Test riding a Bandit 650

Since my last bike was a Bandit 600, and the local shop had a 650
demonstrator, well, it seemed rude not to. What I wanted to find out
was how much of the extra 50cc had been devoted to making it more
useable low down: my main gripe about the old 600.

The answer is: some, enough to be noticeable, but not enough to
convince me.

riding in town I found that you could actually pull away with traffic
easily form as low as 2,000rpm. If memory serves me aright, anything
less than 3,500 was a no no on the old one. Obviously, compared to the
SV everything was so smoooooth.

Out and about I was suprised how well the thing handled. I did expect
it to feel like a lumbering hulk compared to the SV, but it really
didn't feel at all bad.

The other test was with the wife on the back. On the old 600, it
always felt a bit risky going for quick pull offs at traffic light etc.
This was noticeably better, but I still had to be more concious of the
revs than I do on the SV.

What else? oh yes. Onlike the SV, you cannot pull out from behind a
car and expect to overtake it from 4,000rpm. You just don't go
anywhere... Pop it down a couple of gears and it does pull quite
nicely thank you.

Out on the open road, you get quite shift on, and it was pretty rapid
[1]. I had the naked version, and the little cowling it has on the
lights does a suprisingly good job. You get very little wind until you
hit about 90, when all of a sudden the dynamics change a bit and you
get quite a blast.

All in all, a nice bike and I wouldn't be disappointed to own one.
But... when I got back on the SV to go home, and fired the twin up, I
have to admit a grin appeared that wasn't quite there on the BAndit.
Perhaps it's familiarity.

Oh, did I mention it picks up its front whell suprising easily when you
try and make a rapid departure from the lights?



[1] yes, I know, not compared to your litre sports bikes..



--
John (jsp)

SV 650
Black it is
And Naked

 

Can't imagine why.

 

Krusty did scribe:

You snipped the bit about having my wife ot the back. (I also had with
some luggage in mind, tbh) Making sure you got away smartly having
filtered to the front took more effort than I would have liked: making
sure your revs were up enough etc.

--
John (jsp)

SV 650
Black it is
And Naked

 

Maybe he can't do quick starts, my Bandit is fine for traffic light
racing.

 

That'll be a whoosh then

 

ooh, & another - it's a positive whoosh fest this afternoon!

 

Hooligan wrote

Two mistakes there then, the least of which is that you are fucking
riding it wrong then aren't you.

See that nice Mr Suzuki especially modified the engine management and
stuff when they made the bindit to move what little grunt it may or may
not have down the revs so that muppets who were afraid of a full
throttle could pretend they were having more fun than they really were
so thrashing the nuts off it to the red line isn't worth the effort,
unless you are in third, in which case it is the most fun you can have
on one.

 

Fantastic.

 

I think that Suzuki should have made a UK 750 version, makes sense,
rather than paying a higher rate of road tax and getting next to feck
all for it in the way of extra oomph.

 

Muck did scribe:

That would be a bike I'd like to have a go on.

--
John (jsp)

SV 650
Black it is
And Naked

 

Krusty did scribe:

I did consider the possibility that you were coming form another angle.
I jumped the wrong way ;-/

--
John (jsp)

SV 650
Black it is
And Naked

 

Muck did scribe:

One up, fine, you can pull away fast enough to lift the front wheel as
you go.

Two up with a pack on? Not so confidence inspiring.

--
John (jsp)

SV 650
Black it is
And Naked

 

It's as easy as swapping the cylinder block and pistons off the right
model of gsxr750. You can get a standard 600 bored out to 884cc if you
want to, I think that there are also 800cc kits available.

 

btdt, with a n18 stone mate on the back.

 

Muck did scribe:

Not so easy if you don't have one to modify, and a lot of effort to go
to for a try.

I did like the Bandit I had, I just wanted a bit more low down grunt,
without going all the way to a 1200 (which remains a possibility).

--
John (jsp)

SV 650
Black it is
And Naked

 

Muck did scribe:

btdt with wife and fully laden: enough to know I'd prefer to have a
bit more low down than the 600 offered.

Notice I haven't said it can't be done, just that it takes more effort
than I'd like to have to put into it.

--
John (jsp)

SV 650
Black it is
And Naked

 

Higher rpm and slipping the clutch are your friend, not the bikes
though. You ought to try riding my FZR250RR if you want to practice not
bogging on take offs.

 

Muck did scribe:

You appear to be intent on interpreting my statements as implying that
I can't get away from the lights quickly. This is not what I am
saying: I am perfectly capable of getting away from the lights at speed.

What I am saying is that the Bandit does not have as much low down
torque as I would like, in order to pull quickly and smoothly away from
the lights with wife and luggage on board. The two things are
different. I *can* do it, but I can, for example, do it a hell of a
lot more easily on the SV, which does have more low down torque.

Getting back on the SV this morning, having just got off the Bandit,
demonstrated this to me admirably.

--
John (jsp)

SV 650
Black it is
And Naked

 

And when an oppertunity like this comes it seams rude not to pick your
brains.

My mate is doing his DAS and wants one of two bikes, either the bandit or
the SV both naked. I am inclined to point him to the bandit as I had one
and now have a B12, but did like cristofires SV when I had a go. Whats your
(and general peep's) views.

By the way my mate is 6foot6 and weighs about 15 stone.

TIA

Ken
B12

 

fish did scribe:

It's a harder call than you might think. The two bikes are quite
different.

The Bandit is much smoother.
The SV has more grunt low down.
The Bandit handled better than I thought it might, but I think the SV
is the more flicky.
The SV is, I think, 168kg to the Bandit's 208kg.

The Bandit does have more top end power than the SV (I think)

If he's going 2nd hand, I believe the K3 SV has more power that the
original model.

If you drop an SV it doesn't wear bits of the engine away.

The riding position on both is quite similar.


Tell him to get the one he likes the look of.

--
John (jsp)

SV 650
Black it is
And Naked