Things Best Said

Why don’t they write songs about riding your motorcycle in the cold? If they did, the proverbial ‘they’, might have written something like this (sung to the tune of ‘Hotel California’):

“On a cold stretch of tarmac
fingers numb in the air
no sign of policemen
it’s too chilly to care
overhead in the distance
I saw the buzzards take flight
feathers weak and their bellies thin
they wanted me, not the bike

A deer stood in the roadway
laughing at my pelt
And I was thinking to myself
It is cordura and not made of felt
Then I lit up the tires and the road peeled away
There’s is coffee up the trail somewhere,
In my head I’d say…

I don’t ride a Honda in California”

That’s how I felt yesterday. It’s still considered winter here, though spring is not far away. With temperatures now hitting the 50′s I’ll have to rewrite my song pretty soon…something like “it’s not this damn hot in California”.

I took the new bike out for a spin yesterday, wanting to drain an entire tank before making any kind of formal opinion about its strength and (possible) weaknesses. All told, I did 246 miles yesterday.

Let’s do a quick overview. I purchased a 2006 Honda ST1300. It’s a 5-speed, shaft drive sport touring bike with a V4 engine. With a 7.6 gallon fuel tank and a range of about 280 miles per fill-up it’s made for the long haul.

The 2006 model was only made in black and I found one locally that was a rental bike with only about 11K miles on it. I took it for a test drive and was blown away by how it handled, how much speed and, of course, by the electronic windshield. But, I wasn’t completely sold…there was still an issue for me about comfort. The seat straddles pretty low on the fuel tank in the lowest of three height settings with a more upright seating position than most sport bikes but I didn’t feel that it was quite what I wanted.

Without much duress I opted to pick it up and ride the crud out of it this weekend hoping to form a better opinion by Monday when I would either keep it or take it back.

So, out to the best place around to test a bike…The Natchez Trace Parkway. The first 15 miles are windy, sweeping turns followed by many more miles of longer stretches that are more speed friendly (providing you don’t get caught). The bike was magnificent! I’ve never ridden a bike that allowed for those deep turns to be done so elegantly. It was almost as if the ST was teaching me how to ride while saying “go ahead, I’ll do it”.

Long 120 degree radius turns on my old bike were comfortable at about 30 or 40 mph as the lean angle never felt right. The ST ate them up easily at 60 or 65. I never once felt out of control or nervous about the position of my body on the bike. It pushes into the corners very easily.

The ST has a full instrument cluster including several trip meters, gas gauge, average gas consumption, external air temp, cooling temp and a clock. Now, I say I did 246 miles and that ate up a full tank of gas but I know the math doesn’t work out. My goal was to drain the tank to the point where the gas gauge started to blink. This is a firmware feature built into the bike where instead of switching to a reserve tank the bike blinks the gas gauge while counting down the number of miles available (averaged by consumption) in the final gallon of fuel. I chickened out and filled up with 35+ miles to go according to the gauge.

When I arrived at home, though it was cold, I didn’t want to get off the bike. We had become one, inseparable, close. I can really see putting some long miles on the ST.

I’m going to ride for an entire season before I start doing any real modifications aside from adding a topbox, tankbag and extra seat padding. When I do start changing things I will likely add heated handgrips, change out the stock seat with a custom model and get a larger windshield (+4″ wider, +2″ taller).

The bike came with, after not much haggling, 4 years worth of warranty (unlimited miles) and some prepaid maintenance.

If you’re in the market I highly recommend taking one out for a weekend.