Saturday March 08th 2025.

Suzuki Bandit 1200.

This was our newest project and this session was the first time that most of our members saw it. it had been donated to us by a gentleman living in West London who had read about us in Classic Motorcycle Mechanics magazine. Because our aims as a group struck a chord with him, he decided that we were a worthy course and very generously gave us his 1998 Suzuki 1200 Bandit. The bike had been off the road for 10 years since 2015, stood on a motorcycle workbench in his garage. The bike was in generally good condition with its cherry red paintwork largely unspoiled. Some of the frame needed some touching up but generally very little paintwork needed to be done. The bike had covered 58,000 miles and came with a vast array of brand new Suzuki spare parts. These included chain and sprockets, carburettor rubbers, brand new front disc brakes, and a brand new pair of front forks. Guy very kindly listed all the spare parts which were all in genuine Suzuki packaging. By referring to invoices for them he approximated their value at £1900.00, excluding the front forks which weren't on the invoices. Steve, Guy, Don and Graham set about seeing whether the bike would run. The first hurdle was that the oil cooler was missing from the frame, however amongst the spares were a brand new oil cooler, brand new oil cooler pipes, and all the nuts and bolts spacers and washers that were required to fit the new oil cooler. Once the oil cooler was attached, the engine oil was refilled as it had been emptied some years ago. A dummy fuel tank was attached to the bike and it was at this point that it very quickly became apparent that the carburettors had issues . They quickly started leaking fuel all over the floor. Some disassembly was required in order to be able to move the air filter box backwards so that the carburettors could be prized out. Graham, looked for faults and luckily the screws holding the carburetor float bowls all came undone and the insides of the carburettors were clean. However, Graham noticed that the needle jets were loose in the carburettor bodies due to their o-rings having shrunk. This would in turn allow fuel to enter the carburettor float bowl without being controlled by the needle valve allowing the fuel to flood out of the float bowls. So a set of o-rings or perhaps carburettor repair kits would be needed before the overflowing carburettors could be fixed and that would be a job for another day. Another stroke of luck with this bike was that a battery that had been ordered for our Z550 but hadn’t fitted, fitted the Bandit. Things like the indicators, horn, headlight, idiot lights and starter could all be be seen to be working. An intermittent dodgy connection in the kill switch/starter switch would need to be investigated and there was scope for improving the operation of the ignition switch, but all in good time.

The 1200cc Suzuki Bandit very kindly donated to the club.

Boxes of brand new parts. A lot like Christmas.

Part 1 of the huge list of Bandit spares that came with it.

Part 2 of the huge list of Bandit spares that came with it.

Bandit Carburettors awaiting parts

Kawasaki Z250A Scorpion.

Graham popped a new rear brake caliper inspection cover onto the rear disc brake caliper. During the session Kieran started work to get the tail piece attached to the frame. Another project all but complete.

Kawasaki Z250A Scorpion almost ready to ride.

Honda Vigor.

The bike’s owner (Mal) and Jo our resident motorcycle gymkhana specialist worked on continuing to improve the appearance of the bike and by the end of the session the bike’s tatty near side engine cases had a smooth coat of matt heat resisting black paint upon them.

Honda Vigor slowly but surely getting smartened up.

Kawasaki KZ550 Ltd (ish).

AJ and his crew installed new inlet rubbers and air filter to carb connectors to try and overcome the issue that seemed to be preventing the out cylinders from running correctly. When the engine finally started there was a loud whoop in the workshop that would have been fitting for the Wales Rugby team scoring the winning try in the dying minutes of a Six Nations Rugby Match. Although it still sounded a little rough round the edge the major hurdle had been overcome. Then it was time to to attach a set of vacuum gauges, balance the carbs, tinker with the pilot air screws to get the highest idling speed and double check to make sure the advance and retard mechanism was doing its job properly. Finally the engine was beginning to sound like a proper Kawasaki four. More work was done to the electrics and the tank was re-installed. We were finally running out of jobs to do on it. Hopefully. It would be ready and maybe even road legal in time for the Brecon Classic Bike show on April 5th.

Remember this bike lived in attrocious conditions for many years.

Ducati 250cc single Racer.

More work was done to paint and prepare the seat ready for installation.

Jiailng 125 trials bike project.

Keiran came in armed with a piece of foam well suited to making the seat much more comfortable than the current piece of aluminium. However, not surprisingly, Kieran spent a good deal of time supporting others with their work and the seat still needed to be finished. However one more session should see it all done.

Other activities during this workshop session.

In the early stages of the session kieran took charge of proceedings and gave a toolbox talk to help put our projects into perspective. He illustrated where we had got to with them, what had been gained from working on them and what was still to be gained. It was pleasing to see just how much benefit our work was giving our members.