Imagine you are riding along late at night on a deserted road skirting the Australian outback. Your bike suddenly develops a problem the engine cuts out and you have to pull over to the side of the road. It’s pitch black and you are in the middle of nowhere. You park the bike up at the side of the road and start to walk towards the nearest town and you hear the distant sounds of dingo’s hunting, the hairs on your neck start to prick up. You hear the distant purr of an engine, or could it be some other wild animal. The noise gets louder and the brow of the hill in front of you starts to glow, with the brightening of headlight beams. Your stress levels drop as you realise that a vehicle must be approaching. Then two brightly glowing lights appear on the horizon, but they look like the glowing eyes of some sort of ghostly predator. Your imagination starts to play tricks on your mind, then you realise after shitting yourself on an almost unimaginable scale, that the apparition is in fact Rod’s very aggressively styled 1200 Bandit and all is well with the world again. Well apart from the fact that you now require a change of trousers and you don’t smell too clean.

Rod AKA BANDITROD has been into bikes from a young age and has mainly owned Honda’s before this 1996 Bandit. He lives in the Victoria area of Australia and has owned this bike for a little less than 2 years. The bike originally cost $6,700 (about £3,200). He was on the look out for a new ride and wanted to try something a little different to the Honda’s he had been used to. His mate Mick found the bike at Top Gear Motorcycles, of Frankston, Victoria,  and after a little test ride he was hooked and it became a must have item.

He was really impressed by the bike in it’s standard stock condition, but decided that it could be improved upon and set about the Streetfighter process. A 1277 JE Big Bore kit was purchased and fitted, along with braided lines for the cooling system. The Engine was rebuilt by Ron at Balls Performance, of Victoria, RIP Ron. The engine was further enhanced by fitting a Factory Pro Ignition Advancer. The original stock carbs were kept although a Factory Pro Jet Kit was fitted, which went well with K7N Pod Filters.

So the performance was almost sorted, just the exhaust gasses to look at. After much deliberation it was decided to leave the manifold as stock and alter the header and the end can. These were duly swapped for a Blueflame header and a Viper shorty end can. The bike was then re-tuned by Ron at Balls Performance.

The gearing was also looked into and a 14 tooth sprocket used on the front and a 42 tooth sprocket used on the back, to enable all that latent power to be put into the rubber in an insane manner. The clutch was also changed in favour of a Goodridge unit with heavy duty Barnett springs.

The frame is a stock steel frame with a brace added above the engine to give it some extra strength and had all the lugs removed and holes filled that were not necessary. It was then painted by Andrew Kennedy from Grafix Inc in Stawell Victoria.

The triple clamps were a stock part but have been modified, as was the fork brace, which was modified to accommodate the front mud guard (fender). The forks were left as stock. The swingarm is also a stock part, but again has been modified to accommodate an over brace. The rear shock mount had to be moved to incorporate an Ohlins rear shock from a K2 Gixer 1000. A print Pro Race side mount steering damper was also added to the front end to finish off the handling.

Now that the bike was able to go, it was time to look at trying to stop the beast. The stock brakes were ok for the bike in it’s original stock condition, but the bike was now a much punchier machine and the brakes needed to be upgraded in order to stop that brown staining of the under garments associated with hurtling up to a corner and grabbing a fist full of brakes, only to realise that the corner was much tighter than you first thought and you should have been breaking 50 yards before you decided to. ABM discs (rotors) and master cylinders were fitted along with Goodridge braided lines and sintered brake pads. The callipers however were left as stock.

he bike only needed the aesthetics to be sorted so a 666 fairing, front mud guard (fender) and a Hesa seat unit was added, courtesy of Stu at AUSFR, which really give the bike a menacing look to it. Renthal bars, projector beam headlights, ABM Rearsets and Motogadget and Motosign instruments were all added for cosmetic effect.

The whole project is finished off nicely with a fantastic paintjob. The detail is just stunning. The painter used House of Kolor paints or the job and he has made an amazing job of it. I have not seen so much detail in a paintjob for a long time. The last job I saw of this quality was by Nobby from Leicester, anyone know if he is still paining? Anyway I digress, the paint was laid down by Anderw Kennedy from Grafix Inc. Initially Rod wanted a black paint job with flames, but Andrew persuaded him to change his mind, good decision.

This is Rod’s pride and joy and its not going to just sit in the shed this bike is constantly being ridden and since building it has made numerous trips the biggest was to Casino in NSW for the ASF  April fools run (which he says was awesome) so its not just a show bike as it is his only bike so it must be punished.

I asked Rod if he thought that the bike was worth the effort of the 350 plus hours that he had spent on the build, this was his reply: “It was totally worth all the blood sweat and tears that’s for damn sure and I would defiantly do it again if I had the cash but I am in the process of starting my own business (Custom Sportsbike Parts) so a lot of my time is being used at the moment. If I could do anything differently it would be add a turbo and get some nice USD front forks (and maybe some more padding for the seat OUCH).

I am very happy with the finished product and just love thrashing the pants off it .The worst part about building the bike was when it was sitting there all finished accept for a couple of minor parts and then seeing it on its SIDE. it all happened so quickly, I could not react in time, I rolled the bike forward on the stand and then let it go and the side stand must have clipped the concrete as I rolled it forward, because as I turned to walk away I saw it starting to fall so I threw myself to protect my bike with my skin, (as we all do) and It was too late over she went all I could do was stare at it my pride and joy witch took six months to build and here she is on the deck. Luckily when I gathered myself and picked it up the only damage was my ABM bars were busted but it was only because I had drilled them to run wiring through and that’s where they broke, so it was my own fault (I was lucky it didn’t happen while riding).”

SPECIAL THANKS TO

Shaun (best Mate) Engineer

Adam from Tuff Equipment

Paul for carting me around with my bike and his help during the build
Andrew Kennedy from Grafx inc for the awesome Paint

Ron from Balls Performance for the engine work
Rhys and Mick for helping out here and there
Stu and Angel at AUSFR for all the custom goodies

Ben from Extreme Creations in Sydney for putting up with my phone calls

Isaac from Wimmera Motorcycle Company in Horsham for his help with stock parts

All the Guys from ASF (Aussie Streetfighters) for there help while building the bike
And last but not least my lovely Wife(NU) and kids (Trinity and Zeke) for putting up with me during the build.

Words by PJ

Pics by Rob

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Spec Sheet

Engine

Suzuki 1200 Bandit

1277 JE big bore kit

Braided lines from Nick at goodridge (johnstamnas)

Engine re-builder Ron at BALLS performance in Sunshine Victoria ( R.I.P Ron)

Factory pro ignition advancer

Stock carbs with factory pro jet kit

K & N pod filters

Inlet Manifold  stock

Exhaust Header Blueflame Headers (hindle)

Viper Shorty Can

Tuning  Ron from Balls R.I.P

Drive
 

Front sprocket 14 tooth Rear Sprocket 45 tooth both sprockets are renthal

Heavy Duty Clutch from Goodridge with Barnett heavy duty springs

Frame
 

Steel - Welded brace above engine for strength

De-lugged all of the frame and filled in holes that were not needed

Frame painted by Andrew kennedy from Grafx inc in Stawell Victoria

Stock modified

Fork Brace Stock modified to suit front mudgaurd

Swingarm Stock modified with an over brace

Rrear Shock mount moved to accomadate the ohlins shock from a K2 GIXER 1000

Suspension

Forks – Stock

Rear Shock  Ohlins

Brakes
 

ABM discs (rotors)

Callipers stock

Pads  Goodridge sintered pads

Master Cylinder  ABM radial master cylinder

Goodridge Braided Lines

Wheels and Tyres
 

Front Stock

Tyre Shinko  120/7017

Rear Stock

Tyre Shinko  190/50/17

Bodywork
 

Fairing 666 headlight unit from Stu at AUSFR

Fuel Tank stock with airbrushing       

Seat Unit Hesa seat unit from Stu at AUSFR

Mud Guards (fenders) 666 front guard from Stu at AUSFR

Paintwork Custom airbrushing to make the bike look like predator theme all from house of colour. Painter Andrew Kennedy from GRAFX inc in Stawell, Victoria

Decals/writing ALL done by Andrew

Odds and Sods

Handlebars Renthals

Headlights Projector Beams

Switches Stock

Foot Pegs ABM rearsets to suit GXSR 1000 so I had to mod the frame to suit

Instruments   Motogadget and motosign from Stu at AUSFR