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?

 

I'm not going to suggest what I think you're thinking...

I'm going to suggest test riding a Z1000.

 

Hmm - getting on mine today after the VFR and Hornet, I think the opposite.
You're spot on with the aches and pains - but the handling and the noise...
glad it's back. The noise in particular... neither Honda has it.

Just to confirm, you do have the one with the big seat hump, with SRAD all
over it, correct?

What would be interesting is for you try the K1/2/3 or K4 (newest) ones to
see how they compare. AIUI there was rather a change between the SRAD and
the K1/2/3 from many directions, including the riding position, the handling
and the engine- a much more competant motorcycle.

Obviously a GSX-R1000 would give you the engine, but it has _exactly_ the
same riding position. Possibly a Fazor 1000 would be more suited, or do what
Hog did - put risers on it and lower the pegs

 

<looks at subject line>

Well, you're welcome to have a go on my Bandit in return

 

Having sat on Verdigris', I must say I wouldn't mind a go on one.

However I rather like having a fairing

 

yeah yeah yeah, but you might have the newer model - as I said they are
different.
It's a bit like comparing the GSXR1100 to the GSXR1000, but not quite.

*snort* Possibly, though considering I've *just* got mine back, it's going
to be awhile before I willingly let anyone take it away

 

Add 400cc's to this...

....and you get the answer to this

 

I don't know what he is thinking. What is he thinking?

Reasonable idea. What about the Tuono?

 

ogden says...

Is this a euphmism for cunnilingus?

 

I don't know now, but back then I think he was thinking gixxer thou.

I like them, but round these parts dealers are a bit thin on the ground.

 

You should have called ahead.

High Wycombe doesn't count as civilisation.

Nice. Presumeably you prefer the latter feeling.

Yeah, drop me a mail next time you're in town.

 

At the time, yes. Now I'm thinking SB6

 

)

Si

 

I'm so glad that I spotted your apostrophe ...

... on the third reading.

 

I didn't spot it, but now I have, I can safely say it's grammatically
incorrect. So there.

 

I can only agree with your assertion regarding the correcticity of the
said apostrophe, Brother Ogden. I would ask that you look again at it
however, with a view to granting the inclusion of the apostrophe on
this occasion, as to omit it would create a truly dreadful mental
image.