Ride Roport

[GaryWayne]

Just came back from a 670 mile ride (first long trip on the ST--now has 1290 miles on it) and thought I'd report on my thoughts. Just some background..I've owned 2 ST1100's, 1200 Triumph Trophy, FJR1300 and a BMW R1100RT so I've spent some time on sport touring bikes. For the last 3 years I've spent most of my time on a 02 1800 Goldwing (now gone and replaced with the ST). Anyway I rode from Johnson City to Nashville this weekend. I had just installed Heli risers and a Sargent seat. At first I didn't think the risers did much but with the stock set up I had a pain in my shoulder blades after 150 miles..gone with the Helis. I also thought the Sargent seat didn't feel all that much better than stock but again I was wrong. The stock was good for about 150 miles and it was killing me. Rode 300 with the Sargent and felt pretty good. I did feel alot of heat off the left side at shin level. Not painfull or anything but pretty hot when the outside temps were around 80 (my ST1100 was hot but this is more so.). Has anyone tried the fairing deflectors fron Honda? Glove boxes were warm at highway speeds and real warm in city traffic. I have to do something with the windshield, worse wind noise I've ever had and ear plugs kill me (I've tried them all, even custom made ones). The bike ran great and I averages47-48 MPG for the whole trip running 70-80 (figured the old fashoned way). The speedometer is off about 7MPH at higher speeds (85 indicated was 78.4 on the GPS) and the odometer showed 690 miles for the trip and the GPS said 677.9. All and all I'm pretty happy with the bike but I did miss the Wing while running down the interstate.

Gary