Suzuki Bandit 1250 - Great all round Motorcycle (Suzuki Bandit GSF 1250)

Member Name: hotrock4

Product:	Suzuki Bandit GSF 1250
Date:	06/06/09 (1351 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Does everything it says on the tin and more

Disadvantages: Front forks could be a better setup.

I recently had the use of a Suzuki Bandit GSF 1250 by means of a courtesy bike on my insurance. Over the course of around 4 months I did just over 7000 miles on this bike. Most of these in wintery horrid conditions. It only had 200 miles on the clock when I first received it.

This is the most recent Bandit in Suzuki's range along with the 650 Bandit. It never let me down once on any one of the cold mornings I used it with the automatic choke being a godsend. The seating position is very comfortable with handlebars and footpegs being well positioned.

Looks wise i would say this bike is perfectly acceptable although not the most individual looking of bikes. The gearbox is very smooth and acceleration is absolutely brilliant pulling through to over 140mph very easily. At higher speeds the lack of fairing can be a problem and also the forks could do with being upside down rather than the standard ones due to the amount of flex in them. Then again the likelyhood of using this much speed kind of rules this out for most

I was very skeptical when i noticed this bike had ABS as this is the first bike I have had this luxury with. After finding a quite bit of road and grabbing the front brake time after time trying to lock the front wheel up but never succeded. The only conclusion I can draw is that ABS is a good idea on bikes with stopping distances apparantly improved by around 10% which I would be inclined to agree with.

The handling of this machine cannot really be faulted even on some of the tightest back roads I know. Trust me this wasn't my bike and i used it (tested it if you like) to the best of my abilities if you catch my drift. The engine never moaned once and made for a nice quite ride.
Quite a bit of my riding was done in the dark on this bike and the headlights were by far the best i've had on any bike yet.

The instrument panel is very clearly laid out with a digital speedo which is a nice touch. There is also a standard rev counter, and the usual warning and function lights. All controls on this bike are very easy to get to and well set up for comfort.
Fuel economy on this bike is also great getting up to around 40 miles to the gallon if rode in the correct sensible manner.

These bikes are around £5500 new and would say they are worth every last penny being a definate compliment to the Bandit range holding up the reputation as a great user friendly comfortble bike aimed at the commuter, but quick enough to have some proper fun at the weekend.

Summary: Great All-rounder

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