hey guys im a new rider and was trying to decide if i wanted to get the new ninja 250R or the ninja 650R. ive done a bunch of research and basically it comes down to the 250 being carbed and the 650 being fuel injected. have you guys had any problems with the 250 being carb? whats the difference as far as maintainence between the two... thanks guys!

Carb can be tempermental as far as elevation & temperature. However, it has been around for a long time and easier to work on from the owner's point of view. Since the basics of carburetor are all the same, you can find a lot of information on the Internet and work on it if you want to modify it. However, the downside is that nothing is automated so it's all manual labor. If your carbs are dirty, you can just remove it from the bike and clean them. If your injectors are clogged, you can't just remove and clean them. Fuel injection is nice because it's all automated. You don't have the choke lever to deal with, and it's all computerized so elevation and temperature don't affected it as much (at least the computer will adjust on the fly in those situations). However, when it comes down to work on an FI, you're required to have expensive tool(s) to reprogram fuel/air mixture if need to. On the other hand, you rarely have to do that anyway.

IMHO.

thanks for the info! i knew the basics of carbs and fuel injection, im just lazy and i was curious to see if you had to mess with the choke all the time on ur bike? (ex- choke all the way on when starting, then after warm up turn down so it idles lower, then if elevation changes the bike could die and you have to mess with it again) i just ask cuz im gonna be using this bike for the majority of my daily commutes.

I haven't had to use the choke once since jetting.

so which bike do you think would be the most reliable as far as being my daily driver