Took it out for a short test ride this afternoon. Short being the operative word, as it started to bucket down on my test bimble. It's a really nice bike, but there are some major differences compared to my bike. Not only do I sense that there is less power and torque, but the suspension set up feels a lot more rigid and I feel as though I sit much more upright on the bike. Believe it or not, but I do have a slightly lower riding position with the GSX. Even so, there's apparently a seat height adjuster which can move it up or down around 20mm. The bike feels slightly smaller too, but not much. Slightly slimmer than the GSX1400 but still weighing in at 228kg (IIRC) which is just the same weight as the GSX1400. Even though it weighs the same, it did (appear) to knock spots of my bike on the manoeuvrability side of things. Not difficult, I know. As for the engine, it could be because I can sense the difference between 106 horses and 98, but whenever I tried to give it beans, the engine seemed sluggish and it didn't want to take me up on the offer. Oh, and the new Bandit is fuel injected. The ABS took a bit of getting used to, as the brakes feel very spongy even if they did seem to be efficient. Handy for trips around town in shitty weather, I reckon or for BAB's. The display was nice and clear without any obstructions and you know exactly what speed you're doing with the digital speedo. The law is (since a few months back) now official with daylight running lights. I don't know what it was like before, but I suppose it wasn't obligatory. Anyway, to take this into account, there is no switch to flick on the lights. They're permanently on. The only switch that is there is to flick between main and full beam. AFAIK, there is no side light. Now whether this is particular to the French market or not, I don't know. Although I wouldn't be surprised if it was, I'd equally not be surprised if all new bikes had to have this annoying feature. The colour? The one true colour. Black. Very nice. I loved the styling as there have been quite a few changes between the old and new bandit models. It's very sexy, but still not a sexy as WC's Fazer. It was a nice ride though, but I'm not convinced. The riding position and the brakes are my concerns. I couldn't try the non-ABS version, 'cos they didn't have a test bike. The non-ABS version goes for €7200 and the ABS version for €7500 (special offer apparently). I might take it for another test ride this w/e, if the weather holds. But even then, after all that, I saw the new B-King which looked very sexy too. I got given a complementary DVD about the bike with some music tracks on it. I'll rip the B-King stuff off and will stick it on ukrm-nova.
