Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127842
RIDING IMPRESSION 1997Suzuki GSF1200V Bandit By Kit Palmer Photos by Tom Riles 32 f things like fuel injection, water cooling, carbon fiber, inverted (as in } forks), or Ram Air Intake excite you, then you probably won't take a second glance at the Suzuki GSF1200V Bandit - but if the words inexpensive, versatile and fun capture your attention, then the Bandit will stop you dead in your tracks. Quite simply, the Bandit 1200 was built for fun and affordability. It wasn't intended to impress your friends with a fancy paint job or to wow your local gas station attendant with futuristic shapes and curves. Heck, hardly a head will turn when you ride past your local high school on the rather ordinary-looking Bandit, but don't worry: the Bandit 1200 still looks good. It has nice, clean lines, distinctive styling, and you can even see the motor, thanks to its rather inconspicuous cafe-type fairing. The deep-red (or blue if you like) paint doesn't hurt, either. Okay, so the Bandit wasn't designed to impress your neighbors, but it was designed to make an impression on at least one person, the most important person of all: the one straddling its saddle and twisting its throttle. When Suzuki finally admitted last year it would indeed be importing the Bandit 1200 - a machine already seen tearing up the roads in Europe for quite some time - we were extremely pleased to hear the news. After all, the Bandit 600, a bike Suzuki introduced a couple of years ago, was a favorite back-roads ride for many of us here at the office, so when Suzuki decided to introduce another Bandit in the United States with double the engine capacity and nearly twice the power, we could only assume tha t the Bandit 1200 would be twice as much fun. We guessed right. Perching on top of the 1200 doesn't feel all that much different than the 600. It is slightly taller but, just like the 600, the 1200 is extremely gentle on the rider's lower back and wrists, thanks to its rather straight-up-and-down and relaxed seating position, but you will still have to reach slightly for the nonclip-on-type handlebars, which are a little on the narrow side. The seat is not particularly comfortable, either. Right where the padding tapers down at the gas-tank/seat junction, it gets a little narrow, and the padding doesn't really conform to the rider's body very well. Down the road, you'll probably want to customize the Bandit's throne. Apply full choke, pull in the clutch lever, hit the starter button, crack the throttle, and the Bandit reluctantly comes to life. It's not that it won't start right away, but the cylinders and pistons don't take kindly to having cold gas dumped onto them so early in the morning, especially when it's chilly out. The Bandit seemingly takes forever to warm up. Thankfully, Suzuki engineers chose to mount the choke lever on the handlebar where it's easy to reach, because you'll be using it a lot on the initial start-up. If you've ever ridden a GSXR1100, then you'll know what a rush it is to open up the throttle on the Bandit - but there are differences. Suzuki repositioned the power of the GSXR-based, air / oil-cooled, four-cylinder, doubleoverhead cam motor more toward the lower end of the powerband, giving the Bandit a super-torquey feel. Roll on the throttle at 2000 rpm and the Band,it surges forward without complaint, and before you know it, the speedometer needle is blazing right through 60 with no intentions of stopping there - and you're only in third gear and not even