RIP SV1000S, long live the Bandit 1250

After 6 years with my Suzuki SV1000S I have finally traded the old girl in for a Suzuki Bandit 1250.

The SV was a terrific machine and certainly the most complete “real world” bike I have owned. As is my want, the bike was modified somewhat over the years with additions including scorpion exhausts, heated grips, pack rack, scotoiller and a speedohealer.

Most of the mod’s have been to make the SV a more practical everyday machine, although the exhaust was mainly to give the engine more character. This was something it did in spades turning the bike from a two wheeled sowing machine sound-alike into a monstrous, very loud, foundation shaking V-Twin.

As modified, the SV was as powerful on the road as you would ever need, had real character, handled the bends very well and was also a reasonable tourer.

On the downside the bike like all big high revving twins was snatchy below 3000RPM necessitating lots of clutch slipping at very low speeds and this coupled with wrist ache from the low clip-on bars meant that it was a poor town bike. The fuel consumption was also not its best point.

This above is about it on the downside, as out of town at highway speeds the weight disappears from your wrists and the snatching isn’t an issue. All in all a tremendous bike, and in my opinion at least, far more than the sum of its parts.

A great bike for sure, but I felt it was time for a change. There were two main reasons for this, with the first simply being that I fancied something different and the second that riding wise, my focus these days is much more on the touring side of things.

I decided that I wanted a bike that was more comfortable than the SV, be semi-faired or naked and have either an in-line 3 or 4 motor for a change of feel and better in town manners.

Initial candidates were the Triumph Street Triple, Honda CB1300 and Suzuki GSX1400.

The Street Triple is the most shear fun machine I have ridden and was the favourite for quite a while, but to be honest wasn’t the best on long runs. On top of which one of my friends has a Triumph Daytona 675 that he has had no end of issues with including stranding him in the middle of nowhere the day after he brought it. It has since broken down several more times.

The CB1300 seemed to offer a lot, at least on paper, but which in reality was rather uninspiring with a surprising amount of engine vibration.

The GSX1400 is a fantastic “old school” retro looking bike with a brilliant engine. I looked at quite a number of these but never managed to find one without some kind of issue, most of which related to build quality (I am very picky on this subject), which tells a story in itself.

I was in a local garage looking at another GSX1400 when is spotted a black Bandit 1250. This wasn’t what I set out looking for but in reality ticked most of the right boxes, so took it out for a test ride.

The bike handled really nicely, was comfortable, had a super smooth fast engine and even sounded good. With the exception of the Street Triple it was also the most fun bike I test rode. Deal done.

The only real fault I can find so far is with surging at very low speed. This is caused by the bike running excessively lean and is a by-product of the bike meeting Euro 3 emission regulations. To correct this I have ordered a TFI box, O2 sensor eliminator and K&N filter from Dale Walker Holeshot. This should cure the problem and give me another 10bhp or so – very nice.


Yours truly.

The new wheels.