Passenger footpeg experiment and more

As many of you know that ride double, the passenger footpeg position leaves something to be desire. I have Givi luggage so I can't easily just make a bracket and move my footpeg brackets forward like many of you have done. It would entail too much fabrication to adapt the Givi mounts if I relocated the footpeg brackets themselves.

I priced those "adjustable" foot pegs and I think they are priced more than they are worth to me. On my Vee, I used footpegs off my Goldwing and it worked great up front and then a little work and I got a set on the rear for my wife. She loved the mod as well. It dropped the pegs about an inch and moved them forward about an inch as well. So I thought why not try it on the Bandit as well.

So after looking on the old Wing forums I used to hang out as well I found a good set of pegs for a reasonable amount and bought them. I figured I'd experiment with them and see how it would go. To be honest, not as well as I had hoped but maybe well enough it was worth it. I am still working it out at the moment.

First issue I ran into was the internal width of the bracket on the Bandit is narrower than the width of the Wing footpeg so it won't fit inside the stock bracket. Not a major issue for me so I had it in and out sort of overlapping the stock bracket. No photos yet but will be posted when I am done.

Sort of like sets of fork tines intermeshed. Then a bolt goes all the way through. One issue with this is you have to be careful to not over torque the bolt or you could break the bracket unless you go with a space of some sort. You can easily crush the bracket. I didn't over torque and use a lock nut to secure it for now.

Another issues is you need to grind a bit of the peg where it fits into the bracket away so that it will fit fully in the mount. Then you need to radius it a bit to clear the bracket so it will fold up. One issue on my left side is a get a bit of interference with the Givi bag support so it won't fold up all the way.

Not a biggie for me as most of the time the passenger pegs are down anyway but for some it might be an issue. Other side isn't an issue. I could also change the way I overlapped with the bracket and maybe not have the issue. The way I did it was to give the maximum drop to the peg I could.

I left one side stock and the other modded and looked at the bike from the rear. It is forward about a half inch over stock and about an inch lower. The "peg" is almost like a mini floorboard compared to the stocker. My really loved them on the Vee and I think she will as much on the Bandit. Easy to put back to stock if she doesn't like them and I'll move them up to replace my pegs for long cruises.

All in all it was worth the effort. I'll post pics in the next day or so. I really didn't have much options to move the passenger pegs with all the attachment tied into the Givi mounting brackets.

With all the mods I hope she likes the Bandit as much as she does the Vee. Adding the Givi mount for a topcase will definitely add to hear pleasure. I must say it isn't quite a fugly in person on the bike as it is in the photos. OTOH it is still ugly enough I'll have to keep a top case on it most of the time. At least I should have much issue with it breaking the subframe like some do when just using the grab handle mount and nothing more. It also seems to clear my Sargent seat pretty well.

I finally had a chance to install my Madstad windshield. No chance to ride it yet though as I am doing my HID upgrades and need to keep everything ripped apart. The Retro Source parts are top notch. Truly OEM quality!

Adding to the TLC on the Bandit were the mirror extenders. OMG, what a difference. They too look much better on the bike than in the photos.

Just a few things left to do before the trip. TBS sync, fnish up HIDs, swap out new levers, electrical power block, finish up Stage 2 (O2 sensor and Dobeck TFI add-on) are the main ones left. I might get to the 3m tank guard material if I have time as well.

When I look back at my mod list, it is amazing how much I've done in the short time I've had the bike.

I almost forgot. I was also trying to install my Wolo (Stebel Nautilus) horn and I couldn't find the thread with the good mounting location with photos on the inside faring area. Does anybody remember where that thread is? I tried a lot of different search terms and could never find it. Amazing how many horn threads there ore. The Stebel/Wolo upgrade should really be a sticky. A stock Bandit is whisper quiet and nobody will hear you coming.

Here are a few photos. If you look closely at the rear view, you can see there is about an inch drop. The other photos show how I did the intermeshing of the footpeg and bracket. The extra foot space is much appreciated by my wife. Also there is no interference with the exhaust. The extra legroom isn't huge but I am very limited as I mentioned previously by the attachment points of the Givi luggage.

Just a quick update. My wife is very happy with the footpeg setup. She said not quite as good as our Vee but she didn't complain for about 400 miles so that is pretty good. OTOH she likes the Corbin on the Vee much better than the Sargent on the B. I'll have to agree as well.

It was my first long ride with the Madstad 19" and laminar flow combo. This is a very good setup for me. I probably should have went though for the 22" but after seeing my 19" and the stress that was on it, I would be a bit concerned about the bracket withstanding high speed runs. Not saying it is going to break but I'll keep my eye on it. The 19" on its own would have done nothing but put the buffeting on my helmet where it would drive me crazy.

The little laminar lip is worth is the perfect compliment so far to the Madstad setup. I am 6'2" and 32" inseam so I have a tall seated height. I found a nice little pocket of still air to ride in. As others have mentioned, the side protection isn't all that but it is better for me than others have represented. The combo did well up into the low triple digit speed range without issue.

The stage I setup is on with a slip on pipe. The Dobeck TPI does work pretty well but I'll need to play with it a bit to get it better dialed in for my usage. I didn't have a chance to sync the TBs either before leaving on our trip. The power is definitely improved. Roll-on wheelies in the first 2 gears are easy. Actually too easy if you ask my wife. Fuel economy is in the pits though and not due to more aggressive riding. I rode the same roads and speeds (though generally less aggressively thanks to my wife) as my last trip and my mileage is down from mid 40's to mid 30's and my range sucks now.

Here are the differences between then and now:
Stage I and slipon
Madstad 19" w/laminar lip
Rear topcase
Wife (weight national secret- but likely not much north of 130lbs)

From an aero perspective (biggest effect on mileage besides tuning) the wife and topcase aren't really going to factor in that much. They possibly could help. The screen and tuning are likely the big hit. Just changing the windscreen (to a bigger one) on my 650 Burgman cost me 5-6 mpg. I am betting most of it is the extra fuel that is required. I may dial it back a bit for the cruise part and if drivability doesn't suffer then leave it like that for highway running.

I do have a quick question that maybe someone can answer regarding the rear shock. If facing it from the left side, which way do I need to turn the preload collar to increase the preload? Forward toward the front wheel or toward the back? I definitely need more preload with both of us and gear on the bike. I can't see the markings on the shock and I don't have the manual with me.

Found out the answer to my shock question. Move the collar counter-clockwise as viewed from the top which is the same as moving the spanner toward the rear wheel. I did figure out a good way for doing it without really busting on my knuckles.

As any of you who have the ABS version know, it is even tighter than the non-ABS one. Of course I did the spanner with extension trick. Even on the center stand that wasn't enough and the darn ABS unit got in the way when trying to do the spanner + extension + rear axle nut version. So I took off the chain guard. I used the 3 wrench combo to start. That was enough to get me up the notch on the ramp about just to the point where it would click and lock. Not far enough unfortunately. So with it as far as I could go with the 3 wrench combo, I gripped the 2 wrench setup (spanner + extension) in my hand while holding on to the chain and removed the axle nut wrench while pulling on the chain and it would pop just over the hump to the next notch.

Absolutely now busted knuckles and just a little trial and error to get the right angle. The chain guard definitely got in my way. There was no way the 2 wrench combo gave me enough leverage and I didn't need to remove any footpeg brackets to make it work. It wouldn't have helped anyway.

With more time on the Sargent seat, I am glad I went with the standard height version. My legs were very comfortable on our ride up yesterday. No issues at all with the seat height even now with the preload where it needs to be. My wife did complain about the seat seems to be angled down somehow so she is sliding forward more than usual. I noticed that as well too. I seem to slide into the tank. It doesn't look like there is really any way to raise the nose of the seat up a bit. I may look at getting bigger rubber bumpers if that might help. Even a 1/8-1/4" rise could be significant.

I have the same problem with my Corbin (non Holeshot) seat. I feel like I'm always sitting on top of the tank instead of at the backstop.

I hadn't thought of changing the rubber bumpers. Great idea, I'm going to look into it.

There looks to be a little play with the bumpers to lift them. It might be just enough in my case. It is worth trying. I am going to try and shim where it sits on the frame rails with maybe a piece of old inner tube and some zip ties though that may resist the seat sliding in but it will give me an idea if it helps. Is so I'll just fashion a bigger bumper for the main seat on or maybe remove the rear one to drop the rear and change the overall angle.

I thought I'd break out one separate item of note, the exhaust. I bought the 18" Delkevic CF slipon. So far I am very pleased with it. With or without the DB killer in, it isn't very loud. It is definitely louder than stock but not obnoxiously loud. Even at triple digit speeds my wife never complained about the noise.

On a very positive note, even though the exhaust is closer than what I'd like to my Givi bags, they never got very warm. Even stuck in stop and go traffic in 90+ degree temps, no issues as all. The CF areas definitely radiate less heat to the surrounding area even though the metal got areas of the exhaust got very hot (as expected). I am almost 100% certain if I had a full metal exhaust, I would have had issues. I would have liked to have about 2" of clearance. I am closer to about 1" with the bags I ended up using.

I won't spend a lot of time about the quality of the exhaust sound as there is an entire thread dedicated to it. I will simply say I like how it sounds. Definitely gives the Bandit a little bark to go with its bite now. No more mister mild and unassuming...

I can't wait to get back to home so I can pull the secondaries. I don't know if I'll do the complete airbox mod. As it is, the intake actually has more intake roar than the exhaust has growl at lower RPMs and half throttle or more.

The more I ride the Bandit the more I realize it costs a LOT more money to have a better bike than it and only then maybe only a little better in most areas. Of course we all know that or we wouldn't have bought one. My accountant (wife) did the math and put something in pretty interesting terms. I bought the SV1KS, Vee1K and Bandit for less than I would have had dropped on a BMW 1000RR that I wanted originally. While neither one of these bikes is what I'd consider best in class, they are all very good at what they do and they each have something that appeals to me. If I had bought the BMW my wife would have never gone riding with me on it. At least the Vee and Bandit she likes riding on a lot. All in all I think I made the right choice. It is really weird how I ended up with 3 Suzukis without ever specifically looking for any of them.

Something I haven't seen much of is how the various windshield options work in the rain. I am sure most people try to avoid riding in the rain if possible. I must say the Madstad/MRA combo did much better than I thought it would. Of course it isn't very wide so I had some rain on my arms and a bit on my shoulders.

I could actually ride with my shield open and my face didn't get wet. There was some pretty heavy rain at times today in Atlanta. All in all I am pretty impressed with how it works. Wife was too worried about it being slick out so didn't want to ride with me so I can't comment on the protection for her.

My biggest complaint in the rain is the lousy Dunlop tires. I can't wait for them to wear out! Even in the dry I can barely tolerate them. They are more like rim protectors than tires. Every little bit of road paint is a challenge unless the bike is almost totally vertical and under no power. Even a little dusting of direct is a challenge to these suckers. They don't seem to wear well either.

My set up works okay in the rain. But, a few inches higher, as you can do with the mustad set up would be nice.
I'm surprised your OEM Dunlops are still on. My rear was past the wear marks at 4K miles.

Previous owner replaced the original tires with the same ones just before selling it. Now I am stuck with them for another 3k miles or so unless I can't stand them any more. It is getting to that point pretty quickly. I'll either go with PR2s or 3s at this point. I ride in a lot of rain in Florida so I need pretty good wet weather traction. The Dunlops just plain feel greasy.

As for the Madstad setup, I am pretty sold on it at this point. To be honest I was a bit put off about the price but being able to find a nice quiet pocket of air is an amazing "luxury" when on a long trip. I could actually ride without my ear plugs for a change. My wife shot some video from the back seat and it was surprising quiet for her as well. There was almost no wind noise unless she put the camera outside the "bubble". Even at 50 mph, you could even hear my voice while giving her a tour of where I lived before. That was pretty darn impressive. Finally the looks are growing on me a bit too. I was sold on the one for my Vee but quite honestly, I think it is even better for the Bandit. I may just keep the bracket and mount up the National Cycle screen I have on it. I am concerned though that might overstress the Madstad mount and bracket so I've just thought about it rather than do it. I'd hate to have an issue at 90+ mph.

I just realized something today that previously used to bug me. I used to absolutely hate the stock handlebars. Now with the new seat and Madstad combo. It doesn't even bother me at all anymore. I road for about 5-6 hours they other day in all kinds of traffic and the bars were a non-issue but I didn't really realized it until today.

I am really loving the pull of the Stage I setup. It is so great to have a hard pull all the way to redline. It doesn't feel any weaker down low either. It is SURPRISINGLY quiet at cruise. I was riding next to a 600 supersport with a pipe going down the expressway at 80 mph and I had to keep looking at the tach to make sure my motor was running. By comparison my Bandit was rigged for silent running. Even going by a few LEOs today who had their windows down didn't even bring a look my way.

I can still ride pretty aggressively without bringing undue attention to myself. It really only starts to get noticed about about 7k rpm and at almost WOT. As well all know the Bandit never really needs to be in that zone to hustle along. Sure it may not be much faster than a 600 super sport if the 600 is totally in its powerband but the Bandit pulls well at almost any RPM and the Stage I & 2 mods just make it that much better.

Viva el Bandito!

So your still at Stage 1? Wait till you pull the secondaries and go Stage 2! Even smoother and even more power all over!

I wanted to pull the secondaries and do a throttle body sync but I ran out of time before my trip. I really want to smooth out the throttle response. I really want to add a header as well.

The wife now eyes me with suspicion every time I walk out to the bike as if I am going to slap on a quick mod while she isn't looking. I can't say that it has never happened before...

I am seriously thinking about a gearing change as well. I don't know that I want to change out the countershaft sprocket as all I've ever heard is it gets noisier and I love the quiet demeanor of the Bandit as it is now. I am actually thinking about going to taller gearing (i.e. a tooth up on the countershaft but it is already pretty large, or maybe down a few teeth on the rear).

I find myself cruising at pretty high speeds and this would improve my range a bit and still have pretty good pull. I know it is counter to most of the other people who are going for max acceleration but I read some other person's post on this board and it got me thinking. Not quite there yet but definitely considering it.

Well, at an ometer reading on the bike at +56K miles , factor in the speedhealers average of -6.5% and you have a closer to true 59,600+ miles. That's where my bandit is at present and adding to it near every day. I hope to put it on the bench once this remodel job and tree cutting job is done here and I get the yard and under the house back in shape. Need to pull the radiator and fix that shroud to not make noise while finally changing the anitfreeze. Change spark plugs for the 3rd time. Maybe, while there, pull the secondaries and sync again. Last sync was around 10K miles. Oh, perhaps install the blocking plates I bought from MM about 3 years ago I think. I'm on my 4th year with Suzi da Bandit.

I don't know if any of you have used the Garmin Tracker software but I've found it to be really handy. By using a smartphone link with my Garmin GPS I can send out updates automatically to my family where I am at while riding the Bandit or other bikes. Should I happen to have an issue, my friends and family or whomever else I setup to follow me will ate least have some idea of where to look for me. It will integrate with either an Android or iPhone. Here is the link for the Android version.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.garmin.android.apps.gtu

In addition I have it setup to use Garmin Live services for traffic, road cams, weather and fuel prices. I love having the weather app as right on my GPS I can see the storm maps or look up the weather right on my GPS for my destination. The traffic info is much more detailed as well. Fuel prices seem tb e pretty current and looking at the road cams for an area can tell me a lot about the traffic in an area even if it doesn't have actual traffic monitoring that would show up on the traffic data. Sometimes that data lags a bit but the cameras are pretty current.

I use the Garmin Nuvi 2595LMT which has a nice 5" screen. It is NOT a capacitive display. I purposely don't care as pinch to zoom isn't a need for me on the bike but being able to operate the display with gloves on IS. Capacitive displays typically don't work without special gloves. I wanted some I can use with riding gloves and so far its been great. The buttons are big enough that no issue pressing them. If I am at a low enough speed I can use the voice command feature to control a lot of the GPS. The phone integration is pretty good and up to about 50 I can talk with someone and use the built-in mic and speaker if I tuck down in the air pocket behind the Madstad.

While it may not be waterproof, I haven't had an issue in the rain yet. If it is going to be really heavy rain I put in in a baggie and leave it in my tank bag. Most light ran I have it under the lower part of the windscreen and is protected pretty well there. All in all I'd give it 4.5 stars out of 5 for my usage. It may not have a super high res screen but it is very readable and I like it much better for the bike than my Nuvi 3790. It has a very high res screen but a 4.3" display and a capacitive screen. Worthless with gloves on and I can't really appreciate the resolution while on the bike.

I'm still old school with the 276C. Tried a Zumo 550 till it broke. Guess I need to go through the proceedure and send it in for replacement for 130 bucks and sell it. Just spoiled to the 276C after over 10 years of using them.

I didn't like the Zumo much or the TomTom Rider either. The old school Garmins sometimes had a lot of features that they removed in later models. I use the traffic feature a lot though. I also like the easy pocketability of the Nuvis. The acquisition time is MUCH improved over the old models too. The routing is typically better as well and I like that I can see multiple routes at a glance when looking up a destination.

One of the killer apps though for me is the integration with the Android phone when using the smartlink. When searching in google maps on my phone, I have the option of sending the address directly to my Nuvi. It does this via the Bluetooth connection. No more looking up in google and then punching it in on the Nuvi. Saves me a ton of time. My wife can be looking up stuff for us while riding that she wants to see. It also syncs the saved and recent locations between the and GPS. It really is a pretty sweet combo. They started to put in more customization options like they had a LONG time ago and that TomTom has had forever. For a whopping $250 with lifetime maps and traffic it is a heckuva deal. They sell so well you almost never see them discounted even on fleabay it is only a tiny bit off of retail. The voice command is pretty cool as it actually works! You can tell it to navigate to 2355 Greenbriar Lane, Austin, Texas all in one breath and it does a darn good job of understanding what you wanted. Check one out, you might be surprised.

I still have a Nuvi 255 and its great for simple GPS usage. If I want to get fancy I have my Droid phone that has built in GPS and also have MapDroid installed if I lose reception, etc! And Day, going stage 2 with the secondaries out is really the biggest change in power, smoothness and ohhhhhhhhhh so lovely noise on hard pulls! TBH I still haven't synced my bike not even once!

EDIT: Just found this! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.greenalp.RealtimeTracker&hl=en

Y'all keep teasing me about the secondaries, cut it out!!!! It was already high on my list of things to-do. I even special ordered the little JIS screwdrivers and a tiny torch to do it all. If I had the tools with me I'd be half tempted to tear it down and do it in the hotel parking lot. A lot cooler here to work on it than in my little sweltering garage in Florida!

I hear you about the Android phone BUT if your screen is like mine, it won't work with gloves on. I ride about 99.99% of the time with gloves. While my HTC has a big screen, 4.3", it still isn't as usable or as easy to see as the Garmin is in direct sunlight. I use my phone a lot as a GPS in general but it really doesn't get it for me on the bike. With the tighter integration and leveraging my phone's network connection, I get a much more useful device. It really is nice have 1 click on my GPS to have my local weather. One thing I haven't seen yet on a phone is the way Garmin handles exit services for upcoming exits. That is a really handy.

OTOH I don't know if the Garmin fuel prices are as good as using Gas Buddy on my phone but it seems pretty close so far and again I can access this all with my gloves on. Also the Garmin traffic gives me more info about lane closures and such that I never got on Google maps. For example I plotted a route on my phone from Buckhead (in Atlanta) to Roswell, Georgia and on my Nuvi. Google maps never told me about a significant lane closure that directly affected traffic on Peachtree Street that my Nuvi did with the Garmin Live services. I was able to route around it and saved 15 minutes of dealing with cagers trying to run me down and cut me off while merging.

I do use my phone though a lot for dealing with LEOs. I use Trapster and Waze as my social driving apps as well as Escort Live tied into my radar detector. Those apps have saved my bacon quite a few times so far.

Back to a Bandit note, it really is a changeling at its heart. A simple metamorphosis and it becomes something entirely different. With my DB dark smoke windscreen on and no bags it looks like a sport bike. With the Madstad on and bags people think it is sport tourer. It really is striking how easily it can even LOOK the part it is playing...

Don't chance pulling the secondaries there! I broke my fancy screw driver and had to drill out the screws! Good point about the brightness and the lack of touching! Thing is I don't use my GPS very often and even when I do I don't need anything fancy per say soooo. But Amazon has it for $227 not bad! So it connects via bluetooth and then updates the GPS of where you are via a webpage or!? And yes the bike sure can transform pretty easy into a couple roles!

Though I am tempted, I won't do it in the parking lot.

The Nuvi 2595 GPS uses Bluetooth to connect to your phone and then use its data plan to update specific subscription services (think cheap as in $10/year) and provides that info to the GPS.

The Tracker option I don't think requires a subscription and it works very well. For me this is a great plus as you can upload your tracks to the internet as well as the periodic updates via email or text. I used the email feature so my wife wouldn't worry about me so much when out riding alone.

It is all very easy to setup and integrates right into the GPS menus itself. Up in the title screen of the Nuvi it shows me how many people I have setup to track me. One click and I can see who specifically and add/remove people. For example when riding with my wife I setup my mom and her mom to track us. It never hurts to have someone know where you are if an emergency arises. I ended up using this a lot more than I planned on. For me it is almost the equivalent of having ABS on a bike now as it could truly be a life saving feature.