that I saw happening over the course of the 5 full sessions ridden over the course of the day, I’d guesstimate that the little bike was running lap times that would have put it in the top 20% or so of those out on track (?). No big deal either way, as it was a non-competitive trackday (not a race), but it did seem the littlest Kawasaki didn’t embarrass itself too badly amongst the sea of big-brother machines that were out there sharing the track.
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Conclusion:
As many may already know, despite all the good-times that were had on the maiden (and likely last) trackday voyage of the little Ninja 250, the day ended early, and not on the best of notes.
So the final questions may be asked:
The answers?
All the above is presented purely as “One Rider’s Opinion”, in a FWIW fashion. To each their own in bike and riding choices. If your experiences or impression differ, that's totally cool too, as it's always a "Whatever works for you, is best" kind of thing.
Hope this real world, first-hand, post-trackday report on the new ’08 Ninja 250 (first serious “track-only” report I’ve seen anywhere in the motorcycle press community?), was of interest to at least a few of you.
Happy riding!
Decided to branch out and start a new thread on the finally-forthcoming first trackday impressions report on the new ’08 Ninja 250. The reason for the fresh thread being that the originally started one had gotten way off the planned course by the less-then-ideal events that ended the day prematurely. This fresh thread should allow for focusing exclusively on a discussion of the bike, and its testing of the waters in the track environment.
Hope you enjoy!
Gary J
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
It should first be noted that the “Old-Gen” (’88-’07) Ninja 250 reference points that I was carrying into this Infineon trackday, for comparing the performance of a completely stock ’08 Ninja 250’s performance out on track, are purely from time spent riding/racing on fairly heavily modified track-only/race bikes. Those bikes all had race bodywork, aftermarket shock and front suspension mods, raised rearsets, and some level of expensive internal engine modifications (as much as 35’ish RWHP). The majority of that experience was on a bike with expensive 17” “weld-up” conversion wheels, allowing running modern radial race-compound rubber at both ends.
With my only “on-track” experiences with the “Old-Gen” Ninja 250’s being on machines that were far from stock, it was admittedly difficult to set realistic expectations for performance on a totally unmodified streetbike version of the ’08 bike. With that warning stated up front in this report, please take the “did it measure” up perspective with a good-sized grain of salt.
Preamble info on status of equipment on ’08 Ninja 250 ridden:
- Suspension: Stock, with shock preload set at #3 setting
Tires: Dunlop GT-501 “bias-ply”
Tire condition: Front- New on trackday, Rear – @1,000 hard street miles
Brakes: Front - Newly replaced “EBC” HH-Sintered pads, Rear – stock pads
All other items: Totally showroom stock
To try to make it easy for interested readers to review each of the key elements of a bike’s performance, I’ll present the evaluation in a bulleted , itemized format, with supportive content following each heading. Hopefully that makes it easy to either read, or skim only to topics of interest ….. as each reader may choose.
Power/Acceleration:
For those that had read the earlier “Part 1-4 Real World Ride Reports” on life on the ’08 Ninja 250 in the street environment, you will recall that despite a sensation of a bit less “peak HP” (upper RPM range), that the superior mid-range (7K-10K) “grunt” of the motor in the new model bike resulted in the power delivery being superior for this form of real world riding. The tighter, less opportunity for WFO throttle riding … of even the best of the twisty public roads ….created a environment where the 26’ish HP of the little bike didn’t leave me as a rider feeling all that “inadequate”. It did the job, for the conditions, just fine.
Turn the page to the wide open spaces of the track, with the full width of the paved surface devoted exclusively to going in one direction, at unrestricted speeds, and the feeling of “inadequacy” of the 26’ish HP of the ’08 Ninja 250 is impossible to ignore. Of course the modified “Old-Gen” bikes that I’d had on the track had been far from white-knucklers when it came to acceleration, but the totally stock ’08 machine definitely increased that sensation of “who threw out the anchor?”
In the first ½ of the day, there weren’t any noticeable winds out on track. As a result; though the bike certainly was getting out-pulled in every straight by 99% of the other machines on the track, it did seem that maintaining good corner-exit speed kept it pretty manageable. Unfortunately the afternoon winds of Infineon reared their heads, in the form of very strong North/South (blowing from Turn 7, back towards Turn 6 – “The Carousel”) directional gusts.
The two areas where the little Ninja was absolutely killed on acceleration (as a result of these winds) were heading out of the last turn (Turn 11) …; for the run up the front straight, and even moreso, in the uphill stretch heading out of “The Carousel”, on the long climb back to Turn 7. Watching how painfully slow the speedometer was climbing, as the bike struggled to pull the bike past the 75MPH+ range, I initially had the impression that there might be something going south inside the engine. I swear it felt almost like someone had pulled off one (of only two) sparkplug wires! Only reason I knew there was nothing wrong with the engine causing the sluggish acceleration, was the fact that the bike pulled just fine everywhere on track that wasn’t running into the strong headwind.
When you’ve only got 26HP to start with, giving up 10HP to wind resistance is not something that goes unnoticed, as it would on a 600cc, 100HP+ machine. When other bikes were blowing on past each lap in this section, I was sure they were saying in their helmets, “man, why doesn’t that slowpoke get on the gas?”
Handling:
The geometry of the bike with the currently mounted tire sizes, and setup of the rear preload (“sag”), made for a nice combination of stability in the corners, as well as a willingness to turn-in nicely, and hold the target line all the way through the turns. There was none of the “flexy-flyer” chassis feel that must be an accepted evil when riding one of the “Old-Gen” machines at speed. The only shortcoming came in the form of a little less feedback then ideal from the tires, and the firm, but low-tech suspension transmitting more of the pavement irregularities into the chassis then ideal for a track-based bike.
Suspension:
There’s no comparison on the track-readiness of the suspension (front and rear) on the ’08 bike, as compared to a totally “stock suspended” “Old-Gen” machine. The springs are definitely stiff enough to prevent ever bottoming out either end, not matter the pace; at least with my 170lb. rider weight aboard.
Being low-tech “damping rod” fork technology, the expected excessive high-speed compression damping resulted in some momentary traction losses anytime the bike crossed over irregular pavement sections, while leaned over. One of the most noticeable areas, was going through the off-camber, downhill, Turn 4. You really had to let the bike work gingerly over the bumpy surface on exit, and run nearly all the way to the candystripe curbing, to keep the tires from chattering away and losing grip to the point of getting you in trouble.
The line I was taking must have looked odd to some, as the wide exit, as compared to the actual cornering speed, was definitely a mis-match for a well hooking up regular suspended sportbike.
Even in totally stock form, the front forks were definitely up to the task of resisting excessive bottoming-out diving, no matter how hard I got on the brakes. I was ultimately able to brake later, at the end of the steep downhill run to the AMA Turn 9/9a bus-stop, then any other bike I encountered all day in the “B-Group” where I was riding the Ninja 250.
The rebound damping on the forks could be a bit slower, to improve the ability to come smoothly back off the front brakes, when easing in towards the apex of corners. This was especially true on the hard-braking approach turns … like Turn 11, for example. I found it required a very delicate touch to keep a fine balance between enough trail-braking to keep the front forks from over-extending and causing the bike to run wide, without overloading the limited grip of the front tire and tossing it away. Managed to do that smoothly all day, without any moments during those transitions, so it was obviously do-able.
Braking:
I’d been very impressed with the “one-finger” braking that I’d found was possible on the new bike, from the very first street ride. As a result of taking full advantage of the good front brake during the 4K street miles before heading to the track, I found it necessary to replace the almost-gone pads before heading up to Infineon. Having had good luck with EBC (brand) “HH Sintered” pads in the past, over the course of nearly 90K miles on the “Old-Gen” Ninja 250, I had purchased a set for replacements to the OEM pads on the new bike. Unfortunately I was quite surprised to find that the initial bite of the EBC pads fell WAY short of the OEM pads! The EBC’s would get the bike slowed down effectively, but it really took a lot more physical lever pull pressure, to get the job done. I’ll leave the current set in until they eventually are worn and need replacement, but am going to ante-up for the more expensive OEM pads, next time around. Who’d have thunk that stock OEM pads, on a $3,500 “beginners-bike”, would be so good from Kawasaki?
Not that the rear brake gets all that much use for actual slowing of the bike, but it does seem to be quite linear in its rate of grip; thus allowing a nice resource for “chassis settling” chores on some corner entrances (like Turn 6, “The Carousel”), and mild line adjustments (tightening) mid-corner, if needed.
Ground Clearance:
This has got to be the #1 strength of the ’08 Ninja 250, over the “Old-Gen”! Despite getting around the track at a reasonable respectable pace on my track, and racebikes, I’ve never been known to be a big “kneepuck dragger”. A very light touchdown at corner entry (to set lean angle), followed by bringing the leg in just slightly to keep it barely skimming (or not even touching) the pavement, is typical. Despite this style, I normally do get a puck down a few times on every lap, on my other bikes. On the ’08 Ninja 250, with the extremely high footpegs, and narrow chassis, I found very few instances all day where I actually touched down. Going down the hill through “The Carousel”, where there’s a bit of a G-Out towards the bottom of the hill, was the only spot where I saw any serious puck-to-pavement contact. Even then, it was only on about 20% of the total laps run during the day.
Of course my recognition of the limitations of grip of the tires on the bike (especially the 1K street-cycled rear), caused me to consciously limit the maximum lean angle that I used all day, to a lot less then I’d use on any normal trackday/racebike that I’ve ridden, with pure race-compound rubber. Gotta ride within the limitations of the weakest link in your equipment.
Tires/Grip:
As was previously mentioned at the start of this report, the tires on the bike were low-buck, DOT street version Dunlop GT-501 bias-ply skins. Generally these are quite capable tires to get up to decent speed at the track (from past experience). However my error in the case of taking the bike to the track, was not recognizing that the performance of these tires is directly proportional to their “newness”.
The front worked great! It got sticky, never slipped a single time; whether under tail-wagging, white-knuckle braking, or pushing the front end very hard at the apex of the turns.
The rear however ……… oh the rear!!! That was truly the “Achilles Heel” of trying to ring out the potential performance of the bike all day. Every time I raised the bar on cornering loads to the “fun level”, I was handed a rude wake-up call from the rear tire, in the form of a not-so-stoppable “slide”. The worst places for this behavior, in order of “badness”, were as follows:
- 1) Worst:: Turn 6 – “The Carousel” On a number of laps I really gave a good show to the bikes behind me, weith the back end of the bike breaking traction, and drifting-and-sliding outward, in a style that was totally reminiscent of riding on a slick track surface in the rain! On at least one lap, it REALLY got out there, almost to a level of being “flattrack” style. Fortunately having put in more miles on wet pavement at speed over the years, on and off the track, allowed it to be managed OK. Not real enjoyable to have to nurse the bike through the turns with so little confidence in rear tire grip all day, in these sections, but you gotta take the cards you’re dealt, and play them to the best of your ability.
2) 2nd Worst: Turn 2 – The gentle rise cresting the hill here often resulted in the rear tire signing off for 1-to-1 traction, requiring some delicate body English, throttle control, and steering input, to keep things going in the desired direction. On one worst-case lap, the rear tire let loose traction, and refused to regain it long enough, that a straightening up of the bike was required to get things under control. The quickly ending pavement on the compromised line, did result in a momentary “off-pavement” line along the dirt a few feet outside the turn.. Not a huge moment (as an ex-Moto-X’er), but definitely NOT something I was proud of, or going to allow to happen again the rest of the day. I stuck to that commitment, and kept things clean in Turn 2 the rest of the day.
3) Exit of Turn 9a (lefthand portion of the AMA “Bus-Stop”) - I found that if I tried to square off the finish of the exit from this turn, the traction threshold of the sickly rear tire would consistently be exceeded. The result being the need to ease up on the throttle roll-on, and slightly straighten the bike up to regain grip and directional control. It was so predictable that it became very manageable, but was frustrating in that it really forced losing the little drive that a 26HP bike already was limited to, coming out of a tight, speed-eating turn like 9/9a.
Lap Times:
I never had any kind of timing device in place during the event, which was all good, as I had no desire to really press the limits at a trackday.. The objective of taking the bike out there to Infineon, being to have a little fun on the new bike, and get a better feel about the good and bad characteristics, when the conditions allowed for it to be ridden in much less restricted (by laws, traffic, etc) environment.
As such, I really don’t know what the best times on the day were (?). The must-respect limitations that the tires (mostly “rear”) presented, the mixed traffic of a B-Group trackday environment, and the strong winds that were out there during the portion of the day where becoming more adjusted to the bike would have otherwise likely netted the best laps, probably kept things at a far less then spectacular level …….even for a 26HP Ninja 250.
Out of the 45’ish+ (?) bikes that were out on the track during the “B-Group” sessions (where I rode the Ninja 250), based on the passing/being passed ratio that I saw happening over the course of the 5 full sessions ridden over the course of the day, I’d guesstimate that the little bike was running lap times that would have put it in the top 20% or so of those out on track (?). No big deal either way, as it was a non-competitive trackday (not a race), but it did seem the littlest Kawasaki didn’t embarrass itself too badly amongst the sea of big-brother machines that were out there sharing the track.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion:
As many may already know, despite all the good-times that were had on the maiden (and likely last) trackday voyage of the little Ninja 250, the day ended early, and not on the best of notes.
So the final questions may be asked:
- 1) “What were your overall impressions on running the new ’08 Ninja 250 out there at the track”?
2) “Would you recommend a ’08 Ninja 250 as a trackday mount for other riders”?
The answers?
- 1) It was sweet-n-sour experience (as I knew it would be).
The sweet being that the bike itself is a TON of fun to ride around “the track” (the raw track itself). The sour being that running out on track on a bike that is between 75-125HP down on the majority of other bikes that make-up the core group of machines in the “B-Group”, despite the compatibility (and eligibility) in quantitative laptimes, creates a potentially dangerous “oil-n-water” mixture.
Despite the best intentions of the little and big bike riders, the two different styles of riding that are mandated by the highly contrasting style of machines, unfortunately results in a volatile soil for “bad things” to potentially happen. Just my opinion, from first-hand experience while putting in track laps on the little Ninja 250’s, on a number of occasions.
2) No. As much as I LOVE these little Ninja 250’s, my past opinion has not changed, in that I would NOT recommend this bike to other riders that are weighing their decisions on selecting a bike to be used for riding at the highly attended trackday events that we typically see here in California.
Having enough power on tap in their bike to not have the bike itself become an absolutely blank-n-white limitation (throttle pinned, and having bikes blow past at’ 50MPH+ speed differentials) on speed, when trying to blend in (for safety) with the flow of most other bikes that a rider will be out sharing the track with, is an important “tool” that’s missing for a Ninja 250 pilot. You could put in a dozen trackdays, and not have a single unfortunate “incident”, despite this "David-Goliath" factor, but every time out there it’s truly a roll-of-the-dice. Eventually, the odds are the roll will come up snake-eyes (hopefully it doesn't, for any that elect to take the "little bike" path).
All the above is presented purely as “One Rider’s Opinion”, in a FWIW fashion. To each their own in bike and riding choices. If your experiences or impression differ, that's totally cool too, as it's always a "Whatever works for you, is best" kind of thing.
Hope this real world, first-hand, post-trackday report on the new ’08 Ninja 250 (first serious “track-only” report I’ve seen anywhere in the motorcycle press community?), was of interest to at least a few of you.
Happy riding!
