Advice on purchase of 2016 ST 1300

It is a PA, so it is limited to 120mph, which should help limit the possibility of the "pan weave". I have touched 120mph twice, and rarely cross 100. It does start to feel light in triple digits, but I have never experienced pan weave or instability. You do get buffeted behind semi-trucks, but no worse than anything else I have ridden. I generally have my windshield half way up and no top box.

To echo everyone else. If you are at all interested in this type of bike, that is a heck of a price. I would change tires, fluids and probably the secondary master cylinder just for peace of mind. Ride it for a few months and if you decide it is not for you, post it for sale on here and pass on the deal.

The real issue is you will love it, and then you will start tweaking everything slightly to get "just perfect". That is where the real money comes in. :roflmao:

Ryan
 
jfheath said:
I’ve never had it, but I’ve only taken it up to 100 once on the German motorways. Things happen far too quickly for me at that speed!

Top box and airflow can be an issue. But not at legal speeds.
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This has been my experience as well. I think I might have kissed 120 (according to GPS) for a few moments while three of us passed a truck that didn't want to let us do so. We sped up he sped up. We sped up and left him.

No top box for me. I did strap a bit o' kit to the rack but it wasn't nearly the height of a topbox. Legal speeds us where I spend most of my time.
 
I've said this before - but its always worth repeating. The issue is not the top box as such, it is the fact that any solid lump in a fast airflow will result in dirty air eddying behind the solid lump. You are the solid lump - no offense intended. The air whips around your back from one side and then the other - you don't feel it unless you have a very loose jacket on. But your top box gets the brunt of this and it gets battered from side to side. The Honda top box is designed to move laterally on its fixings to cushion some of this effect. But the best ways to get rid of it are either remove the top box or fit a pillion. Riding two up with a top box it doesn't happen - the air cannot eddy behind you becasue there are three solid lumps, all in a neat line. The slipstream cannot start to break up into eddies until it has gone past the top box. It is no longer your problem.

It also becomes less of a problem the more you ride. Big gust of wind from the side - always a bit un-nerving - but the natural instinct is to grip the bars which prevents the bike from self correcting. It has two massive gyroscopes spinning under the mudguards - they want to go back to where they were. Gripping the bars prevents them from doing so. I suppose it is like standing on a sailboard, and then suddenly they do. The ST1300 is a big bike with a big surface area. It catches the wind and you get used to not having that gripped reaction to it. A bit like me at the moment desperately trying to unlearn the natural countersteer correction on my new-to-me trike. I'm getting there but its taking time.

I saw an extremely low mileage ST1300 the other day £6000. I wanted to buy it - but there was a reason for buying the Spyder - and I just have to go through the processes - most of which we have all done - learning to walk, ride a bike, skateboard, ski, bike and sidecar, rock climb, canoe, sailboard, big solo bike, big faired bike in cross winds, walk again, trike, mobility scooter ! You get the idea. I was trying to find something to put in between those last two. Oh dear !!

And the bow wave created by big trucks ? Ride out 'wide' (ie on the outside of your lane) and as you get level with the cab gently countersteer towards the centre of your lane. If the bow wave hits you - you are already leaning into it - so you end up going straight ahead. If not, no problem you just straighten up so that you don't cut him up.
 
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