For 2001 the revamped Bandit 1200S got an all-new frame for sharper handling and the seat height was lowered nearly
two inches.
If you?re put off by modern technology like throttle-by-wire, fuel injection and trick electronic engine management systems, but still want gobs of horsepower available at the twitch of a throttle, you need to look back a few years to find what you?re looking for. To around, say, 1997, when Suzuki took a GSX-R1100 engine off the shelf, retuned it, bored it out to 1,157cc and stuffed it into a middleweight-sized chassis. Thus was born the Bandit 1200, a bike that packs a punch like a surly silverback gorilla and reminds you there was a time when software wouldn?t save you from yourself.
The B12?s air/oil-cooled four is a model of old-school simplicity, with four carburetors, screw-and-locknut valves that any halfway-competent home mechanic can adjust and few other critical maintenance requirements except changing oil, a job best done on time to prevent sludge clogging the cam-chain tensioner. The four-into-one exhaust system is a model of civility, but is also largely responsible for holding back the Bandit?s wild side?a freer-flowing system unleashes significant horsepower and torque, although possibly at the expense of the goodwill of your neighbors. The Bandit was the Rider cover bike in February 1997.
The tubular-steel chassis is remarkable for its lack of remarkableness, and modifications to the damper-rod fork and price-point shock are necess...