2001 Suzuki GSF1200 Bandit review from United States of America

No problems to date.

Nice combination of torque, horsepower, handling and good looks. Also, very reasonably priced.

I'm 64 years old and my motorcycle days mostly ended in 1969 when I sold my '64 Bonneville, '68 Enfield Interceptor and '51 Indian Chief to move out west. Since then only had a Yamaha XS 500 for a very short time and didn't ride it much; it had a little scoot but only if thrashed.

Stopped riding while raising kids because of cost and responsibility, but now decided to enter my second childhood.

While test riding quite a few new 'Street Fighter' bikes last summer I ran across this 2001 Bandit 1200s used. It was considerably faster and lots more comfortable than anything I'd ridden, although the longer frame made it slower in tight turns. I continued testing new bikes, but nothing else did it for me like the Bandit, so I bought it and put on a new set of Avon Storm ST's.

You can ride it docile and it feels docile. Tach it up, and there's a monster inside. Both horsepower and torque keep coming on strong until about 7500rpm, at which point the adrenaline rush really kicks in all the way to 11,000.

As for turns, it's very comfortable out on the highway. There's a lot more performance in both the turns and straights than I'll ever be able to use. Cruising at 70mph in high gear there's so much power on tap that downshifting to pass is really moot unless you want to impress someone. Drop it into second and it goes unicycle, and I'm riding at 8000 plus altitude, so losing 25% or more power.

If you need Gucci or Armani or the like, this isn't your bike. If you want lots of performance and great reliability, I highly recommend looking at this bike. I'm riding with a bunch of bikes costing 3-7 times as much, and this bike outruns all of them.