the real news.
Peter and I bumped into our friend Nat at a Halloween party last October, where we all got to talking about Nat's Bandit 400. It turned out that he wanted to get it all gussied up to sell it, so naturally, I offered to take it in as a project. Nat and I played email tag about the Bandit for a few months, until we finally saw each other at another party earlier this month.

We got to talking about the bike again, and it renewed our enthusiasm to get it all fixed up (me) and sold (Nat). Nat's a tall guy, and is ready to eventually move up to a physically larger bike than the Bandit; plus, he's got two cars and is running out of space for a bike he doesn't ride that much.

I got an email from Nat on Saturday afternoon, asking if he could bring it by sometime this weekend. I said sure, and we set up a time. When he arrived, he gave me a little tour of the bike, showed me what needed replacing and what was nearing the end of its life. To make a long story short, we got to talking, and he offered to sell it to me at a price so low that I felt guilty accepting it.

But, accept I did, and so I bought my third motorcycle.

the details.
It's a 1991 Suzuki GSF400, also known as a Bandit 400. Like all Bandit 400s, it's a carbureted inline four. With a seat height of 31.1" and a very narrow frame, it has the distinct honor of being the very first of my bikes that I can almost flatfoot (in fact, I can flatfoot it when wearing my boots). I won't go into any more of the technical details of the bike now; instead, I'll link to the specs from the intro page sometime soon. You'll hear more than you wanted to about them soon enough anyway. It is a project bike, after all.

And so, without further ado, here's the new toy.

imminent projects.
I already have a laundry list of projects for the poor Bandit. We'll start with the most obvious. Ten years ago, it was most likely a bright cherry red, and it still is in places, but years of being stored outside sans cover have left the top surfaces an odd speckled pink. So, the bodywork will have to go off to be painted. I have wonderful mental images already of custom paint jobs.

Less obviously but more importantly, the rear shock is totally dead. To paraphrase, if it wasn't bolted to the frame, it'd be pushing up the daisies. It is an ex-shock. The folks who did the last service on the Bandit noted that the "rear shock has no damping", which is truly a wonderful understatement. I could ride this bike to Great America, park it in amongst the roller coasters, and charge people money to sit on it and bounce up and down. To be perfectly honest, I didn't notice it terribly much while riding around (funny how weighing 100lbs will really reduce the number of suspension problems), but just sitting down onto the bike bottoms out the shock and rebounds, practically sending me back up to a standing position. It's jolly good entertainment for we easily amused.

In keeping with the suspension report, we now travel to the front forks. I have the sneaking suspicion that they are, as well, going gently into that good night. At the very least, the lefthand fork seal has developed skin cancer from the sun, and will flake off into your hand when you touch it. This is, not surprisingly, going to be replaced.

Next up is the emissions canister. Some creative soul decided that, rather than removing the California emissions parts the way God intended, he would just remove a couple of hoses and crack a big hole right in the side of the charcoal canister. Effective, perhaps, but aesthetically crude. Plus, it makes a funny noise. We'll be removing the CA emissions all proper-like in short order.

The last noticeable thing is the speedometer cable, or lack thereof. The core of the cable -- the part that threads up into the gauges -- is conspicuously absent. I'll have to disassemble it, but I'll most likely end up replacing the whole cable.

Those are really the only things that I have concrete proof of. The last service report on the Bandit claims that the steering head bearings were going (ah, my favorite bit of maintenance...) and that an "engine seal" is blown. So, I guess there will be a fun afternoon ahead of investigating which exact "engine seal" is the dead one. Whee!

first ride.
After a short nap (hey, priorities), Mark and I took the Bandits out for their first ride together. It was starting to drizzle, so we didn't go very far -- plus, with no speedometer cable, my odometer doesn't turn, so I had no clue how much gas was in the tank. Fortunately we stayed in the neighborhood and it's a light bike, so it'd be easy pushing.

To be quite honest, it didn't seem all that different from riding Mark's Bandit around when I test-rode it. Obviously, my suspension was a little more of an adventure, but other than that, it was pretty similar. I did notice a lot of handlebar vibration on my Bandit, but bar end weights and gel grips should help with that.

Braking felt pretty good. I bled both brakes later that night, so I'll have to do another ride this week to note any improvement, but I was happy with the overall braking experience. It lacks the bite that the Superhawk and SVS have, but is much better than the Nighthawk -- though I admit that that's damning with faint praise.

The handling is good. I didn't want to push the tires too much since it was raining and the tires are pretty smooth, but I never felt a lack of confidence in the bike while leaned over. Again, we were only toodling around the neighborhood in second gear, so I'll have to give a more detailed report later.

first maintenance.
Saturday night, I started writing this entry and then decided that I should go back down to the garage. I put on a CD, put on the rubber gloves, grabbed the cleaning supplies, and got cracking. If anyone had any doubts about my buying this bike, let them be put to rest -- 11:30pm found me lying on my back, scrubbing rust off of the chain with WD-40 and a dentures toothbrush, in the pouring rain. Heaven.

As previously mentioned, I also bled both sets of brakes and, in the process, came across the most annoying stripped screw to date. Previously, the most challenging drill-and-screw-extractor situation had been a cylinder head cover bolt on the Nighthawk. This was outdone on Saturday night, though, when the righthand screw holding the rear brake reservoir cover said its final goodbyes. There's nothing like having to hold a full brake reservoir in your left hand because the screw is inaccessible when the reservoir is bolted to the frame, while simultaneously drilling out a 4mm wide screw with a huge old corded drill at midnight. I can't tell you how happy I was. Sickeningly, that wasn't sarcastic.

Next up will be a full service, with oil and coolant changes, bolt tightening, plug inspection, etc.

Peter dragged me off snowboarding for the rest of the weekend (tough life!), so that's all the Bandit news for now. I did manage to get some S-turns down an intermediate slope, though, which was very exciting. Have I mentioned that I love living in Northern California?