Blrfl
Natural Rider Enhancement
Where would you shed the weight? Everything on this bike is overbuilt, and shedding weight may shed some of the bulletproof qualities we like in this thing.
I'm not usually one to shy away from computerizing everything, but I think I'm starting to draw the line at throttle-by-wire.
A few weeks ago, I was reviewing some material related to a lawsuit against Toyota that stemmed from a fatal unintended acceleration incident in 2007. Long story short, an expert witness was allowed to review the software in the ECM for the car and wrote a report on what he found. I read the report and slides that accompanied it, and the word damning isn't strong enough. It was actually possible on that car for the task that reads the pedal position to die and the task that set the throttle not notice and for the watchdog hardware not to notice either. This results in the engine continuing to run as if the throttle hadn't moved. To make matters worse, the software that reads the state of the brake pedal wouldn't force the throttle closed unless the driver took his foot completely off the brake, which is not something people in panic situations tend to do. Honda doesn't have a history of having the same kind of problems, but all it would take is for them to get sloppy.
There's something reassuring about being able to mechanically cut off the engine's air supply should the computer decide to do otherwise. It isn't like the standard dual-cable throttle mechanism is unreliable.
There are bikes that have filters in easier-to-get-at places than the ST, but I wouldn't call the location on the ST bad by a long shot. Nobody's making filter relocation kits for the ST like they do for, say, the V-Star 1100.
Yecch, no. Hydraulic lifters require a more complex cylinder head design that will mean more weight and more expense. They also don't move as fast as shimmed systems (or desmodromic, but let's not go there), which means valve timing at high revs will get squishier. You won't find them on the ST, FJR, Conk, K1600GT or pretty much anything else that revs high. The ST's cylinder heads are in the best location of any bike in the category except the R1200RT for doing the valve check, and once you've got the plastic off, it's not that big a job. I've seen the valve check procedure on the FJR, and it ain't pretty.
ABS and TC were available on the 1100 two decades ago; TC was deleted from the 1300. If today's cars are any indication it's going to be unbelievably aggressive should they put it back in. Honda's not going to put cruise on any model that will be sold in the same market as the Gold Wing.
--Mark
