I'm offically a new ST owner today

[Towjam]

First off, thanks to everyone for the warm welcome to the board and for the tips, hints, suggestions I've already gotten. Oh yeah, MAJOR props to Ray for his avatar.
http://www.st-owners.com/forums/image.php?u=1840&dateline=1138244898 That's become one of the highlights of my day.:D

Everything went like clockwork today... Got my RT sold and delivered to its new owner and took delivery of my '06 ST ("Booger"). Kudos to Matt and Pat at DFW Honda for a smooth transaction (albeit complicated as my RT sale was part of the deal), having the bike ready when promised and for taking pics of the bike during the uncrating and build-out process. Of course, dumbass me forgot to have them take some pictures of me with the bike during the actual delivery. Guess I'll have to make a note to do that when I take delivery of my next ST. ;) But all in all, couldn't have asked for a better buying and delivery experience.

Unfortunately, I had a very tight schedule this afternoon so the only riding I got in was the 10 mile ride back to the house. :( But based strictly on that 10 mile ride, here's my first impressions:

Incredibly smooth acceleration - absolutely zero vibration (even at idle!)
Light and solid shifting. Up until now, my BMWs (K1200RS and RT) were the best shifting bikes I'd owned but shifting the ST is like flicking a light switch with your foot. (I admit that I'm going to miss the RT's gear indicator.)
Noticeably better handling than the '05 ST I had demo'ed. I was very concerned about this as the '05 felt sluggish into turns and reminded me of the K1200RS. I'm going to chalk this up to the '05 ST not having been properly set up and/or having significantly underinflated tires. (It literally felt like it had a steering damper on it.) Note that I still give the edge to the RT for low speed maneuverability and overall flickability.
With the windshield at the lowest position, more buffeting than the RT at its lowest position. But still very tolerable and easily fixed by a raising the shield just a few inches.
Smooth Smooth Smooth
Believe it or not, I prefer BMW's turn signal implementation. I know I'll readjust but I've gotten very comfortable with the positions of the signal buttons on the RT - and the RT's are self-canceling. More than once on my ride home, I hit the horn when I went to signal. Doh!
With the sun over my shoulders, the dashboard is almost useless. I had to focus too much attention away from the road to see if my turn indicators were on and to check fuel level and coolant temperature. Maybe I'll get use to this but given all the complaints I've seen previously posted on this, I'm surprised Honda hasn't made adjustments.
Oh yeah, did I mention smooth?

I feel like a proud new papa. Tomorrow I plan to take the baby out and spend some quality time "bonding".

Thanks for letting me spew.....

[Horst]

Welcome to the club !

Yes, this guy comes up with the greatest avatars :D

Since I'm at it, let's have a cyber-toast !

Alberta Premium ... on the rocks, please ! :)


.. I think the rest are all sleeping ... shhh !

[Towjam]

One other minor little nitpick... If you're buying a sport tourer, wouldn't you expect it to come with an toolkit? My "toolkit" consisted of a pouch containing a single allen wrench and a piece of foam.

I guess the allen wrench is so that I scratch "HELP" in my fairing when I'm broken down on the side of the road. But *** is the foam for?

[Towjam]

Alberta Premium ... on the rocks, please ! :)
Hey bartender... a round of Shinerbock for all my friends please!

:capwin:

[Towjam]

The manual explains there is a button on the dash for different illumination (brightness) settings, just in case yours is set to low. Yeah, I played around with that but it didn't make much difference. But keep in mind that I had the afternoon sun directly over my shoulder as I was heading direct east later in the afternoon. If anything, a contrast control would be more useful in those situations. (At least the speedo is not LCD.)

You may want to adjust your throttle cable such that there is zero freeplay. The adjuster is built into the cable close to the throttle. I think it takes an 8mm wrench and a 10mm wrench to loosen the adjuster.Thanks for the tip! Now that you mentioned it, it did seem to have a little more freeplay than I'm use to. I'll give this a shot.

[sherob]

One other minor little nitpick... If you're buying a sport tourer, wouldn't you expect it to come with an toolkit? My "toolkit" consisted of a pouch containing a single allen wrench and a piece of foam.

I guess the allen wrench is so that I scratch "HELP" in my fairing when I'm broken down on the side of the road. But *** is the foam for?

hmmmm... unless they changed the toolktit, you got screwed :eek: you should have a switchable screwdriver, pliers and a few other items... off the top of my head ;)

[Towjam]

I don't know about the ST but at least in the case of the VTX, the '06 bikes came with a bare bones toolkit compared to what the '05 bikes came with. I'd be interested to know what other '06 ST buyers may have gotten. The owners manual doesn't list out what's included but it does say (on page 82) "an optional, larger toolkit may be available. Check with your Honda dealer...

[sherob]

Who knew they would take the Beemer route on the toolkit :eek:

[sherob]

Is the 06 lighter... LOL!!!

[Ken]

Congrats, Towjam! Have fun and be safe breaking her in! :)

[CrashTestDanny]

Congratulations, Towjam - and may you never be in a jam where you need to be towed!

The foam is an optional item - you can use it as a sponge to clean the jam from between your toes; or to clean up your drawers after you beat everything else through the twisties on a 650 pound motorcycle! :D

[Fireball18]

Hey, Towjam--Congrats on the new ST. You're gonna love it. BTW, it's supposed to have a complete toolkit. Contact your dealer and he should make good on it. Sounds like someone, somewhere along the way decided he needed the tools more than the future owner and substituted a piece of foam!!

I agree, the dash display is a bit dim and nearly unreadable with the sun shining directly on it. Seems they could have come up with something better, but oh well. You get used to it. I found that I spent more time watching the road than the instruments anyway. Checked my speed from time to time. You'll also find that the temp gauge reads the same and never seems to read hotter or cooler than 2 bars no matter what.

I ride a Wing now, but I still miss my ST1300 a lot. Best all-around, do-anything motorcycle on the road. Best looking, too. Sigh.

[Fred D]

The ST's "Norton" and I bought also came with only an allen wrench in the "tool" kit. I checked the owners manual, and it says (also on page 82, coincidentally), "An optional, larger tool kit may be available. Check with your Honda dealer's parts department."

Ain't that somethin'.....:confused: :confused:

[JReviere]

The only thing worth keeping in the OEM tool kit (my opinion here) is the spark plug wrench... even the best quality commercially available spark plug sockets won't go down in the small hole where those little buggars live.

The quality of the OEM "tools" is such that I've commonly found them to be highly DISCARDABLE to be replaced with Craftsman, SK, Snap-On or other quality hand tools of the same sizes.

Still, in years and years and years of riding Honda bikes, I've had virtually NO NEED for small hand tools whilst on the road. Perhaps with the 06 year model ST, Honda is making a statement about reliability and shaving a few cents off production costs by deleting the cheap stamped almost laughable OEM tools previously provided.

When I bought my 03, I found the OEM tools covered with an undisturbed coating of under the seat dust. They appeared to have never been out of the cheap plastic pouch which held them. I just grunted and left them undisturbed....

06 buyers aren't being sorely cheated with the evident "no tools" policy, IMHO.
JR
394
03ST1300A
Lake Livingston, TX

[sherob]

I used my POS toolkit to fix Fred's headcover :D It has come in handy for me once in a while ;)

[Medicine Bear]

I used my POS toolkit to fix Fred's headcover :D It has come in handy for me once in a while ;)

Shows you how much knowledge triumphs over tools. I have the same tool kit and couldn't do a thing with it. Maybe I need a support vehicle when I start doing LD rides.

Thanks again for the fix, Rob.

Fred :03biker:

[Towjam]

Still, in years and years and years of riding Honda bikes, I've had virtually NO NEED for small hand tools whilst on the road. The only time I've had to use an OEM toolkit was with my VTX1300C. The 1300's POS rearviews use the old style adjustment nuts so that once you get the mirror positioned just right, you have to tighten the nut with the supplied crescent wrench - otherwise, it will shake loose and flip around while you're riding. And if you try to manually reposition the mirror while you ride, you WILL end up loosening it just enough for it so that you end up pulling over, pulling out the wrench and tightening it once again.

Perhaps with the 06 year model ST, Honda is making a statement about reliability and shaving a few cents off production costs by deleting the cheap stamped almost laughable OEM tools previously provided. You're probably right. (And BMW is doing the same thing - although to their credit, they did include at least a couple of more tools with the RT.)

OK - here's an idea: Honda could save a few cents per unit on materials and labor by not applying so many stickers all over the bike. I realize these stickers are more for liability protection but my gawd, my ST looks like a freakin' NASCAR.

heh heh... if all I have to complain about on a new bike is too few tools and too many stickers, I'm a happy camper.

[Louie Louie]

BeST wishes and congrats on the new bike!

[Towjam]

I ride a Wing now, but I still miss my ST1300 a lot. Best all-around, do-anything motorcycle on the road. Best looking, too. Sigh.Wings are GREAT bikes. And screw loud pipes. With the '06 Wing's audio system, you can turn the bass thump up and piss off the neighbors. <sigh> Good times!

Yep. If I were old enough, I would've bought a Wing.

:D

[motomac]

I also bought a new '06 with just a 5mm allen wrench and a piece of foam in my tool kit. I have a tool kit that came with my '84 Gold Wing that I have transferred from bike to bike since I got rid of that in 88. This is the best tool kit I have ever seen on a motorcylce including two Beemers. My biggest problem with this kit is it has a tool roll that is just about seen it's last legs and I need to replace it. I told my dealer about the '06 tool kit and he hasn't returned my call. It is good to know that Honda messed up on something with the '06 ST cause they got just about everything else right on. The problem with the sun on the dash is a problem, even with the illumination on as bright as it will go.

[ligito]

"hmmmm... unless they changed the toolktit, you got screwed you should have a switchable screwdriver, pliers and a few other items... off the top of my head"

Off the top of your head, huh--the rest of us keep it under the seat:rolleyes:

[the_suspector]

I don't know about the ST but at least in the case of the VTX, the '06 bikes came with a bare bones toolkit compared to what the '05 bikes came with. I'd be interested to know what other '06 ST buyers may have gotten. The owners manual doesn't list out what's included but it does say (on page 82) "an optional, larger toolkit may be available. Check with your Honda dealer...

A buddy of mine picked up his '06 last week and his tool kit was the same, a piece of foam and an allen wrench. Looks like Honda cheeped out on the tool kits. :D

[sherob]

Off the top of your head, huh--the rest of us keep it under the seat:rolleyes:

No room under there... :D

[jnsgardner]

Three bars is the norm in anything but freezing weather.

[STeve1300]

Three bars is the norm in anything but freezing weather.

I used to get so plastered at the first bar, I never remembered the rest.... oops, wrong topic :rolleyes:

[Rupert]

Congratulations on your new purchase. Enjoy!

[RON S]

Good Luck ! :amflag: