Not so mini review: GSXR600 SRAD vs Bandit 1200

A mate needs somewhere to leave his bike for the weekend, and my garage
fits the bill nicely, so he pops it round from work on Friday morning
and
leaves the keys with me. It's a 600, rather than the thou he also has at
home, but it's a new toy to play with for a couple of days so it's the
least I can do!

Friday night and I need to pop out to get some ice. I opt to take the
gixxer
for a spin and see how it feels. Hopping on, I feel like I'm perched
high
above the lightest bike in the world and it feels nothing like the
slotted-in
feeling I used to have with my ZXR. I feel like I'm balancing on my
arms,
with my arse and my feet only there for show, and the rucksack on my
back
stops me lifting my head far enough to feel comfortable about the view
ahead.
Pootling off down the road and there's only one word to describe it:
weird.
Hitting the A404 and letting it rev through with the throttle wide open
and I
discover there's another word to describe it: gutless.

So I pop into town, get some ice, and head home. Sitting at some lights,
a
spotty yoof pulls alongside me and says "nice bike, mate".
"No it's not, it's bloody horrible," I reply. Lights change, I go home
and
park it back in the garage. If that was the first date, I'm really not
sure
about this new relationship.

Saturday morning and the Sun's shining, my throttle-hand's itchy for
some
action and even her indoors tells me "you should take that bike out
again,
the weather's perfect for it." First impressions are overrated, I tell
myself, and so I get kitted up (sans rucksack this time) and take the
600
out for another run via George Whites in Slough.
This time, when I hit the A404, I can hold my head high enough to see
properly and I'm starting to get used to the riding position. The needle
reaches 8k on the tacho and things start to perk up. 10k arrives and I'm
definitely moving forward - the impression of speed is so much less with
a fairing to take the wind away, rather than the wind trying to take my
head away as is usually the case on the bandit.

By the time I get to Slough I'm starting to make friends with every
roundabout I see - they seem to suit the 600 nicely: slow but very very
bendy. In the showroom I see a row of bronze-coloured SV thous at 4995.
I'm tempted, but the colour's revolting. No wonder they have a row of
them
going cheap! I eye up a '99 7R for 3495, but anything new's going to
have
to wait for next year.

Back on the road and I head for Cookham, Bourne End and some back roads
to
High Wycombe. Now the 600's starting to feel OK, just so long as I keep
revving the tits off it. There's definitely power there as the front
keeps
popping up off bumps when I'm nailing it past cars, but it makes it in
such
an asthmatic way that its presence is deceptive. The handling goes from
the sublime to the ridiculous as I simply look in the right direction
and
the bike seems to take care of the rest itself. One last blat down the
404
and I'm back home, with tingling fingers, complaining wrists, but no
smile
as I walk in the door.

A bag of beef space raiders later (lunch, in other words) and I head
back
out to take the bandit for a comparison ride. Hopping on it feels
lighter
than the gixxer (until it leans a little too far, when its extra pounds
start showing like a fat bird in a bikini) but if the riding position on
the 600 felt weird, the bandit just feels Wrong. What are these bars all
about? Why are they so high - this is like riding a BMX.

Out to Cookham again, and each time I open the throttle the open pipe
barks
like a rabid dobermann and cars just disappear behind me. The same route
to High Wycombe and by the time I reach civilisation again, I'm throwing
the bike round like a very heavy, very powerful supermoto and the world
starts making sense again. A 130mph sprint back down the A404 with
a TL thou in tow has me grinning like a retard on prozac. Off at the
Bisham roundabout and up to Pinkneys Green, the lack of rebound damping
at the rear of the bandit turns the bike into a space hopper, but for
the rest of the ride everything's perfect. I park up at home, walk in
the
door and the smile's back where it belongs.

On the Gixxer I felt closer to the road. On the Bandit I felt closer to
God.

What I really need is something that makes grunt like the bandit, but
handles like the gixxer. Anyone care to state the obvious?