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The Beginner’s Ninja Raises the Ante at the Entry Level

GROWING The engine of the starter Kawasaki Ninja is now 300 cc. Digital fuel injection with dual 32-millimeter throttle bodies feed the much-revised engine.Credit...Kawasaki Motors

FOR years, the most thrilling new motorcycles have been those at the top of the model line: the racetrack replicas splashed with a Valentino Rossi livery or the high-stepping machines with the go-anywhere styling of a Dakar rally competitor.

Beginning riders, and those who simply preferred smaller machines for their easy handling, had to settle for older designs and then wait for innovative technology to trickle down from the upper end of the market. At the lowest price point, excitement was an option, when it was available at all.

The lone bright spot among sportbikes in those dark days was the Kawasaki Ninja 250R, which has supplied inexpensive thrills to novices since 1986. A sign that Kawasaki’s dominance was in peril appeared with the arrival of the 2011 Honda CBR250R, offering everything the Ninja did and upending the old order.

Now the Kawasaki engineers have responded to Honda’s challenge in exactly the way you’d wish: by elevating the game with the 2013 Ninja 300. At a press introduction last week in Manhattan, followed by a public promotion called the Ninja Times Square Takeover, the company rolled out the new model.

The Ninja’s durable parallel-twin engine has been overhauled, giving it a longer stroke good for the increase in displacement to 296 cc. Digital fuel injection with dual 32-millimeter throttle bodies feed the much-revised engine.

And the bike’s new frame, the company says, includes “high-tensile steel main tubes that are 150 percent more rigid.” Antilock brakes are available on the Special Edition model at $5,819, including destination charges.

Riders ready to step up to the middleweight class can get the new Ninja ZX-6R, which is priced at $12,019. Like the 300, the ZX-6R is a heavily upgraded version of the current model. The engine adds 37 cc in displacement, which the company says is good for extra oomph throughout the powerband. Keeping that power in check is Kawasaki’s traction-control system with three power modes. Antilock brakes are an option for $1,000.

It’s only fair that the big brother in the family, the ZX-14R, gets just minor upgrades; that model was almost entirely new last year. For 2013, antilock brakes will be available for an extra $1,000 over the $15,319 base price.

But this is a year for celebrating the small fry. And in this straitened era, that’s not a bad thing. To keep up, the other manufacturers can only respond with newer and better bikes of their own. Could this be the start of a pocket-rocket arms race? We can only hope.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section AU, Page 5 of the New York edition with the headline: The Beginner’s Ninja Raises the Ante at the Entry Level. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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