Buying a Ninja 250r

Aero8 · 06-12-2007, 10:56 AM

I am in the process of buying my sister's ninja 250r. She bough it a couple weeks ago without really thinking it through or listening to anything my father or I were telling her about how fucked up she can get outside of dieing.

Well a couple things happened that finally made her realize it so now she wants to sell the brand new 2007 bike she just bought

So since I was tossing the idea around, I decided I would just buy hers. I wanted to get a larger bike(read 500, nothing higher), but I can't beat the price since she is taking a fairly large hit on the taxes/fees she had to pay originally. Plus, since it is a 250 I should be able to sell it in a year or two(if I decide to) for close to what I am buying it for.

Here is the model. While I like the black, red is nowhere near my first choice, but I can't be too picky.

Insurance sucks btw

I shopped around a lot for the past couple weeks getting quotes on different models/years and the 2007 is definately hurting me.

RxNinja · 06-12-2007, 11:43 AM

how much have you been getting quoted?

good luck on the bike. keep the rubber on the road.

Bobarino · 06-12-2007, 01:34 PM

thats cool and all but why did you work so hard at discouraging your sister to ride and then jump on her bike? seems a little hypocritical to me. was she just a bad rider or what?

Bobby

Fargin_Bastige · 06-12-2007, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobarino

thats cool and all but why did you work so hard at discouraging your sister to ride and then jump on her bike? seems a little hypocritical to me. was she just a bad rider or what?

Bobby

+1

Aero8 · 06-12-2007, 03:14 PM

It wasn't that I was discouraging her. Here is the rest of the story, I didn't think I would come off as a hypocritical dick before...sorry.

Her fiance's brother died in october after being pushed off the road by a car. He laid the bike('01 speed triple) down on the side of the highway and may have been okay, but his head went into a guard rail.

Her fiance rides and she decided that she wanted to ride also. Her learning to ride wasn't that much of an issue. But my father and I did try to explain to her that not only can you die, you could also lose limbs/break things/etc and still live, but then be farely messed up for the rest of your life. Personally I fully understand that and accept that risk. Plus, I have a steady job to actually afford a bike.

My sister was so set on learning to ride that she went out and managed to get approved for enough credit to get the bike, ableit at a very high apr. (she has been out of a job for over a year do to many circumstances that have just recently gotten better)

She shouldn't have bought it in the first place, as she didn't have the finances to back it up, she was counting on finding a job. That isn't the reason she has decided to sell it though.

The reason she decided to sell it was because her fiance's mom got the coroner's report from the accident. My sister told me that he had broken many bones and all the damage that was done to his body...I had already expected that though. But she told me that somehow even through all of us trying to tell her what could happen, it never clicked in her head as to what she would do if she broke bones (mainly her wrists) and lived through it. She wants to go to music school and realized just how easy it would be to mess that up.

She said she still wants to learn and get another bike one day, but right now she wants to get other things done first.

The issue wasn't that she wanted to ride, it was that she didn't have the finances to back up the purchase or to take care of herself if she had a job and had to be off for some time due to getting hurt. She wasn't a bad rider, she still has an incredible amount to learn. As do I.

I hope that doesn't make it sound as hyporcritical now...

GoIllini · 06-12-2007, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobarino

thats cool and all but why did you work so hard at discouraging your sister to ride and then jump on her bike? seems a little hypocritical to me. was she just a bad rider or what?

Bobby

I assumed that she didn't understand the risks, and when they were objectively presented to her, she realized she had made a mistake.

Quote:

Insurance sucks btw I shopped around a lot for the past couple weeks getting quotes on different models/years and the 2007 is definately hurting me.

In Urbana (big college town in downstate IL), insurance runs me $300/year, and I'm 21, too. I got mine from Progressive.

I would recommend dropping the collision insurance. It'll save you a fair amount of money, and $3K to replace your bike is going to be the least of your worries in an accident.

Have you checked progressive? Also, are you in college? It may be cheaper to insure your bike where you go to school.

Aero8 · 06-12-2007, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoIllini

In Urbana (big college town in downstate IL), insurance runs me $300/year, and I'm 21, too. I got mine from Progressive.

I would recommend dropping the collision insurance. It'll save you a fair amount of money, and $3K to replace your bike is going to be the least of your worries in an accident.

Have you checked progressive? Also, are you in college? It may be cheaper to insure your bike where you go to school.

I did get it through progressive but it is double what you are paying. The large difference is that I did keep collision on it. I got quotes through many places, but progressive turned out to be the cheapest.

650r · 06-12-2007, 05:30 PM

still not digging why you talked your sis outta her bike, but them turned around and bought it. you should have encouraged the MSF course, taken it with her, then rode around together and learned together. scaring the b'jesus outta her regarding the broken wrists, etc. was not the right way to go. hell, she could be in her cage, get hit and the airbags break her wrists depending on where her hands were upon impact. there is risk regardless if we are riding our bikes, driving our cages, or walking down the street.

Freshgrease · 06-12-2007, 05:40 PM

It sounds to like it was a "Johnny see....johnny do" type of situation. It's insane to not be financially secure and buy a toy to imitate him. I would suggest telling her to get her husband to buy a Harley or a Goldwing and go touring, but not riding on her own.

IT just seems a tad spur of the moment to me. People who jump the gun like that usually are not careful in the rest of the aspects of their personality. To put it bluntly, I wouldn't trust her to be careful enough or conscious enough of a driver to be safe on the road.

I don't know your sister (your sister might be a great and concious driver), but I know the old adage about your actions define who you are definately play a part here.

TegRacer243 · 06-12-2007, 05:49 PM

Keep looking for insurance. I'm 21 and got quoted for 76/year minimum.

Bobarino · 06-12-2007, 06:10 PM

i'm going with 650r. thats a prett crappy thing to do to her with the scare tactics. she's obviously old enough to get married and buy a bike so i'm guessing she's old enough to make her own decisions but you talked her out of something she wanted to do, would probably have fallen in love with and then capitalized on her even though she is financially strapped. thats pretty crappy to do to family man.

i'm sure she could have gotten some training, ridden with a mentor (hubby rides right?) and probably been ok. she got a 250R after all. she didn't jump right into a R1 or something. that tells me she has at least a little brains. you should let her use them.

Bobby

Aero8 · 06-12-2007, 10:48 PM

650r and Bobarino, you seemed to have missed this part and are continuing to make me out to be an ass, I will try to explain this more for you:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aero8

The reason she decided to sell it was because her fiance's mom got the coroner's report from the accident. My sister told me that he had broken many bones and all the damage that was done to his body...I had already expected that though. But she told me that somehow even through all of us trying to tell her what could happen, it never clicked in her head as to what she would do if she broke bones (mainly her wrists) and lived through it. She wants to go to music school and realized just how easy it would be to mess that up.

She said she still wants to learn and get another bike one day, but right now she wants to get other things done first.

I wasn't trying to scare her by any means, I was trying to let her know what could happen. The ONLY reason I don't think she should have gotten it was because she DOES NOT have the money for it. I took the MSF course the weekend before she got the bike and I completely encouraged her to go to it since she did want to learn. The following weekend her and her fiance did go to it but Saturday she got kicked out of it for dumping the bike and not completing one of the exercises.

That sunday I took her bike and she followed me to a parking lot by our house that had plenty of room for her to learn in. I had her doing exactly what we were doing in the msf course and she was getting the hang of it. (I took her a couple more times after that also)

At that point she was going to keep it and I was looking at other bikes.
Last Tuesday I had lunch with her and she told me about the coroner's report. She said that after hearing about that she wanted to sell the bike. She said she had other things she wanted to accomplish in life and that she WOULD come back to riding later in life.

She was planning on just selling the bike back to the dealer but her and I talked about me just buying it since I was looking anyways.

We decided this past sunday that I would just buy it from her.

Hoepfully you two will understand that I wasn't trying to scare her out of it, I was just trying to have her realize all the risks. After she got it I was the one pushing her to take the msf course and really learn how to ride. No matter what, it wasn't anything I said that made her decide to get rid of it anyways. That was totally on her.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Moving on from that, I have to get rid of it now anyways.

I went after work today and bought a jacket and gloves (already bought my helmet before the msf course)

When I got home I took it out and started to ride around my neighborhood. This was about 7:30 and there weren't many people on the rodes and most of the speed limits are 20 except for one road that is 30.

I road through my neighborhood, then came to a road that had a curve that started out shallow but then became sharp. It was in a very very low traffic(read maybe one car moving the entire time I was on it) area and it is a short side street that makes a loop that I could keep going around. The first time I went around I was uncomfortable with it so I decided to keep going around it until I was comfortable with the turn and controling the bike around it.

I made about 4 or 5 passing turning to the right, and after those I turned around so that I was turning to the left through it. On my third pass to the left I was coming around and entered to a little faster than I was comfortable with. I leaned the bike farther, but as I did so the front tire seemed to start shaking. Since I was uncomfortable I leaned the bike up and then started to stop(as they teach in the msf course), but I ended up locking the back tire and then cliping the curb with the right side of my front.

the bike and I went down, I guess it would be considered a high side since I was turning to the left but fell to the right? I skid/rolled from the biked on grass and my shoulder slid onto the sidewalk. I got up immediately after I stopped moving. I don't think I was going more than 5 mph by the time I hit the curb, as I wasn't going that fast since I had already started to stop.

I was fine, the jacket really did it's job and my head/helmet didn't touch the ground. The bike was laying in half in the grass half on the street. I picked it up and set it on it's kickstand. The right foot peg and rear brake mount stapped and was bent down, the right turn signal in the front busted off, and there are scratches in the side. I started walking it home then decided to see if I could get it started and I rode it the rest of the way very slowly. (it was one road back to my house.)

My dad flipped out and said "get the fucking thing out of this house I don't want to see it around here ever again. I should've said no in the first place"

I had many conversations with him regarding it prior to this because he was uneasy seeing my sister or I on one since her faince's brother had just died. Him and I agreed that I would just ride it around our neighborhood and back and forth to work (just across the street from my neighborhood) and I would stay off the major roads because he didn't want me in traffic. He was ok with that because he does like riding also, but he would never want to be in traffic with how many ignorant drivers there are.

Personally I expected to fall at some point because I am new to it. To me it is like learn to drive a manual and then stopping because you stall it once.

However I do still live in his house and even though I may have the ability to own it by myself, it still sits in his driveway/garage.

So I will be calling the dealership tomorrow to see what they will give me for it since it is now damaged, but I need to get rid of it ASAP.

Like my sister I too will have to come back to it later in life.

Hagios · 06-13-2007, 02:37 AM

I just got quoted for a 2007 EX250 at $210/yr with full coverage and $100 deductibles around the board. This is from progressive. Don't know how you guys aren't getting better offers...

GoIllini · 06-13-2007, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hagios

I just got quoted for a 2007 EX250 at $210/yr with full coverage and $100 deductibles around the board. This is from progressive. Don't know how you guys aren't getting better offers...

The issue is that insurance prices are based on location. Chances are, Champaign, IL has crazier traffic than where you live.

When I move out to New York, my insurance costs will probably double.

If you like low insurance rates, stay in Montana.