I recently purchased a brand new 07 Ninja 250 from the dealer. It's been about a week now and I have noticed that everytime I try to start the bike, I have difficulty starting it. It takes a few cranks to start up (with choke/throttle) and when I release the choke after a min or so, the bike will stall. I was wondering if this was because the bike is not warmed up enough.

Also today, as I was leaving my work, the moment I put it into 1st gear, the bike stalled. Obviously the clutch was pulled in but the bike jerked forward a bit and ended up stalling. I tried to start up the engine again but it just wouldn't start. I know I have enough gas because I filled up 40 miles ago but I still tried playing with the gas lever to see if I can get the bike started. After a few mins of messing around with gas lever/throttle/choke, the bike finally turned on. Does anybody know if this is normal? This is my first bike and I still have lots to learn.

As for the gear chaning, what RPM should I switch gears at? Any tips about riding, or care for my bike would help.

 

Make sure to never use the throttle while trying to start your bike. I found out early on that doing this will usually cause the engine to flood out. You can give it a little throttle right after it fires, but never before.

Now about your bike dieing all the time... How high does it idle with the choke off? It needs to idle between 1300 to 1500 RPM's. If it isn't, adjusting the idle is real simple. Just turn the idle control **** on the left side of the engine near the fuel shut off valve until it reaches a normal idle.

Bikes that are still cold do tend to jerk forward when put into gear. You can minimize this by holding in the clutch for about ten seconds before dropping it into first.

And your last question, there is no answer for. I generally shift at around 6-8k rpms. Sometimes less, sometimes more. It really doesn't matter.

 

As far as your bike jumping forward with the clutch pulled in, I would check to make sure your clutch is adjusted properly.

 

Before you go twiddling *****, try letting your bike warm up about 4-5 minutes on choke, then turn choke off and it should idle and drop into gear just fine. ^Mark has some good advice. (If this doesn't work, ^Rocket's clutch adjustment check wouldn't hurt, either.)

 

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