Hi all,
I bought a good-looking 2008 ST1300 Non-ABS motorcycle in Louisville OH end of March this year. Low 30K miles, pretty paint, etc. The seller said he had shoulder trouble and was not able to ride it anymore so he was selling. I always wanted one of these and read up (mostly on this forum) on what to look out for, so...
I looked it over in the seller's garage, it was 20's and snowing so I didn't ride it, but I ran it, and let it warm up... she had a nice idle, and the throttle response was fine, the exhaust sounded good... looked like all the boxes were checked so we made the deal and I trailered it back home 300 miles to York, PA I cleaned it up as it was somewhat neglected. Did the sensible maintenance that one should do when getting a new (to me) motorcycle and not knowing the complete maintenance history... oil change, final drive oil change, new pads all-around, got it inspected for PA.... all that. I also noticed that there wasn't any accessory power running to the bars, even though the Heli Bar risers had a ram mount ball so I bought what I needed to run my own and decided that when I did the install I would do the air filter too so I can kill two birds while I hid the accessory power wires under the tank.
The 1st surprise came when I found a line ran already, but it was lopped off at the bars and was run directly to the battery terminals (no big deal, really). Then I propped up the tank and opened up the air box. Filter on the outside looked as you would expect and the inside of the snorkel side seemed pretty clean, though I did see a little oil here and there. The replacement filter was OEM and I had handled it a little and so when I picked the old filter up out of the airbox I knew something was not right... it was much heavier than it should have been. I flipped it over and... surprise, surprise! I saw the attached sight.
Wow, what a shocker! I had been all over this bike by now. Most, if not all, of the plastic, was off and on, I cleaned up under the front cowl, under the seats, and had the side covers off. Even though it was road-dirty under there I saw no sign _anywhere_ of critters. Even after discovering this and digging deeper, I can see nothing else. Not complaining! just saying... no poop, nothing chewed, they must have just run in and out of the opening up above the radiator and made a nice home in the filter. To make sure, I took all the remaining Tupperware off and inspected everything and it all looks fine (and is now all clean and shiny!) It was more of a job than I thought it would be, but after seeing that filter, I wasn't taking any chances, I had to look in every crevice, if for nothing more than piece-of-mind.
I was complaining to my neighbor 3'ish weeks ago about how it didn't seem to have the low-end power I expected from a 1300 at this weight. And for a Honda, it just didn't seem as smooth when I was rolling on the throttle especially when I was at the low end of a gear range. I asked him if he would mind taking it out for a ride and tell me what he thought since he is a former ST1100 owner. He saw this filter before he was able to take that ride and said "Well, I guess you may have found the problem, no?" HA! Yes... yes you could guess that!
It just goes to show, you can do your homework and kick all the right tires, but you NEVER know it all...
I bought a good-looking 2008 ST1300 Non-ABS motorcycle in Louisville OH end of March this year. Low 30K miles, pretty paint, etc. The seller said he had shoulder trouble and was not able to ride it anymore so he was selling. I always wanted one of these and read up (mostly on this forum) on what to look out for, so...
I looked it over in the seller's garage, it was 20's and snowing so I didn't ride it, but I ran it, and let it warm up... she had a nice idle, and the throttle response was fine, the exhaust sounded good... looked like all the boxes were checked so we made the deal and I trailered it back home 300 miles to York, PA I cleaned it up as it was somewhat neglected. Did the sensible maintenance that one should do when getting a new (to me) motorcycle and not knowing the complete maintenance history... oil change, final drive oil change, new pads all-around, got it inspected for PA.... all that. I also noticed that there wasn't any accessory power running to the bars, even though the Heli Bar risers had a ram mount ball so I bought what I needed to run my own and decided that when I did the install I would do the air filter too so I can kill two birds while I hid the accessory power wires under the tank.
The 1st surprise came when I found a line ran already, but it was lopped off at the bars and was run directly to the battery terminals (no big deal, really). Then I propped up the tank and opened up the air box. Filter on the outside looked as you would expect and the inside of the snorkel side seemed pretty clean, though I did see a little oil here and there. The replacement filter was OEM and I had handled it a little and so when I picked the old filter up out of the airbox I knew something was not right... it was much heavier than it should have been. I flipped it over and... surprise, surprise! I saw the attached sight.
Wow, what a shocker! I had been all over this bike by now. Most, if not all, of the plastic, was off and on, I cleaned up under the front cowl, under the seats, and had the side covers off. Even though it was road-dirty under there I saw no sign _anywhere_ of critters. Even after discovering this and digging deeper, I can see nothing else. Not complaining! just saying... no poop, nothing chewed, they must have just run in and out of the opening up above the radiator and made a nice home in the filter. To make sure, I took all the remaining Tupperware off and inspected everything and it all looks fine (and is now all clean and shiny!) It was more of a job than I thought it would be, but after seeing that filter, I wasn't taking any chances, I had to look in every crevice, if for nothing more than piece-of-mind.
I was complaining to my neighbor 3'ish weeks ago about how it didn't seem to have the low-end power I expected from a 1300 at this weight. And for a Honda, it just didn't seem as smooth when I was rolling on the throttle especially when I was at the low end of a gear range. I asked him if he would mind taking it out for a ride and tell me what he thought since he is a former ST1100 owner. He saw this filter before he was able to take that ride and said "Well, I guess you may have found the problem, no?" HA! Yes... yes you could guess that!
It just goes to show, you can do your homework and kick all the right tires, but you NEVER know it all...
