After a long time on a motorcycle! We happened to get a Bandit 1200. The overall condition is a bit tired. I think it’s good to decide your budget allocation by thinking about how long you’ll stick with each bike.
So I’d like to proceed with a minimal plan based on my own judgment and bias.
First, we’ll remove the fairings and check the parts.
Anyway, there are a lot of mysterious DIY wiring. Things to watch out for with DIY wiring are • Try to minimize co-fastening to the battery • Multi-taps are convenient, but avoid them as they’ll cause problems later • If wiring is long and can be modified, shorten it
Just following these three points will make things much cleaner. When wiring is messy, it makes the person working on it go “ugh.” For your own sake and everyone else’s, it’s good to keep things tidy and worry-free.
Of course, when you remove the fairings and it’s dusty like this, don’t touch it—just spray it clean.
Removing and checking mysterious part configurations
Various parts are in pretty rough shape. We’ll remove everything that can be removed.
When you remove the multi-tap, the wiring often breaks like this. We soldered the broken parts and protected them with heat shrink tubing.
We’ll replace the spark plugs and air filter.
After that, when we started the engine and warmed it up, it started blowing white smoke at an incredible rate and I got a little nervous. I think something had accumulated inside the muffler.
We fixed the loose remote and reservoir tank for now. It was mounted with a layout and bracket different from the original Öhlins.
Making something new would add more work, so we used what was available and arranged the layout well.
Most importantly, we’ll replace the brake pads front and rear.
The front has been upgraded to Brembo 30/34 calipers. These Brembo Axial RK brake pads were discontinued quite a while ago.
Recently, the trend with calipers has shifted to radial mount, so consumables like this are becoming harder to get.
Brake pads, drive chain, sprockets, air filter, throttle cable, speedometer cable and other small consumables become unavailable, and you can’t ride the motorcycle anymore. It’s like a siege! Don’t think all parts are always available.
I thought I’d pumped up the tire when it came in… The push and pull felt really heavy, so when I looked closer…
It was torn. Please replace rubber air valves every time you change tires. If that sounds like a hassle, I think it’s good to upgrade to an aluminum air valve.