Hi guys.
As the weather is getting better I am going out and riding more and here are my thoughts.
I don't have many bad things to say about the ST1100, overall I think it is a great motorcyle, but one of the negative sides has to be shifting the transmission, sometimes it feels like a chore to me. Mostly talking about upshifts here, downshifts seem to go in better. I like to make my shifts as seamless as posible. Upshifts up until about 4k rpm can be done real smooth real easy in all gears, but once you start getting in the higher rpm range and when accelerating harder things get more complicated. 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd have to be the worst. Was passing a truck the other day and reved the engine up unitl about 7k rpm in 2nd, shifting to 3rd was done with grinding ( felt it in my foot true the gear leaver), gear went right in though. I have tried alot of different techniqes, shifting with faster foot movement, with slower foot movement, clutchless upshifts.. none of them are 100% smooth 100% of the time.
This maybe is the best way I have found so far. 1st to 2nd shift at max 4-4.5k rpm with slow foot movement + clutch. 2nd to 3rd engine rpm dependant but slower foot movement with clutch is again better. 3rd to 4th and 4th to 5th with faster foot movement + clutch or clutchless for real fast upshifts but needs precise throtle hand movement.
The ST1100s engine has a lot of torque and doesn't require you to shift a lot, but sometimes I like to ride a little more sporty and shift more often to keep the engine turning at the optimal rpm, for me at least it also is a part of the joy of riding and engaging with the machine.
I don't have a lot of experience with many motorcycles, have riden around 10 in total for a more extensive period of time, but none of them have had so clunky and hard to shift smoothly transmissions. I am familiar with and have been shifthing clutchless very smoothly on almost all my bikes up until now. My ST1100 has about 70k kms on it and is in excelent shape in my eyes at least and I do tend to get picky. I don' think ( hope) that this isn't a problem with my bike but more like the nature of the beast of the model. Shift linkage has been maintained. Running 10W40 oil as per the manual.
On a positive note the ST is real easy to shift into neutral ( unlike my Aprilia Tuareg 350).
Have read that motorcycles with bigger engines have more clunky transmissions because they are more heavy built to handle the torqe ( like big cruisers and touring bikes), but I don't have experience with other such bikes and the St 1100 is my biggest most powerful bike to date.
Any thoughts and suggestions, what is your experiance?
As the weather is getting better I am going out and riding more and here are my thoughts.
I don't have many bad things to say about the ST1100, overall I think it is a great motorcyle, but one of the negative sides has to be shifting the transmission, sometimes it feels like a chore to me. Mostly talking about upshifts here, downshifts seem to go in better. I like to make my shifts as seamless as posible. Upshifts up until about 4k rpm can be done real smooth real easy in all gears, but once you start getting in the higher rpm range and when accelerating harder things get more complicated. 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd have to be the worst. Was passing a truck the other day and reved the engine up unitl about 7k rpm in 2nd, shifting to 3rd was done with grinding ( felt it in my foot true the gear leaver), gear went right in though. I have tried alot of different techniqes, shifting with faster foot movement, with slower foot movement, clutchless upshifts.. none of them are 100% smooth 100% of the time.
This maybe is the best way I have found so far. 1st to 2nd shift at max 4-4.5k rpm with slow foot movement + clutch. 2nd to 3rd engine rpm dependant but slower foot movement with clutch is again better. 3rd to 4th and 4th to 5th with faster foot movement + clutch or clutchless for real fast upshifts but needs precise throtle hand movement.
The ST1100s engine has a lot of torque and doesn't require you to shift a lot, but sometimes I like to ride a little more sporty and shift more often to keep the engine turning at the optimal rpm, for me at least it also is a part of the joy of riding and engaging with the machine.
I don't have a lot of experience with many motorcycles, have riden around 10 in total for a more extensive period of time, but none of them have had so clunky and hard to shift smoothly transmissions. I am familiar with and have been shifthing clutchless very smoothly on almost all my bikes up until now. My ST1100 has about 70k kms on it and is in excelent shape in my eyes at least and I do tend to get picky. I don' think ( hope) that this isn't a problem with my bike but more like the nature of the beast of the model. Shift linkage has been maintained. Running 10W40 oil as per the manual.
On a positive note the ST is real easy to shift into neutral ( unlike my Aprilia Tuareg 350).
Have read that motorcycles with bigger engines have more clunky transmissions because they are more heavy built to handle the torqe ( like big cruisers and touring bikes), but I don't have experience with other such bikes and the St 1100 is my biggest most powerful bike to date.
Any thoughts and suggestions, what is your experiance?