Bandit Alley
GENERAL MOTORCYCLE FORUMS => GENERAL MOTORCYCLE => Topic started by: snofrog on April 05, 2005, 11:19:46 PM
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There is a lot of talk and interaction about the 400 bandit on this board. Good for them!!! However, I haven't even seen the first one (pics yes ) in person and I have been on 2 wheels since 83. Are they low production or just a screamer from the past with a cult like following like the RZ's (former owner)? I'm not knocking them just curious. :motorsmile:
Thanks,
Mark
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Somewhat of a cult following, but not as big as the RD/RZ.
They got a lot of acclaim in the US press when they first came out for being pretty much a GSXR400 (which we didn't get) sans bodywork. (There's actually more difference than that, but I hope you get the picture.)
The thing that kept them from being a hot seller in the US, and why we only got them for a much shorter time than other markets, was most US buyers wanted a bigger bike (engine wise)... hence the B6 & B12.
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The Bandit 400 was only imported for 2 or so years, 3 full model years ('91, '92, '93) and was given pretty good reviews from everything I could track down. The '91 and '92 models are virtually identical, the '93 has a 1000RPM lower red-line. It's main problem was price, you could get a bigger 600cc bike for a little more. Mind you, most magazines agreed that the 400 would out handle the slightly more expensive 600, but at the time displacement was king.
Still is, thats why a lot of people buy liter bikes as their first bike and 500cc is considered 'tiny'.
One Suzuki dealer in Florida I dealt with for parts told me that Suzuki had told them (while they looked for a new timing chain) that only 1500 GSF400's made it to North America. The entire Continent. USA and Canada! I don't know if thats true or not, it may have just been an excuse, but they are pretty darned rare. Many places I talked to wouldn't touch the bike!
I've never seen one other than mine, although I did meet someone who owned one back in the mid 90's. His words basically summed the bike up, "Corners like it's on rails and goes like crazy if you can keep her revs up".
Finding running 400s for sale is getting to be more and more difficult, finding junkers isn't. Judging from a lot of the posts I've seen, the 400 is blessed with weak capacitors in the Digital Igniter, or a weak voltage regulator that allows the caps to go bad. Many 400s were sent to scrap yards because their Igniters died. Thankfully, with the tireless research of the Bandit Alley R&D team (woefully underfunded! SEND BEER!), we've discovered how to repair these previously 'junk' Igniters and return these 'dead' bikes to life once more!
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cool thanks for the replies . M
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To add to this in Canada they sold under 100 in the 3 year they were sold here, but we did get a more powerful engine with bigger carbs and a hotter ignition advance curve in the digital ignition. In my city there are 3 400 Bandits and only 1 1200 lol
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FWIW, the redline on the 93's is only 500rpm lower 13,500 v. 14,000.
Not that they're not great, fun bikes (they are!!!) but I suspect one of the reasons we have so much 400 traffic here is that all of the ones that are left in N. America are at least 12 years old now. BA is a great place for members to exchange the technical/repair info that is inevitably needed on a bike of that age.
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(In my best officer and a gentleman impersonation)
"Cause I go no place else to go!!!"
Haha, we come here and exchange ideas because they are rare and nowhere else does as much R&D on the B4 than this site. They are a lot of fun and plenty fast for 90% of the streets.
I was lucky the shop I took my bike to after I got it actually wanted to buy it off of me, so they were happy to fix what was wrong with it.