The answers to the alternator, headlight, tire, oil, shock and seat questions that haven't been asked in five minutes or so.
My bike is a 1994 ST1100. Currently has 35,000 miles on it. Not a lot, I know, but I don't ride much around town. My rides are like to Prince George, BC, Las Cruces, NM, Prescott, AZ, Sturgis, SD and back sort of rides. So I put 4K-6K miles a year on it, but they are way out there miles. I like to be seen. Bike's black, so I worry about it. So I wear neon yellow helmet, jacket and gloves. Wasn't too popular with the Sturgis Harley crowd last year, but the guys in the international space station could easily track me. Every eye within a thousand yards is instantly drawn to my sun in nova mode glow as I ride by, and I often see them blinking and shading their eyes as they try to get my burned in image out of their retinas.
Alternator: I upgraded my pre 1996 28 amper with a 40 amp a few years ago after the Las Cruces trip when it leaked all the way to the Mexican border and back. Never quit making juice, but I checked the oil every night and it stunk like heck every morning till the overnight drip got burned off the exhaust. The hardest part was finding that required adapter plate. Took me months to find one. Finally found a plate with an alternator in Ohio, and then stumbled on another one in Holland (yes the country) so I bought both. Sent one to a fellow ST'er with a machine shop who was going to try to have some recreated to help guys with future upgrades. With the help of John O and his awesome traveling tool kit, the upgrade went pretty smoothly. Mostly. Been over three years now and I (almost) don't think about it anymore. If you have a pre-1996 28 Amp ST, I'd start collecting the parts you need. The plate is not available through Honda at all and the gears, bearings and such might not be available at all in a few years either. You'll either do it now or do it later, but pretty sure you'll do it.
Lights: I don't like to ride at night but sometimes ya gotta. After a trip home one night with my brother on his FJR, I realized my stock Honda halogens were pretty weak. Looked like a flash light next to his headlights that lit up every road sign and shown way farther down the road than mine did. So after an exhaustive search (yes the ST-owners search bar does work and I've used it every time), I decided on LED's. I bought the prerequisite F2's and started the install. There has to be a Honda engineer who is still snickering about his design and what it takes to get that headlight lens out of the front of that fairing. What a PITA! Maybe some of you can get at those spring clips with the lens in the bike, but I couldn't. Took me 73 hours to get the lens out. I had to decide whether to get adapter rings or notch out the bulb seats for the different shaped dog ears on the auto-style bulb (thanks again Honda), but I opted to notch out the seats, then discovered the lower left tab needed to be notched right where the spring clip hinges. No bueno. So I ended up cutting the lower left tab off. Then I was able to get it to seat properly as I was informed in the research bar (yes it still works) that a good seat was required. After another 73 hours of sweat and cussing I was finally able to get the lens back into the fairing. Flipped the switch and they both came on...SUPER BRIGHT! Success!
Now in all honesty, the LEDs are way brighter than the stock halogens. BUT...I think that 30 year old headlight lens was not designed for LED bulbs. It tends to scatter the light instead of focusing it down the road where you need to see. Worked...ok...on high beams, but while low beams really lit up the signs as I passed them, the low beam light was not focused down the road at all. In fact it was pretty dark straight down the road. I wondered if I'd be able to see that black angus bull standing in the road or that dead elk the semi had hit. Couldn't ride with high beams on all the time, as even pointed low I would get flashed by cars as they approached. Again...no bueno. If you don't ride at night and just want to be seen during the day, LED's are great. You'll be seen, but they don't work well at night in the ST lens.
So, once again I took the thing apart (stinking smirking engineer) and replaced the LEDs with the brightest Sylvania Ultra like looking into the sun halogens I could buy. Yes there is a big difference between the cheap halogens and the expensive ones. I learned that when I replaced only one on my truck with a cheap bulb. Buy the best they have. Success! The signs still look like daylight as I ride by but the light is super bright and focused down the road, even on low beam. Still had to cut off the lower left ear to get the bulb to seat correctly though.
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Tires: I've tried about everything on the rims of my V65 Sabre, Concours and now Vger my ST. It's getting harder to find tires that fit the older bikes. After another extensive search, and a couple of misfires, I've finally settled on a Bridgestone Battlax BT45R 110-80/18 on the front. Yes it's designated a “rear” tire. But it's the right size. I mounted it like the arrow shows even though some guys said to mount it backwards and it's been awesome for 11,900 miles. I fully expect to get another 5 or 6K+ out of it, so it'll last as long as the rear.
Before the Battlax I bought a Metzeler Z6 hoping for high mileage. The Z6 was a great tire, but died just short of 2000 miles when I hit something that put a ¾ inch hole in it that I could not plug, just outside of RockSprings, WY. Glad it wasn't on the way to Canada. That's the only time since I started riding in 1967 that I've had to trailer a bike home. That Metzeler was the toughest tire I've ever mounted/dismounted. Being bummed about the early death of the high dollar Z6 I mounted a Shinko 777 HD. Rode it to Canada. Looked like a decent tire, got mixed reviews. It went ok for around 5000 miles, then started to feel squirrely in the corners. It still had tread, but I think the side walls were giving out. I rode it home, but it was NO fun to ride towards the end. I replaced the Shinko with a Bridgestone Battlax T32R 160-70/17. The Battlax has been a great tire for 2,964 miles. It'll get me through this summer along with the 11,900 mile “rear” Battlax that is still on the front. I'll probably replace both next year. Hopefully with this same Battlax's as they've been great.
Shock: The stock shock started bottoming out on the bumps when I was fully loaded or riding two up, so I replaced it with a Hagon. What a difference that has made. I highly recommend the Hagon.
Seat: The stock seat is sort of like sitting on a soft rock. You read all sorts of testimonials, good and bad, about Corbins and such, but I didn't want to fork out mega bucks for a seat only to discover it wasn't any better or as even as good as stock. So I ordered an aftermarket sit on top of the stock seat gel seat pad. Took the cover off the gel pad and the cover off my stock seat, honed out the foam of the stock seat and embedded the one inch gel seat into the stock foam. Put the cover back on and now I have an all day seat that has been great. 700 miles in a day has been my max so far when I rode to Sturgis last year but we're planning an Ironbutt this year before I'm too old to do it (bucket list thing) so hopefully we'll both make it.
Oil: I've run Rotella 5W-40 full synthetic in the ST since I got it. I ran it in my V65 Sabre, the Concours,and currently in my Kawasaki Brute Force Quad and my Kawasaki Teryx and my ST. None use a drop of oil or have had any issues. I always run non-alcohol gas except when I'm on the road and can't get it. That and Sta-Bil have made it so waking up the bikes each spring has been a non-issue. Woke the ST today and put 60 grinning miles on it.
So there you have it. My answers to all the questions that were once again asked...again. Your results may vary. If you need more info, the Search Bar works.
