It's Cr Iminal!
IT'S CR IMINAL!
SUPER Standards
Dale Walker's Holeshot Performance Bandit 1200 is so quick, it ought to be outlawed
BRIAN CATTERSON
IF A GUY WALKED UP AND TOLD YOU HIS SUZUKI Bandit 1200 could whip your Hayabusa in a drag race, you'd probably laugh in his face. And why wouldn't you? Everyone knows the GSX1300R is the quickest production motorcycle ever made. In Cycle World's performance testing, the burly Busa ran the quartermile in 9.86 seconds at 145.80 mph, fully 1.3 seconds quicker and 26 mph faster than the Bandit's best-ever pass. So it'd be no contest, right?
Not if the guy’s name is Dale Walker. An accomplished professional drag racer, Walker has spent the last few years fettling a Bandit 1200S to the point that he claimed it could seriously rival a Hayabusa.
To prove that he could walk the walk as well as talk the talk (and as his friends will tell you, he talks non-stop!), Walker invited us to Carlsbad Raceway to watch his Bandit run.
The results were astounding. Right out of the truck, the Bandit clocked a 10-flat at 134.91 mph-more than a second quicker than stock. Walker then further impressed us by running a dozen passes all within a tenth of a second! Talk about having your shtick together. And when he finally did blow a couple of mns, he knew right away, aborting by the 60-foot line. His best mn ended up being a 9.93 at 136.41 mph. That’s just .07 of a second and 9 mph slower than our record-setting Hayabusa!
So, how do you make a Bandit run that hard? To hear Walker tell it, it’s surprisingly easy.
Forget about all the trick cosmetic parts on the bike in these photos. It is, by necessity, a rolling catalog for Walker’s company (Holeshot Performance Products, 320 Babe Thompson Rd., La Selva, CA 95076; 831/761-2808; www.hoIeshot.com). Instead, focus on those parts that contribute to making this particular Bandit run sub-10-second quarter-miles.
Starting with the engine: The air/oil-cooled, GSX-R1100-
derived lump has had its displacement bumped from 1157cc to 1216cc via JE forged pistons. Built to Walker’s specifications, these feature a relatively conservative 11.0:1 compression ratio that lets the streetable engine run on pump gas.
Fuel/air mix enters through the stock bank of Mikuni 36mm carburetors, which have been rejetted and equipped with Walker’s own needles (painstakingly developed over a period of two months) and exposed K&N filters. Spent gases exit through a four-into-one Holeshot Vortex High Pipe, which is unique in that the muffler section fits the stock header, so that budget-minded owners can purchase the slip-on first, then upgrade to a full system when money allows. In addition to boosting power, the exhaust shaves weight, tipping the scales at 16 pounds less than stock.
A 1990 GSX-R1100 intake cam, 5degree timing advancer, three-angle valve job, lightly milled head and careful porting complete the list of internal modifications. To help harness the extra power, billet motor mounts utilize the unused bosses in the frame cradle that attach to rubber mounts on Europeanmodel Bandits.
Walker claimed these mods, which total little more than $2500, were good for around 150 horsepower. And true to his word, the big Four pumped out 143 rear-wheel ponies at 9250 rpm on the CWdyno, compared to the Stocker’s 102. Torque was up as well, from 70 to 92 foot-pounds at 7250 rpm. A slight torque dip in the region between 4000 and 5000 rpm hinted that all might not be well with the jetting, but Walker indicated that this is an inherent characteristic of the Bandit engine. And the astonishingly quick-revving engine blows through this “flat spot” so fast, you don’t even notice it from the saddle.
Now, 143 horsepower by itself isn’t enough to run with a 160-horse Hayabusa, so Walker resorted to a few dragracing tricks to find the extra tenths. Naturally, the bike is equipped with one of his patented Power Shifter 3 electric shifters ($499), which consists of a remote solenoid that pulls a cable connected to the stock shift lever, allowing full-throttle upshifts via a pushbutton on the left handlebar. And then there’s the clever “convertible” swingarm ($599), which allows wheelbase to stretch from 1 inch over stock to a whopping 5.5 inches over. Again in the interest of cost-savings, this is made by sawing off the end of the stock swingarm, then welding in new billet axle bosses.
For serious dragstrip runs, the bike is lowered via 3/8-inchlonger linkage rods (affectionately called “dog bones”) and clever loops on the front brake caliper mounting bolts that provide tie-down points for compressing the fork.
Maximizing traction is a 190mm-wide Bridgestone BT56SS rear tire, spooned onto a 6.25-inch RC Components Star wheel. A matching 3.5-inch hoop is fitted up front.
Lastly, billet rearset brackets accommodate the stock shift lever, brake pedal and master cylinder, plus a pair of billet Competition Werkes footpegs.
I had a chance to flog the Holeshot Bandit up SoCal’s famed Ortega Highway, and it was an absolute laugh-riot! While there’s no denying the engine runs hard, it’s the crisp carburetion that is most impressive. Whack the twistgrip open in any of the first three gears and the bike responds with an immense wheelie. Yet the throttle response is so exact that you’re not the least bit afraid to dial it on while leaned over exiting comers. Never mind that it was built by a drag racer, the Bandit soon had visions of Wes Cooley’s old Yoshimura GS1000 Superbike dancing through my head. Which the stocker already did, of course. So in a sense, Walker’s mods just provide more of a good thing.
So, the next time a Bandit 1200 owner challenges you to a drag race, take a good long look at his bike. If there’s a Holeshot Performance Products sticker anywhere on it, tell him to have a nice day.
