Blue Ridge Boy

My buddy, "Busa" Kevin, owner of a beautiful "06 LTD Ed. Hayabusa, recently purchased an '08 black Ninja 250 from the dealership I work at.

So...."Busa" Kevin (on his Ninja), his girlfriend (very experienced) on a Ninja ZX-6 Kevin bought from my dealership Friday, "Ninja Girl" (Sickest girl rider in the east), Matt (on his CBR1000RR), and my dad (riding the Beemer), took off this morning to go riding. Wish I could have been with them but my Shawk is still a bit battered.

They all met up and decided to cruise over to Deal's Gap and ride for the day. They took a bunch of runs up and down and somehow got separated. My dad and Kevin were going down the dragon when they see everybody parked on the side of the road. My dad decides to stop and call it quits for the day. Kevin decides he wants to finish his run and U-turn and come back up. So everyone is waiting for Kevin to show back up when they hear him tearing up the hill.

...All day long he had been scraping his pegs and grinding down the feelers...just to add that into the story...

So he heads into a left, becoming fully visible to everybody parked on the side of the road. But when he leans over the peg feeler sticks into the ground and lifts his rear wheel and well.....you know what happens next...he slides across the pavement doing about 30-40 mph and goes off the hill, hitting a tree.......

If anyone reading this has read my crash story......sound familiar? Left hand corner, going in too hot, going off a hill, hitting a tree, etc. It was damn deja vu!

His brand new (couple days old) Two Bros. pipe gets scratched to hell, tank crushed in, bodywork messed up, etc. I hope to go get some pics tomorrow. I'll post 'em up once I get 'em.

The Dragon has claimed yet another. (somber music playing in the background)

joshuatest

that sucks.....

and its late, i'm tired...

which bike got wrecked? lol (sorry)

Blue Ridge Boy

The brand new '08 Ninja


....of course when we all thought about it...and decided it was probably better that he wrecked his $4000 Ninja rather than his $14000 Busa.

LineArrayNut

some guy on a busa killed hisself there last weekend. i just can't figure it out. seems like the dragon tells some to ride over their heads and some to chill and enjoy the ride.

joshuatest

ok.... i thought i had it right, but then i remembered that i wasn't sure if i remembered the names correctly, and was to lazy to double check.. lol

Now.... i gotta ask... A guy who rides a Busa, bought a Ninja "250"????? why? Isn't that like a beginner of all beginner bikes?

lazn

Because there are things you can do on a Ninja 250 that you can't do on a Busa, especially in the twisties, the lil ninja will walk away from the heavy strait line Busa.

Blue Ridge Boy

Exactly lazn. His Busa is soooo much damn fun and the man can ride it like no other! But we have all been riding down at Ceasar's Head in SC for awhile where there's this guy "peanut" who rides an older Ninja 250. He smokes everyone through those hills. It's insane. It's just such a light bike you can flick it around like it's nothing.

...You might be surprised Joshua...but dealerships are having trouble getting a hold of them because as soon as a dealership gets one...its gone the next day. We sold all of ours at MR Cycles, recently got in a blue one...and it was out the door in 2 hours.

Blue Ridge Boy

Heard about that. People, usually who have never been there before, get too excited and think they have to prove something. Living nearby...it's just fun for us. But I do have to say that there was a camera man on the side of the road a couple turns before the one he went down on that got him a little excited and had him running a bit fast.

VFR79

Thanks to Kawasaki for giving it an awesome facelift! A buddy of mine sells bikes at a dealership in Rocky Mount, they can't keep them in stock. And there's usually a waiting list.

Sounds like your friend is ok then? He hit a tree? Maybe not so ok then.
And yeah, better that he tore up the less expensive bike. The hard part is going to be finding a new replacement!

Blue Ridge Boy

I'm going to go see him tomorrow...and get pics of the bike. From what my dad told me, he could be a lot worse. A bit of road rash on his knee (The one day where he wasn't wearing his riding pants), bad back is a little worse now, and he's just overall bruised up. So not bad at all. He'll fix the bike up in no time.

joshuatest

no kidding... I would have figured picking up a 600 would have been the way to go...

are they FI now? I rode a ninja 250 that a buddy picked up as his first bike, but that was several years ago, and while yes, it was light, it just felt all wrong... I guess i'll go look at the facelift they got to see how they look now... It seemed they looked exactly the same for LOTS of years...

That 250 isn't smoking the hawk is it????????????????????????????????

BTW... who's ridin the new Triumph 675's??????? Those look like lots of fun too... Nice and narrow, don't feel very heavy....

RickB

Thats good, at first look it sounded like it claimed him and not the bike ... A bike can be replaced but good friends cannot - Glad he will be OK!

joshuatest

oh wow.... they did get better looking...

VFR79

Very seldom do I take a ride without all of my gear, from helmet to boots. But there are those times I wear jeans in place of my riding pants, and I can never help but think, "crap, what if today is the day I get into an accident."

Glad to hear he came out ok and so did the bike. When the bike survives as well it's an added bonus.



Oh yes they did!

lazn

Everything is a trade off, until someone makes a bike as light as a 250 with the power of a 1300 the torque of a 90 degree 1000 twin the stability of a long wheel base tourer and the quick turn in of a race bike, no one bike will be the best at everything.

edit: and the Europeans get a FI version of the 250, but not the USA, it's for cost reasons according to Kawi.

Blue Ridge Boy

1st batch 'o pics

Blue Ridge Boy

2nd batch

Blue Ridge Boy

You can see Kevin's knee in that 1st pic.

- Tree smashed in the tank
- clip-on bent
- bodywork scraped up...but who cares about that
- brand spanking new pipe scratched and bent inwards.....about half an inch from slamming into the rear caliper
- ignition switch missing...wiring had to be cut (or something like that) in order to run

PRTSMN

THAT ROAD SOUNDS AS TWISTY AS SAMPLE ROAD HERE NEAR FRESNO. GLAD TO SEE HE'S OKAY. ALOT OF PEOPLE GO DOWN ON SAMPLE ALMOST EVERY WEEKEND IN THE SUMMER

Blue Ridge Boy

318 curves in 11 miles. You bet it's twisty!! haha

Blue Ridge Boy

Zee Foto was able to catch some last second action shots of Kevin lowsiding. My dad and I just found 'em.
Just click next and go through them all.

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/Orde...0MY030007&po=7

Thumper

That is exactly why i converted my CRF450R dirt Bike to a Street Legal SuperMotard last summer and in the process of converting it back to street again after a fall and winter dirt bike season.

A light weight bike can smoke most 600cc and bigger bikes on tight roads like the gap, assuming the riders are the average sport rider and not some racer out playing on the street.

Hell i can't even ride my SuperHawk now after blasting twisties on a 240lb 55HP SuperMoto.

Sure the 600 CC and above bikes will do 100mph plus, but on the back TN twisties speed is not everything.

Good post, i was worried you were going to tell us he had passed after crashing, glad to here its just a little Ninja that got hurt.

Thumper

My moto is remove the peg feeler as soon as you get the bike home.