Ninja 300s competitive against R3's?

[tigertim20]

From the last few rounds of racing ive been at, it seems like the 300SS class has become a bit of a one-make race with pretty much everyone riding an R3. Aside from the Ninja and the KTM I cant think of anything else thats eligible for the class off the top of my head (I dont follow it particularly closely though, so I assume there are others?).

SO is the R3 that much better than the ninja and the KTM that nobody bothers with anything else if they want to be competitive? or am I just witnessing a geographically based anomoly?

[malcy25]

From the last few rounds of racing ive been at, it seems like the 300SS class has become a bit of a one-make race with pretty much everyone riding an R3. Aside from the Ninja and the KTM I cant think of anything else thats eligible for the class off the top of my head (I dont follow it particularly closely though, so I assume there are others?).

SO is the R3 that much better than the ninja and the KTM that nobody bothers with anything else if they want to be competitive? or am I just witnessing a geographically based anomoly?

2021 was the first year that an R3 won the NZSBK 300 SS class.

KTM have won it I think 4 times (Denis, Jacob, Andrew Mc, Nathanael) , Ninjas a couple of times.

Seth won a race on an MT03 on Saturday - high bars and no fairing. The R3 is probably the most rounded package, but as you would have seen with Ollie Cotton, Blake Ross a year or so back, like everything, it's a lot about how you use it.

Reality is, that those three bikes are the most prevalent sports bikes that fit inside the rules hence why they dominate the class.

I've ridden all three. The KTM pulls well, but has been a bit fragile in the gearbox, the Ninja motor is the nicest to use, but harder to get power from and the chassis geo a little odd and has good top end speed. The R3 as I said seems to be a good overall package, the motor makes more power than a Ninja and pulls a bit better (but doesn;t rev as hard so have to be more exact on changes), steers better.

[tigertim20]

cheers for the reply,

I was there and saw Seth win on the MT, first time ive seen one being raced, so was interesting to see how it went in a pair of capable hands.

For some reason I have the impression the R3 was quite dominant - I had a look at NZSBK for 2021, and I think there were only 3 ninjas and about 4 KTMs in a field of 26 riders. Best placed ninja was around 18th place overall I think. Highest ranked KTM came in 5th.