New 08 1250 Bandit owner questions.

Actually, my wife is the new owner. But I have the questions!
She bought a pristine 08 with about 4K on it. Lovely bike, in ultra fast black.

The bike has a few things that sound a little different to me, and I wanted to run this by you folks with experience.

On startup, just after the engine fires and starter motor spools down, there is a quick little chirp or whistle- have you heard anything like that? It reminds me of the infamous DR650 rooster squawk from a dry starter motor bearing, except it is just a tiny cheep. Could be an air whistle of some sort too.

The clutch is a little noisy when let out in neutral-pull the lever, it is quiet, let it out, a bit of rumble noise.

The swingarm has some spring in it- maybe 1/4" of compression when the axle bolt is tightened. Is that normal? Does not seem like any spacers are missing, the wheel turns freely. Anybody have a torque spec on that 36mm nut?

The front brake is a bit soft, and lacking in power. The softness feels like air-a few squeezes and the lever firms up. After reading the brake thread, there is one thing that I did not see mentioned.

The routing of the front brake line from left to right over the fender forms a air trap at the high point. No idea why Suzuki did this. Has anyone tried running this line up to the junction block instead of the left caliper? The block already has two banjo's on each side, but maybe a new block or line arrangement could be worked out. I don't know if there is such a thing as a triple banjo bolt.
Alternatively, perhaps the right caliper could be removed and held up high when bleeding so as to leave an escape path for the trapped air.

The power problem should be solved with some EBC-HH pads. When I installed these on my ZRX the improvement in braking power was astonishing.


Does this bike have a shim under bucket valve arrangement? Just wondering if the cams need to be pulled for valve adjustment.
If you'all have a source to buy a printed Suzuki service manual I would love to know of it. Also for the owners manual and tool kit.
Thank you in advance, stoneaxe.

Never noticed the starter motor chirp
Yes the clutch is noisy when idling in neutral
Not sure about the spacing, never paid attention I guess . 72.5 ft lbs on rear axle nut
Never notice this but I changed brake fluid as soon as I bought the bike as it was a year old left over. Later went to braided metal ones. Love the EBC HH pads my own self.
The valves are shim under bucket arrangement. That said, I have actually over 80,000 miles on my bike and have never check them. I have never heard of anyone that has checked them having to make an adjustment. Of course , I use my bike as a touring and general riding bike and it very seldom ever sees over 7000 on hard acceleration and more like about 5000 normal acceleration.
As for a manual , I downloaded one from somewhere's in '08 when I bought the bike. Done forgot but do a google search on it.

I got curious and called Spiegler Brakes- apparently having the front brake line route over the fender is now common practice, and a vacuum bleeder will work OK. He said there is no triple banjo bolt available.

We will try new pads, fresh fluid and bleed them.

Yepppp. Stock pads are junk with the already soso braking from the factory. Run some better fluid then stock too for even better feel short of new lines! The EBC HHs and Motul fluid helped me the most at least until I spring for the new lines!

tazman2, did you have enough slack in the stock lines for the 1" risers?
I have a set sitting here and it looks like there is enough room but never hurts to ask someone who has done it!

I have two inch Rox risers, had to re-route a little with the stock lines. No re routeing when I first had 1" risers on

And more questions-
Is the damping adjustment on the stock rear shock for compression or rebound?
What weight fork oil are you running with the stock fork?

I am wanting to make the ride a bit plusher.

It's rebound on the rear.
Try 5wt fork oil. I was using ATF for many miles which is in the 7 to 8 category I think. I put RaceTech Gold Valves and heavier front springs in this summer along with the 5 they recommended. To do it over again, I'd just do the springs and 5wt and see what difference it made before spending around 250 bucks for valves, springs and oil.

stoneaxe said:

I got curious and called Spiegler Brakes- apparently having the front brake line route over the fender is now common practice, and a vacuum bleeder will work OK. He said there is no triple banjo bolt available.

We will try new pads, fresh fluid and bleed them.

Click to expand...

The front end on mine has been totally changed to a Leading Link setup for the sidecar, however one of the mods was to scrap the existing front brake lines and run (via a double banjo at the master-cylinder) two separate braided lines, one to each caliper. Never had any issues with spongy brakes, mind you it is a bit of an exercise changing the front tire.



Just a note, mine is an 07 S, so it does not have ABS to complicate the brake plumbing.

New 1" risers and a set of bars from my ZRX went on today- a bit higher and a flatter bend. Can't believe I was able to pull every bit and piece for the job from the ancient pile of bike parts... there must be eight sets of bars rattling around there...!
My wife is loving it! Got rid of the throttle cable play and that together with properly tensioning the chain eliminated most of the herky jerky from the bike.

Good job! If you had the ABS model then I believe the lines would be a bit short!

It is ABS- the lines wereOK- not bone tight or anything. The wire fit too with a re-position of a cable tie, I did not need to r-route them.

Tazman2, when you swapped out the pads, did you do it separate from the motul fluid, and test ride? In other words, are you sure the fluid made a difference? I was under the impression the main difference in fluid was heat resistance, not "feel". I checked the price and IIRC, the local MC shop wanted $29 for a can...!

No did it at the same time sadly. Main motivation is the higher boiling temp takes A LOT longer to fade and even when slowly picking up water will last longer too sooo. Yeah I have the below one. Was half the price 2 years ago but its the "cheap mans" Motul! $14.99 @ Amazon!



PS: I'm betting the pads made 90% of the difference the rest the fluid!