Sibbo wrote:Yep ,a neighbour has one and swears by it . A bit big for me though .
The 1200 Bandit is smaller all round compared to my R100LT. I compared the specs and was very surprised to see this.
That's a surprise, the neighbour's certainly has the appearance of being bigger .Were I to buy another bike it would be a lot smaller and lighter .A small Ducati or an SV 650 Suzuki probably .
You can just see the difference between the 96 RT and the 1200 Bandit.
The dry weight for my GSF1200S is 474pds according to the Suzuki literature. The GS1200 listed weight at 467pds. These are for the 2006 model which are the lightest of them all. The 2007+ went to water cooling and porked out. I just find it more financially prudent to put miles on the Jap stuff these days. Not to say I don't enjoy my R100. I love riding it, and I ride it regularly. It's always insured.
I just read a post by a 1200 Bandit owner where the guy got 95,000 miles on his original chain and sprockets using a chain oiler. A good friend with a 2005 BMW GS1200 just rebuilt his trans and replaced the shaft drive. The dealer quoted him $5000. for the repair on a bike with 30,000 miles.
Valve adjustments certainly take longer on the Air Cooled Suzuki, but when you take off the valve cover you will laugh, as there's hardly anything under there. Simplicity. If you want to modify theses bikes, there are endless possibilities. After owning "special" bikes for many years, I revel in the workman like competence, and standard equipment of a no-nonsense machine. The very reasons I got into Airheads.
Skinny girl at work has one. She loves it after her 750 Guzzi became a parts unavailability issue, within the warranty period.
She's about 180cms and has no trouble with it, so it must be a reasonable size for a nasty fast "big" bike.
