riversbikes

Some more work to report. Front fairings are nearly there, just need to fab some more bracketry. Splurged on Frando brake and clutch M/C -- I've used them before, and they are decent quality stuff at half the price of Brembo or Magura. The R1 master I first used had no bleed valve and the zx14 clutch master had a leak.

Got rid of the ignition, now I need to get rid of the keyed gas cap. Noticed that Suzuki had a 3 hole and 4 hole gas cap. My 1998 Bandit 1200 tank has a 4 hole setup -- will all bandits 1996-2004 fit? Will other Suzuki models fit (with 4 holes, obviously).

USD forks on, dug through my tickle trunk of leftover bits -- found some ZX7R clip ons that will do for now, a radial master from a zx10R, and a Brembo radial front lever, which I don't think will work as the bore size might be too small...

Some more progress, in the electrical department. The ignition key delete. Attached are pics of how you can make this work for your bandit. Note resister between the black/white and orange/yellow wires. I had a 100ohm/2w lying around from my last racebike build. The brown and grey are ignored, and the orange and red wired into a simple handlebar rocker switch. I've also included a picture of the bike stripped of the street bodywork and lights... next step is to get that GSXR1100 front end mounted!

A pretty happy camper. Tried both the 132.5 and 135 mains, and the 135 seem very good. Set the accelerator pump, and the bike pulls nice and strong throughout the rev range. I've got it geared pretty high, so I run out of road and also excuses speed wise on the highway, so I have to roll off. I might try something even richer, as it still feels a bit lean at WOT. As always, all bikes are unique -- I'm still trying to chase down a dyno operator within reasonable distance for help, but most are harley FI guys, and don't seem to want to bother. I'm still running one of the baffles in the GPR exhaust as well, so once that is removed I may have to do more fine tuning, but I want to do that at the track. We've got no noise restrictions at the local club circuit!

That's what I've been told, IceKat... they even advertise that on their website... as a full disclosure sort of announcement!

Well that was easy -- new All Balls steering stem bearing kit. Leave the triple over night in the freezer, and warm the bearing in the oven for 20 mins at 200C. Bearing went on with very little aggro.

Pulled the trigger on the fairings. Of course wanted the right "look", but didn't want to break the bank. In Canada right now our dollar is a bit deflated against foreign currencies. A few years ago, we were actually more valuable than the US dollar... but not now. So when considering ordering from the 'states, you have to factor in the exchange, shipping (and on fairings that can be huge), and duties. When the supplier ships via UPS, that company also tacks a 30% surcharge/handling fee onto all transactions. To avoid this, I do have a place in northern North Dakota where I have gotten things shipped to, but that entails a 3 hour round trip drive, fuel, time, and I still have to pay customs duties of course. A viable option is ordering from Europe. Economies of scale is that often individual pieces are priced at 50% of what is available in the US, and sometimes when it is all calculated out, it is cheaper to order across the pond. Oftentimes the variety is great from overseas as well. Hence, I found Bardney Racing online. A few reviews were mixed, but I've never had race bodywork ever fit "perfect". Some work with the dremel and or sandpaper is always required. And for every negative review, there were several positive ones. After using an online calculator program (xe.com), it worked out that I could get an early slingshot upper and two sidepanels, shipped to me in Canada for over $100 cheaper than the next option, Airtech. And I didn't have to drive 3 hours to pick them up in North Dakota! According to the owners, the moulds were made from modified stock panels, so you can actually see the "suzuki" graphics in the finished product, as well as graphics lines. I'll sand out the logos, but leave in the lines (perhaps), as that will help mark vinyl or 2-tone paint lines when I get to that point. I hope to find a used 750 slingshot (88-89) upper fairing stay, and a windscreen (zero gravity still has some new old stock online) to suit. So not identical to the Force endurance racer above, but more period correct, if you ask me.

Ooops -- I think I have people confused -- I did not buy a CMR frame. I do buy a lotto ticket weekly in order to do so, but I am working with my Bandit frame, modified as above, with the upgraded suspension pieces.

I'm liking the look of this Harris-framed endurance racer from France... although a cheaper option would be to use the bodywork I have, fill in the headlight holes, and go from there. My goal is to have the bike on track by next spring, if not sooner. I'm still racing my supertwin EX650 this season. So why negate all the work I've done to make the bike street legal? Well, I've already got a street triple 675 for the road, the ex650 racer, and an xt600 cafe bike as well. Insuring bikes is very expensive, particularly in my province, and we don't have any multi-bike policies available. I can always return the ex650 to street duty and sell it or the triumph when the time comes... I'll keep you all updated on this step of my journey!

So step 1 is pressing the bandit stem into the say what now!? bottom triple, and visualizing what the finished result might look like. At least the bike now runs 100% better with the carbs. I still need to do some final tuning, and I do realize I might have to learn to use the carbs slightly differently due to their design and nature.

What was I doing??? Well, after reading about the CMR racing bikes (built in Canada) racing at the Phillip Island Classic, I wrote the guy to inquire. Frames aren't cheap, as you can imaging, but it made me lust after a vintage superbike. I would stand no chance in the SBK class at my local club, but it would be fun rolling up to the line on a bike this old, and I would embarrass some of the riders....

I gave up in the fall and vowed to fix it right -- so I bought a set of RS36 carbs and waited the long Canadian winter to mount them. Inside, I set them to the recommended settings, including fuel screw, float, and main jet.... and waited. And trolled Eblag... and found a Fox triple adjust shock for a GSXR that would work! And a set of GSXR1100 forks in great shape...

Once deemed "legal" by the government, the tuning started. What a nightmare! After firing right up the first time, I spent the summer of 2017 chasing a ridiculously rich condition, using the Holeshot kit and settings. Plugs turned black, the bike ran poorly at all rev ranges, and black smoke billowed out of the rear. I tried every needle setting on the stock and provided needle, I went from 110 all the way up to 150 on the mains, with no joy. I had a lovely looking bike, but it ran like a pig.

I then sent the fairings off to paint -- nothing too fancy at this stage. I had also bought a pingel petcock and rebuilt the carbs with a Holeshot stage II kit as I was ditching the airbox. The bike was starting to come together nicely!

I then tore the entire bike apart to finish weld the frame and then send it off to get powdercoated. I got bobbin mounts properly tig-welded onto the swingarm and started the rebuild when it all came back. In the interim I rebuilt the stock forks with racetech internals.

The end result was a small, 4.5" single offset light, with high and low beams. In the meantime, I had acquired a black widow header and GPR slip on to mimic the "thin" mufflers of the yoshimura bikes of the 80s. I rebuilt the 4-pots, added some stainless lines I had lying around (in green!), and worked on a rearset solution that didn't jack my legs up too far. While I wanted the twin headlight setup, there is no way it would be deemed legal for street use.

I had set myself on buying Ducati F1 fairings, as they seemed to have the right look I was going for. After fitting and some trimming, the final shapes were determined. Based on feedback and the width of the cylinders I cut back the upper fairing considerably. I now had to find a dot-legal headlight solution which still had the "endurance" feel to it.

First step was checking to see if the bike ran -- it did, poorly with the usual leaking petcocks and flooded float bowls. With that assurance I started hacking up the frame, and tacking on a new rear subframe using 4130 tubing. The rear subframe with pillion provisions was understandably heavy!

After being inspired by XTR Pepo's Bandit 600, I kept my eye out on a similar bike for a cheap price -- in Canada there appears to be less and less interest in older bikes, so I was hoping to find one for a steal. As always, I also kept looking at the list of provincial salvage items for sale, and sure enough, in the fall of 2016 a 1996 Bandit 1200 with only 12,000 came up for auction. I duly drove the 250km to Winnipeg to check it out, and drove home $700 poorer, with this in tow. Let the cutting commence!

Thanks Cap'n. If I give this a try I'll be sure to report back to the group!

Getting way ahead of myself here, but... is there any way the gsxr 1100 tach could be made to work on a mk1 bandit? Its for a trackbike project I've got rattling around in my head, and it seems a cheaper an more appropriate option that something from the aftermarket. A quick glance of wiring diagrams show that both have 3 leads, a tach line from the ignitor, a power lead, and a ground... too simple, or would it work?

Turns out a new shop in Winnipeg does have a dyno -- but mainly works with EFI Harleys. When I take it there, I'll bring my tools and my jets as I can likely swap them out quicker than they could. Question -- should I still have the accelerator pump disconnected for the first pulls, or should I try to set it up first? Like I said above, I think I'm still lean on the main jet and am waiting for some 132.5 and 135s to come in. When I roll on the throttle, it does just bog before slowly coming on again...

I also read I should set the accelerator pump to NOT engage while you are farting around with jetting -- could mask another problem...

Thanks for the advice -- I did check that on the bench before install, and the bike is running well at low and part throttle, and perfect on a closed throttle. With the 130s in, it's definately better at WOT, but when I "crack" the throttle open, it does bog and sound lean again before slowing taking off. I did set the accelerator pump to the 1/4 open, 3/4 stop setting. I do know that the RSs need to be finessed a bit when opening the throttle. Still seems lean on the main... considering trying a 132.5 or a 135 main... Checked the brand new plugs, very clean -- not sooty (rich) or white (lean). Although to be honest I've not run it for miles and miles. With the stock carbs, I was so rich no matter what settings I tried I turned two sets of plugs black and killed all the mosquitos in the neighborhood (with black smoke -- fuel). I've called around re a dyno - the only one in MB is wary to work with a carbed bike -- they just want to hook a laptop up to a powercommander and go from there...