high mile maintenance

I'm at 125k on my 05 and am way over due on some maintenance. This has been my every day transportation for the last 5 years so its hard to part with. My commute to work is a nightmare on 4 wheels. Besides the obvious fluid changes and valve inspect, (has never needed adjustment according to several dealers) I plan on replacing all brake pad pins they where all groved last time I looked. The flange bearing is the original.(dont know how I missed the boat on that issue). All the wheel bearings are good, steering head bearings are good,. Any other issues for high mileage st's that any of you can think of that might need addressing ?Shes got about another year of commute duty then we can retire and get back to some pleasure riding. Thanks for any input

You may want to consider riding over the hill to San Jose and paying the ST-Whisperer a visit
PM me a contact number and perhaps we could discuss a time for your FREE OCD Inspection.
I have most parts that you may need on hand in case we find something that needs fixing.
Igofar

Igofar said:

You may want to consider riding over the hill to San Jose and paying the ST-Whisperer a visit
PM me a contact number and perhaps we could discuss a time for your FREE OCD Inspection.
I have most parts that you may need on hand in case we find something that needs fixing.
Igofar

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Man I wished you would move to the east coast!

ST-RAY said:

I'm at 125k on my 05 and am way over due on some maintenance. This has been my every day transportation for the last 5 years so its hard to part with. My commute to work is a nightmare on 4 wheels. Besides the obvious fluid changes and valve inspect, (has never needed adjustment according to several dealers) I plan on replacing all brake pad pins they where all groved last time I looked. The flange bearing is the original.(dont know how I missed the boat on that issue). All the wheel bearings are good, steering head bearings are good,. Any other issues for high mileage st's that any of you can think of that might need addressing ?Shes got about another year of commute duty then we can retire and get back to some pleasure riding. Thanks for any input

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I'd do all the major service items listed in the SM of course like you mentioned. At 125k I'd expect the steering head bearings would need attention even if the OEM caged ball bearings pass the usual check for brindelled or notched races (notchiness or self-centering) much less the gun trigger pull values in the SM. The mass of the complete fork and wheel assembly will mask the tiny dimples in the races hammered there by 100,000+ miles of use. I'd take the front wheel off and double check this w/o the mass of the wheel and tire. Check for the forks self-centering at straight ahead. That's how I found dimpled races in mine at 96,000 miles. Replacement with tapered roller bearings is easy and this fixed the weave my bike had prior to R & R. I replaced the rubber cush biscuits in the rear hub once around 100k and the O-ring at the base of the splines twice. The two sistered 6905 bearings in the spline drive can be completely trashed and unless you run the bike in gear on the centerstand and hear a knocking noise idling in gear there are no symptoms to see or hear in use but bad flange bearings will accelerate spline wear. Examination with it apart of course will reveal a bad bearing. Mine had over 90,000 on them when replaced. One was good the other not. I have two rear wheels I swap out each tire change - I just pull and replace the driven spline and flange with each tire change so the male and female drive splines in hub and final drive wear as a matched set. This R & R each tire change keeps my youngest set of rubber biscuits in the working wheel and allows checking the left side rear wheel bearing and the two flange bearings each time as they are hidden under the driven flange of the assembled wheel. Fork oil service if it hasn't been done since 100k, strip and clean the calipers, check for corrosion of the pins the calipers slide on and damaged rubber boots. I replaced all the coolant hoses (16 IIRC) at 106,000 but they did not need it - still supple and pliable, no bulges, mushiness, checking, cracking - but I was under the throttle bodies replacing the alternator and I had the hoses beforehand so I did all of them to avoid the job later. I just did not expect to ride it to 200,000 miles so in hindsight it was good PM for me at 106k. I expect you will find evidence of at least a few coolant leaks. I still have OEM clamps closing on 200,000 miles but some replace them with constant tension clamps, your call. There are rubber sealing packings under the two metal hose barbs that bolt onto each cylinder head. 'Tis be a shame if they started leaking soon after all this work. At least replace the O ring in the thermostat housing. They do have a finite life IIRC I'm on the third one. I also changed out the upper to lower fuel tank join hose with the alternator job but if you always place the upper tank in the maintenance position before lifting the tank it will last a long time but 125k is a long time. I had it on hand and never want that one to leak so I did it. Let's see..... check the 24 pin white plastic electrical connector above the LH cylinder head for signs of overheating or arcing particularly the green wire. I had a coil problem that shut down the RH cylinders and ruined the cat convertor on that side I believe caused by corrosion under the coil where it rests against the frame and bolts. When you do the valve check pull the coils off to get more working room for R & R of the valve covers. Polish up under the 2 coil retaining bolts and remove any corrosion there. I'm sure I've forgotten something......

Thanks Dave, very good info. Thank you igofar for your generous offer.

@ST-RAY: I have a low miles (only 8K at the time), ST1300@2009 that I thought was in great shape. It was making 40mpg in the highway and the brakes seemed fine.

After talking to Igofar and going through it, the bike was 'whispered': it is making 47mpg in the highway, brakes like a sports bike and after Throttle body sync feels like it gained another 10-15HP.

And keep in mind that was a 'new' bike, with no serious miles on it.


Enjoy the opportunity that you live close to SJ and have you bike 'whispered'.
\o/

There is a lot to be said about a smooth, balanced, precision built, quality machine. Why do we still think that 3 months of use makes the machine old and worn out... 125,000 miles / 60mph = 2,083 hours = 87 days = 3 months of continuous use. I think you just got er broke in.....

spiderman302 said:

There is a lot to be said about a smooth, balanced, precision built, quality machine. Why do we still think that 3 months of use makes the machine old and worn out... 125,000 miles / 60mph = 2,083 hours = 87 days = 3 months of continuous use. I think you just got er broke in.....

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It's not so much the "engine", as it is all the "overhead"; fluids, seals, bearings, plastic, paint, etc... that require maintenance that makes folks thinks it's worn out!

I know that mine is not close being worn out or out of tune. As recently as three weeks ago it pulled within 1 mph it has always topped out at and a few thousand miles ago a dyno run showed several horsepower and foot lbs of torque more than it had around 50,000 miles. There was more than 110,000 miles between the two dyno runs. It burns no discernable oil between 4,000 to 5,000 mile oil changes.

Yes I understand all that. Tires, brakes, fluids, plastic... all require replacement. But our race refined machines of today are so well built that they could last a million miles or more. I know there are a lot of bikes here with over 300k miles and still going. I work in aerospace and we shake and bake widgets till they brake. Evaluate. Build it better and do it again. Bikes built long ago will shake themselves to death and leave you stranded on even a short trip. The lack of vibration in our ST1x00's makes the ride smoother but to my engineering experience makes the bike last longer. Even our roads are smoother. With proper maintenance you can keep your ride going for a very long time....... (All my vehicles are high mileage.) I think your old 2005 with 174K is still on the road... I bet, in time, someone here will put a million miles on their ST..... Who is up for the challenge...