I found this around me $350 for an 87 Ninja 250.
It's currently apart but the seller assures me it was working fine until a vaccuum leak. He took the carb off and now just doesn't have the time to do everything.

What do you guys think?
$350, go for it?

 

buy it!!! Ninja 250's are fun bikes, pretty easy to work on too.

 

Sounds like a super fun project! You can always check pricing here.

http://www.cycletrader.com/index.html

Or on ebay and your local paper to see what the market is going for.

 

i wouldnt buy it without it running... you haven o idea if he is telling you the truth or not, and you cant test that theory of it used to run fine until i took it apart without actually hearing it run... unless you plan on defiantely dumping new parts into it to make it work again, i would stay away... if it doesnt run what recourse would you have after the sale?

 

at 350 you dont' have much to lose .. these are very simple to work on .. do it!

 

oh just a note, how much do you weigh? a 250 isnt that big....

a friend of mine that used to race bikes a long time ago said that with my weight (250 pounds) that a 250 cc bike would have a rough time lugging me around and most likely wouldnt be able to get up to speed on the freeway

 

Ive ridden a couple 250 ninja's. Pretty fast for how small of a displacement they have. My friend got one up to about 85 one time, hes 6' 3" about 210.

As noted above, 350 bucks for a bike. Not much to lose, if its a total loss (pretty unlikly) then you can just part the bike out and make your money back no problem. I bought my bike for $500 and had to drop about $600 to get it running, but it was well worth it.

GO FOR IT!!

 

So here's the story...
Checked it out tonight - carb is off, vacuum hoses are out, tank is off and it looks like a mess. He's willing to drop to $300.
I noticed a smallish puddle underneath and he says that his buddy had put some oil in to do a compression test that they never got to do because they noticed the torn vacuum hose.

He says that the idle was a little low and he'd have to gun it to keep it from dying which sounds consistent with a vacuum leak to me.

What do you guys think?

 

if it looks liek a mess i would skip it unless oyu like challenges have extra money laying around and have time to fix it.....

 

It could be as simple as a cracked carb boot. If you buy the bike, make sure you get a haynes manual or somthing of that sort. Those are invaluable, I tore my bike down and put it back together with one and I had hardly any mechanical experience back then. I still say go for it, if you do get it done it will be quite an accomplishment and you will be proud of it. Plus you will have a bike!!

 

woah there peter, what a motortwickle?!?!?! hey now it looks like i'm gonna live vicariously thru u hahahahhhaha

 

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Well, we'll see...

 

Is it your first bike, as in no dirt bikes or anything. It is a gross understatement to say that a 250 is a small street bike, those things are puny. I would definitely NOT buy a ninja 250. Even for $350 you would grow out of that bike before you started riding it. If you want a smallish starter bike I would go for a 500 and up, they are quick enough to get you out of trouble and slow enough to keep you out of trouble.