Right, my thoughts of the New Bandit 650...
First thing I notice when I set off is the weight, its all at the top, all 200+ kgs of it. Now I've ridden a few top heavy bikes in my time, like my old GT750, but it did make the bike feel very wallowy on the road when I first rode it.
This did make the bike feel rather fat, and it had been a while since I have ridden something with 'flat bars' rather then clip-ons so I don't imagine that helped.
The power in this bandit does seem to come in alot lower then the other bandits and similar bikes that I have ridden in the past. Which does give you a bit of a pull on the bars, but you will still be ringing its neck to push those top end speeds. This bit of lower end power means that you can pull away quicker at the lights and the bike also seem so pull OK in low revs for quick manovers without changing gear. This should help in town work when you filtering through traffic and such, while also giving you better crusing speed on the motorway.
The suspension and ride of the bike seemed to cope with most things and was a improvement on the SV, but then my SV's suspension is rather old.
But you can still feel its a budget set-up that doesn't cope with everything.
Handling of the bike seems sound enough once you get over the weight and feel of the bike, with the wide bars helping you throw it about. But these also mean that it high position and wide layout mean it can be difficult to filter in gaps I could have easy got the SV through.
But at the end of the day this is a budget bike and something for first timers and commuters alike that could easy munch up the miles judging by the fuel performance I got. Even without a screen and just the little clocks to shield you from the wind blast it seemed just enough. Oh and a nice comfy seat.
So if you want a IL4 with plenty to fiddle about for the future with it having a huge after market base this could be for you, but the top heavy weight might put some people off. I struggled a little bit to get it on the centre stand with my sore ribs.
