Suzuki GSF 600 Bandit

Here is my Suzuki GSF 600 Bandit. It?ˆ™s a lovely bike that I bought to ride through summer so that I could save up to fix my car. It?ˆ™s been a great bike and I?ˆ™ve had a lot of fun riding it. I?ˆ™m a little disappointed that I didn?ˆ™t manage to go on any long rides on it but I?ˆ™ve enjoyed commuting on it and I?ˆ™ve had a couple of short rides out in the neighbouring countryside. It?ˆ™s been an ultra-reliable bike for me and has given me no problems whatsoever. It starts with no fuss every time. straight away. doesn?ˆ™t use a drop of oil and returns 45mpg as it is supposed to. The engine is an absolute peach- 6th gear overtaking is easy at A-road speeds. it just has bags of mid-range and is so flexible. Generally it is a very easy bike to ride. It is very smooth through turns and easy to manoeuvre at slow speeds so filtering through traffic is easy. It?ˆ™s a lovely bike. my last bike was a twin but this engine easily matches it for low end and mid-range drive. with the added 4 cylinder top end as a bonus! I don?ˆ™t want to sell it as I?ˆ™ve had so much fun on it but I bought it to allow me to stand back from my long term project car and decide whether I wanted to carry on with it or look for something that doesn?ˆ™t eat all my money! As it is. I?ˆ™ve decided to keep ploughing money into my old car?ˆ¦

I?ˆ™m being as absolutely honest as I can about the bike because I always try to be when selling things on ebay- it doesn?ˆ™t do anyone any good to get to an item and find it is not as described. It is by no means a mint bike but it cleans up nicely and looks respectable. It has the odd bits of rust on the frame and the engine finish is showing some signs of its age. Also. the rear plastics are faded slightly and the front half of the front mudguard is the same. Luckily. someone has fitted a rear hugger which has kept the rear shock and swinging arm tidy. The adjustment still works fine on the rear shock- it is adjustable for preload and damping. I have changed the settings slightly since I have owned it (everything was turned up to full when I bought it?ˆ¦ ) and I was pleasantly surprised at the difference it has made to the way the bike rides. The front forks don?ˆ™t leak any oil and damp nicely still. also there is no rust on the fork legs. The front brake pad has plenty of meat left on it and the back on is fine too. although it?ˆ™s not the most effective brake I?ˆ™ve ever used.

I changed the oil in the first week I owned the bike to be sure that it had good quality oil in it. I have a receipt for this oil. I have done some jobs on the bike myself and have had some new tyres fitted as well. It has Bridgestone Battlax BT023 tyres in 160/60/17 for the rear and 120/70/17 on the front. These only have a couple of hundred miles on them and I very carefully followed the manufacturer?ˆ™s bedding in instructions. These were found on the Bandit owner?ˆ™s forum where they have gathered advice from several tyre manufacturers about the best method for bedding their tyres in. I would recommend the Bandit forum in general as it is a great source of information.

I also fitted a new chain and sprockets. increasing the rear sprocket by two teeth in the process. I did this after researching on the owner?ˆ™s forum and following the advice of long standing Bandit owners who have found that reducing the front sprocket size can reduce the life of the chain as the radius the chain follows around the smaller sprocket is too tight and causes excessive wear. Lowering the gearing is seen as a sensible mod on 600 Bandits as they are geared very high in terms of outright speed. Apparently top speed is not affected by lowering the gearing as they can rev out more easily but I didn?ˆ™t make this mod for any reason other than amplifying the lovely mid-range that this engine produces. I used a very comprehensive gearing calculator tool that someone had created (which incorporated tyre size and other parameters) and the gearing alteration has not adversely affected engine revs at motorway speeds. only changing revs at a set speed by 2-300 rpm at most.

I adjusted the valve clearances before having the tyres fitted and this made a healthy difference to the engine performance as all the valve clearances were too tight when I checked them. These engines are known to be a little noisy and it isn?ˆ™t the smoothest sounding engine at low revs. I planned to strip. clean and balance the carbs as the next job on the bike as this will have the engine running perfectly. I was concerned that the cam chain or cam chain-tensioner were making a noise but I took the bike to my local bike shop/garage (which fitted my tyres) and they assured me that the cam chain tensioner is fine and believed the noisiness is due to the carbs being out of balance. The mechanic recommended stripping and cleaning the carbs but I have put it up for sale before I have had chance to do this.

So. to summarise the bike:

Work I?ˆ™ve done on it/good points:

-          - New tyres

-          - New chain and sprockets

-          - Oil changed

-          - Fresh tax

-          - MOT until March

-          - Valve clearances checked and adjusted

-          - Rear hugger fitted

-        - Comes with new oil filter and Haynes manual

      - MOT until 8th March 2015. Tax until February 2015

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 Bad points/things to sort out:

-          - Not much really?ˆ¦

-          - Choke is a little sticky. could probably do with a service at some point although it works perfectly fine- I?ˆ™m just being picky.

-          - Carbs could do with cleaning out and balancing. As a result it is a little rough sounding at low revs but revs cleanly through to the redline and produces lovely mid-range

-          - The ignition barrel could do with a service. I found a very good step by step guide on the online forum that explains how to complete this service. It works fine as it is- you just have to push the key slightly forward when turning it. These jobs are just to get the bike up to top standard really. it is ready to go as it is.

 This is a lovely bike. not the tidiest in the world but it is straight and honest. It would make a good winter commuting bike or a first big bike as it is so easy to ride. I would definitely have another Bandit and will be looking for one next spring if I can fix my car up without bankrupting myself.

 I?ˆ™ve put £1600 as the asking price which I think is fair but I am open to offers and you are welcome to come and view the bike in the evening or at the weekend. The advert will not be removed until I have the money and test rides are only possible with the full asking price in my hand along with proof of your driving entitlement and valid insurance. The mileage will increase slightly as I will be riding it to work until it is sold. Please get in touch if you have any questions. thanks for looking!

Also published at eBay.com