2012 - 2017 Kawasaki Ninja 300 review | Junior sportsbike with grown-up looks

The Ninja 300 tips in with a featherlight touch and tracks round turns cleanly and confidently. Its steel-tube frame was reinforced from the 250R’s, and suspension action is greatly improved by its softer springs and more controlled damping. The wider 140-section rear tyre is still fairly skinny, giving little resistance at turn-in, while ground clearance is easily enough for kneedown lean angles.

However, be in no doubt that the Ninja is built as an affordable, friendly, easy-to-ride machine, not a hard-charging track refugee in the vein of the old 250 two-strokes and 400 fours.

Its upright riding position and high bars don’t naturally encourage you to get your weight over the front end, while the spindly unadjustable 37mm forks and basic shock are built for high streets, not back straights. If you want to carry momentum smoothly along open A-roads, it’s great fun. If you expect the precision and poise of a scaled-down ZX-6R, you’ll be left wanting.

When new, the 300’s weakest point was its IRC Road Winner tyres. By now most used machines should have (thankfully) moved onto a set of something else entirely. Bridgestone’s BT-45 is an ageing but still decent option, while the crossply version of Metzeler’s Roadtec 01 is available to fit the Ninja’s sizes.

Speaking of which, be sure to check the size of whatever tyres are fitted to any used bike you look at.

They should be a 110/70 front and 140/70 rear, but plenty of owners opt for fatter 120 fronts and 150 rears – in part because they prefer the look, but also because some high-profile radial tyres are available in these sizes. Our advice is to stick only to the sizes, models and construction approved by each tyre manufacturer.

• Related: How to ride your motorbike on a trackday

Brakes are basic, with a single petal disc and a two-piston caliper at each end, but reasonably effective on the rare occasions they’re needed to slow the Ninja’s 172kg kerb weight. ABS was an option, but unpopular with buyers at first.

In its initial two years, non-ABS bikes outsold ABS bikes four to one, but by the end of the 300’s life the balance had swung in favour of those with anti-lock. If you want an ABS bike – and we’d recommend it – you might need to look a little harder if your budget only stretches for an older bike, or just pay a little more for a later machine.

On paper, the Ninja 300 simply uses a long-stroke version of the Ninja 250R’s motor, which itself shared identical architecture with the GPX250 (originally used by cavemen to chase woolly mammoths).

However, there’s a bit more to it than that. While the basic layout remains the same – it’s a parallel twin with a 180° crank – there are loads of internal differences. In evolving from the 250, the 300 also gains different pistons, conrods, valves and sleeveless cylinders, as well as new cases. Even the switch to a cartridge-style oil filter was new.

Nonetheless, despite all the modernisation its capacity is still just 296cc, so those two tiny pistons need to be worked hard.

When you’ve only got small explosions, you need lots of them – and so the Ninja 300’s makes power much in the same way you could be crushed under a pile of a billion ants, rather than one grand piano.

Maximum torque is just 20lb·ft, yet the motor needs to be spinning at 10,000rpm to conjure up even that. Peak power (Kawasaki claim 39bhp; about 35 reaches the rear tyre) is at 11,000rpm and the redline is 13,000. That means if you bump into the rev limiter in top, the Kawasaki Ninja 300 top speed is 93mph.

There’s no powerband as such – it’s not like the delivery suddenly goes all Jekyll & Hyde at the top end – but for maximum motion you’ll be stirring the six-speed gearbox frequently to keep the motor spinning at five-figure speeds. At least the 300’s motor is rubber-mounted, which helps to mute the tingly, high-frequency vibration felt on the 250R.

The 300 also uses a slip/assist clutch, which serves two purposes. Firstly, and more usefully, it lightens the clutch lever action because it let Kawasaki reduce the number of clutch springs fitted.

Secondly it acts as a slipper clutch, disengaging on aggressive block downshifts to stop the rear wheel from skipping and sliding – though, in fairness, that’s not really much of a problem on the 300. Still, nicer to have it than not.

Component appearance and overall sense of quality are a noticeable, intentional improvement over the 250R.

The wheels have a smart 10-spoke design, shaped after the ZZR 1400’s. Most of the sharp bodywork’s fasteners are cleverly hidden out of sight. Footpegs have a sleeker, serrated, sporty style rather than the 250’s chunky rubber-topped items.

But there are still a few shortcomings. The rear brake pedal looks like it cost pennies to produce, while thinly-finished heelplates scuff up quickly and make a bike look like it’s had a harder life than it has.

Clutch and front brake levers are both unadjustable, while the basic-design chain adjusters (threaded rods sticking out the back of a box-section swingarm) don’t really shout premium either.

2012-2017 Kawasaki Ninja 300 owners' reviews on MCN

However, the good news is that the fundamentals are sturdy and Kawasaki Ninja 300 reliability should be pretty good.

Our Kawasaki Ninja 300 owners reviews report very few major issues, and even though the motors tend to spend most of their lives at high revs, they’re generally solid. So long as the bike’s been serviced on time, high mileage alone shouldn’t be a concern as far as the engine goes.

There’s one other thing worth mentioning if you’re looking to buy a first-year Kawasaki Ninja 300 for sale: recalls. There were two in 2013.

The first was to fit a new ECU, as the original was found to have an internal fault that could cause the engine to stall. Another only affected ABS models, but involves replacing the whole ABS unit.

If you’re looking at a used 2013 machine, check whether it’s affected by either of these and, if so, whether there’s proof that the work has been done.

Running costs are, on the whole, pretty low. The small-capacity motor means road tax is cheap. Slim crossply tyres don’t cost much and last ages. Even thrashed hard the Kawasaki Ninja 300 still returns over 60mpg, and with a less-frantic right hand you could see 75mpg.

That’s fairly good – though perhaps not astonishing compared with a Honda NC700, a Yamaha MT-07 or even a gently ridden Kawasaki ER-6f, all of which offer similar economy despite having twice the capacity.

Insurance-wise it’s comparable to natural rivals such as the Yamaha YZF-R3. One detail that may be worth bearing in mind is that the Ninja 300’s ignition barrel doesn’t have an immobiliser, whereas the Honda CBR500R does.

Private sales start at just over £2000, with dealer sales around £2500 – but the price window is very narrow, with even the most expensive bikes topping out around £3000. Prices seem to be very slightly lower than a Yamaha R3 or KTM RC390 for a similar age and mileage.

However, there is one fly in the low-cost ointment. The Ninja’s official service schedule includes valve clearance checks every 7600 miles. That’s a £300+ job at a franchised Kawasaki dealer. And with that in mind, it’s unsurprising that many valve checks get skipped, or a seller will (claim to) have done the work themselves. Always check, and look for proof, when valves were last inspected.

In 2012 MCN pit the Ninja 300 against its main rivals at the time - the KTM RC390 and the Yamaha YZF-R3.

Our tester Andy Davidson said: "The 2012 Kawasaki Ninja is a good laugh if you keep the revs up, but its competitors surpass it with a more modern feel. The KTM lacks in build quality and its harsher, track-focused ride is fun but tiresome as an everyday machine.

The Yamaha takes the win as it’s the most competitively priced, has the best build quality and is a credible, very well thought-out machine. It’s exciting, easy to ride, more forgiving than its competitors and is a proper big bike in its own right. Yamaha are onto a winner with the new R3."

Watch: Kawasaki Ninja 300 vs KTM RC390 vs Honda CBR300R / CBR500R

In this video the Ninja 300 goes up against its small sportsbike rivals. Find out which one comes out on top below...

This bike is from a time and a class where equipment expectations were fairly minimal. ABS-equipped Kawasaki Ninja 300s are available, though the system was a £400 option and most buyers chose to save money, making it rare on early models.

The clocks have an LCD panel that includes a six-bar fuel gauge, which is handy and looks far flasher than the 250R’s twin dials. That slipper clutch lends some bragging rights in certain circles too.

There’s also a neat, small, two-layer storage compartment under the pillion seat, if you need to take a pair of thin things out for a ride. Otherwise, running gear is fairly simple – the only suspension adjustment is five-position preload on the shock.

Most Ninja 300s have been attacked by accessory-catalogue-wielding owners. Aftermarket exhausts are a firm favourite, with owners keen to unleash a bit more volume (as standard it sounds very soft and flat) from a fruitier end can.

As ever it’s not worth paying a penny extra for, but not really a problem so long as the owner includes the OE part with the sale. Smarter, subtler improvements such as braided brake lines, sharper pads and decent tyres should be welcomed.

Non-standard levers and bar-ends could be a hint that the bike’s been dropped (not uncommon with its often inexperienced audience), so scour plastics, mirrors and peg-ends for further evidence of falls.