Kawasaki Ninja 250

By Special Correspondent Akshay Singh Ahlawat

It seems the wait for the entry level sports bike Kawasaki Ninja 250R will soon be over with Bajaj finally announcing its launch in May-June 2009 . Below is the news, which was published earlier in the Economic Times.

PUNE-BASED Bajaj Auto will launch sports bike Ninja 250 from technology partner Kawasaki in the next four to five months, while it gears up to introduce motorcycle, jointly developed with Austrian firm KTM by next year.

“The Kawasaki Ninja 250 will be launched by May or June,” MD Rajiv Bajaj said, while launching the company’s executive segment bike XCD 135 DTSSI, which has been priced at Rs 45,000. He said the Kawasaki Ninja 250 is expected to be priced above Rs 2 lakh.

On the company’s plans to introduce motorcycles from Austrian bike maker KTM, in which BAL has over 25 stake, he said the first of the jointly developed products will be launched by next year. “The bigger bikes from KTM like the Duke and RR will be assembled in our facility.

Their introduction has been delayed a bit. But we have been developing two bikes with engine capacity above 125 cc with KTM. The first of the jointly developed bikes will be launched next year,” Mr Bajaj said.

Bajaj will be importing the Ninja as CKD (completely knocked down) units from Thailand to save on custom duties. The Ninja features a DOHC 249cc parallel twin cylinder engine which is more compact than the previous bike offering good mass centralization and improves the handling.

It now offers good low and mid range torque thanks to dual overhead camshafts. The overall design of the bike is very well balanced and wind tunnel tested and of course the trademark ninja styling carried from its bigger siblings.

The bike has a top whack of 175kmph and 0-100 just under 6 seconds enabling the rider to exploit the powerband and is sure to please enthusiasts who were in dire need of a low cost sports bike.