I purchased a 2007 Bandit 1250S with 19k miles in early Sept ‘16 to replace my ’97 Bandit 1200S with 80k miles that was totaled in a deer crash. It was mine and the bike’s 2nd deer tangle over 18 years. Now that I’ve had a chance to fix the 1250’s issues, I’ll do a quick comparison. In short, I like the 1250 better than the 1200 – less vibration and better, smoother low end power, peak power about the same, FI instead of carbs , equally crappy front suspension, 1250 shock worlds better.
Both bikes had/have very large airbox holes (~2”x 6”), K&N filter, PC-V vs Factory Pro jet kit, Delkevic full exhaust vs a Yosh can on the Gen1. The 1250 was tuned on a DJ 250i with Tuning Link. Both had PAIR systems removed and blocked. The 1250 has the secondaries removed. I rode the 1250 with secondaries in, and it had as good of throttle response as the modified bike does now. I removed them to get rid of the high rpm throttling they do.
Both bikes were dyno’d, but directly comparing a 17 year old inertia dyno result to a current DJ250i is not too accurate. My 1250 is right in there with others that have done similar changes. I agree with others to just leave the stock header with CAT as really the best thing, and that Dale Walker makes some rather bodacious claims. The full header is causing a bit of a dip in torque from 3,500 to 4,500 rpm (from 75 #-ft to 72 #-ft) instead of being nice and flat. The Delkevic system has a slightly higher pitched, raspier tone vs the deep tone of the Yosh can on the Gen1. I prefer the deeper tone of the Yosh. As others have noted, the Delkevic header can be a b*tch to mount, but does look good installed and drops ~12 #’s. The Delkevic Tri Oval 17” can is ~4-1/2#’s lighter than oem.
The Gen1 had a Works Performance Ultra shock with remote res, rebound and compression adj, and the forks had Racetech 1.0 kg/mm springs and I revalved the forks compression stack. The 1250 has Racetech 1.0 kg/mm springs and I revalved the forks compression stack as well (details to follow). The Gen1 had shop made dogbones raising the rear 1-1/4”. Currently the 1250 has shop made dogbones raising the rear ¾”, with a Wilber’s shock on order with length adjustment. The stock shock works surprisingly well, even with the now 20k miles on it. It is a bit weak for loading up for touring and/or 2 up, though. I’m about 265, and with just me, no luggage, and with stock rear ride ht it needed preload #6 for proper sag ( ~32mm). With ¾” lift, I backed it off to #5. The shock has a bit too much high speed compression damping, but works surprisingly well once properly tuned in.
The stock forks and damping are crap. Replace the springs with straight wound proper rate Racetech. Don’t buy anyone’s BS about progressive wound springs. Even if you are small replace the springs. As for damping, a set of Racetech Gold Valves are a good option, but you can save ~$150 by revalving the stock stack. Perhaps someone else has done so, but my searches turned up nothing. One can argue that the Gold Valves flow more oil with the shims wide open when hitting a sharp bump, and I won’t argue too much, but it isn’t a lot. Examine the stock valve body and pics of the Gold Valve body – there isn’t a lot of room to expand the porting. You can always try the revalve and if not pleased then spend your $. The procedure for fork disassembly for both revalving the stock bodies or the Gold valves is the same, so I won’t cover that. The only difference is removing the bolt that holds the shims in the stock valve body, which is done with an allen wrench. I’ve successfully revalved my Gen1 Bandit and ’02 DL-1000, so I wasn’t starting from “0”. I used Silkolene 02 Synthetic Fork Fluid (5wt/ISO 22 equiv) up to 112 mm from the top of the tube. I wanted more airspring, but it may be too much. I plan to drop to 120mm as Racetech recommends and compare.
Stock, my 1250 had different stacks in each fork. Starting from the valve body, here’s the shim stack for each leg. Included is what shims to reassemble with. Also included are the before and after shim stacks for the Gen 1 1200 (I tried to get the table to show correctly but gave up):
Gen3 1250
Right Side # of Shims OD x Thickness
Stock
Both bikes had/have very large airbox holes (~2”x 6”), K&N filter, PC-V vs Factory Pro jet kit, Delkevic full exhaust vs a Yosh can on the Gen1. The 1250 was tuned on a DJ 250i with Tuning Link. Both had PAIR systems removed and blocked. The 1250 has the secondaries removed. I rode the 1250 with secondaries in, and it had as good of throttle response as the modified bike does now. I removed them to get rid of the high rpm throttling they do.
Both bikes were dyno’d, but directly comparing a 17 year old inertia dyno result to a current DJ250i is not too accurate. My 1250 is right in there with others that have done similar changes. I agree with others to just leave the stock header with CAT as really the best thing, and that Dale Walker makes some rather bodacious claims. The full header is causing a bit of a dip in torque from 3,500 to 4,500 rpm (from 75 #-ft to 72 #-ft) instead of being nice and flat. The Delkevic system has a slightly higher pitched, raspier tone vs the deep tone of the Yosh can on the Gen1. I prefer the deeper tone of the Yosh. As others have noted, the Delkevic header can be a b*tch to mount, but does look good installed and drops ~12 #’s. The Delkevic Tri Oval 17” can is ~4-1/2#’s lighter than oem.
The Gen1 had a Works Performance Ultra shock with remote res, rebound and compression adj, and the forks had Racetech 1.0 kg/mm springs and I revalved the forks compression stack. The 1250 has Racetech 1.0 kg/mm springs and I revalved the forks compression stack as well (details to follow). The Gen1 had shop made dogbones raising the rear 1-1/4”. Currently the 1250 has shop made dogbones raising the rear ¾”, with a Wilber’s shock on order with length adjustment. The stock shock works surprisingly well, even with the now 20k miles on it. It is a bit weak for loading up for touring and/or 2 up, though. I’m about 265, and with just me, no luggage, and with stock rear ride ht it needed preload #6 for proper sag ( ~32mm). With ¾” lift, I backed it off to #5. The shock has a bit too much high speed compression damping, but works surprisingly well once properly tuned in.
The stock forks and damping are crap. Replace the springs with straight wound proper rate Racetech. Don’t buy anyone’s BS about progressive wound springs. Even if you are small replace the springs. As for damping, a set of Racetech Gold Valves are a good option, but you can save ~$150 by revalving the stock stack. Perhaps someone else has done so, but my searches turned up nothing. One can argue that the Gold Valves flow more oil with the shims wide open when hitting a sharp bump, and I won’t argue too much, but it isn’t a lot. Examine the stock valve body and pics of the Gold Valve body – there isn’t a lot of room to expand the porting. You can always try the revalve and if not pleased then spend your $. The procedure for fork disassembly for both revalving the stock bodies or the Gold valves is the same, so I won’t cover that. The only difference is removing the bolt that holds the shims in the stock valve body, which is done with an allen wrench. I’ve successfully revalved my Gen1 Bandit and ’02 DL-1000, so I wasn’t starting from “0”. I used Silkolene 02 Synthetic Fork Fluid (5wt/ISO 22 equiv) up to 112 mm from the top of the tube. I wanted more airspring, but it may be too much. I plan to drop to 120mm as Racetech recommends and compare.
Stock, my 1250 had different stacks in each fork. Starting from the valve body, here’s the shim stack for each leg. Included is what shims to reassemble with. Also included are the before and after shim stacks for the Gen 1 1200 (I tried to get the table to show correctly but gave up):
Gen3 1250
Right Side # of Shims OD x Thickness
Stock
3 17mm x 0.008"
Mod
Left Side # of Shims OD x Thickness
Stock
Mod
Gen1 1200 # of Shims OD x Thickness
Stock
Mod
I’ve been riding, wrenching, and modifying street bikes for 40 yrs, and while I’ve always been too big to race (I played football instead), I’ve done a fair share of track schools and track days, as well as many cross country trips.
1 15mm x 0.008"
1 15mm x 0.014"
1 11.4mm x .025" Backer WasherMod
3 17mm x 0.008"
1 11.4mm x 0.025" Backer WasherLeft Side # of Shims OD x Thickness
Stock
1 17mm x 0.008"
2 16mm x 0.008"
1 15mm x 0.008"
1 15mm x 0.006"
1 8.7mm x 0.008
1 11.4mm x 0.016" Backer WasherMod
1 17mm x 0.008"
2 16mm x 0.008"
1 11.4mm x .016" Backer WasherGen1 1200 # of Shims OD x Thickness
Stock
2 17mm x 0.006"
11 17mm x 0.004"Mod
1 17mm x 0.006"
4 17mm x 0.004"I’ve been riding, wrenching, and modifying street bikes for 40 yrs, and while I’ve always been too big to race (I played football instead), I’ve done a fair share of track schools and track days, as well as many cross country trips.
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