finally broke 1k miles. took me >1 1/2 months to accumulate 700miles and <1 week to get the last 300mi (the bike is now my main transportation).

some points to mention

a) Had my first windy encounter: wind was blowing me everywhere and then a really big gust throws me real hard; so hard that a trucker pulls besides me (and I know he saw me [:@]get blown away) we look at one another and he is laughing as I give him the 'peace sign' and kinda thankful 'coz his huge trailer is now blocking the wind for me. (I used the tip I read on the net a while back, seemed to help: Get that leg out and make a sail [the one facing the wind])

b) After 2 days of lane splitting on freeway traffic, I finally got the confidence to split at highway speeds. Sometimes I'd be splitting during rush hour and look at my speedo only to realize the cars are doing 80mph and I'm still splitting. Love the anorexic body of the 500.

c) This Sunday: Not too many cars on the freeway; everyone is doing 90mph and I find out the ninja/ex500 slowwwly creeps to reach max speed after ~110mph. Oh, and you better have your helmet behind that windscreen.

d)On Mileage: been doing 80 mi/day usually average ~1.5gal @ fill up. About 53~mpg which is not bad coz I like to turn that wrist on take offs.

that's about it.. love the 500; parked next to an R6 (what I had wanted to upgrade to 2 yrs from now) and the only thing I wish the 500 had was a different headlight.

 

I'm only a little ahead of you. Bought a used '05 Ninja 500R with about 2500 miles on it and started riding about the beginning of September and passed a 1,000 miles a week or ten days ago or so.

Same with me -- its my main form of transportation now at least until the really cold weather hits but I'm happy with it and getting 50+ mpg too.

I'm actually with you on the headlight on the Ninja -- its o.k. but even the highbeam doesn't throw out as much beam as I'd like.

Funny, same things have been happening to me -- getting used to dealing with heavy winds on open highways and learning how to jump over deer that cross the road in the middle of the night(I was lucky he moved fast enough and I didn't have to jump over him/her).

I'm with you that the acceleration isn't all that great from a stop-light but the bike handles nicely and does move at a nice clip without feeling like you're hanging on by your shoelaces, but I haven't figured out its top speed yet and I'm still keeping it at least 20 below 100; for now anyway.

Best rides I've had have been on some winding country back roads without a lot of traffic but opening her up a bit on the highway has been good too. It's getting stuck in that stop-and-go city and town traffic that she doesn't like but I use her to commute to work so I can't avoid it. She starts to get a little warm if she has to waste her time in too much of that stuff, but so far nowhere close to redlining her temperature.

Glad someone else is happy with their Ninja too, I'll take a look at the R6 and see if that's the way for me to go too in a couple years.

 

Glad to hear things are rocking, but keep an eye on splitting lanes @ 80-90. It'll bite you in the *** hard. Otherwise, rock on brotha

 

I would highly suggest keeping the lane splitting to lower speeds other than that weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

Congrats in getting familiar with your rides.
But why would you split lanes with cagers especially at those speeds? That sounds like an unpredictable health hazard to me.

Ride safe

 

i got a little past 600 right now, waiting for it to have the 600 mile service done before i continue on!!!
after the service, should be no time before i get to 1K!!!

love the bike!!!

 

i'm contemplating riding the bike to school tomorrow, we'll see how early i wake up/if i wanna budle up due to the cold weather.

 

Not that I'm biased or anything , the 500's are AWESOME!

 

i got my 1000 behind me yesterday!!!

now - it's all fair game!!!
[sm=badbadbad.gif]

 

Grats Kali, 400 miles in 2 weeks aint bad