What did you do with your ST1100/ST1300 today?

[ST1100Y]

'Every other year' certainly excludes annual mileage considerations.

I juST leaned that the average annual ridden motorcycle mileage (in Europe) has dropped <2000km/1250miles...
If those owners apply the 12000km/7500mile service interval, 6 years go by before the first fluid change...
Parallel I notice a growing reluctance to know more about a motorcycle as to where to put the key in... (paired with an increasing whine about breakdowns and "bad quality of motorcycles"...)

 

[Oldbikefixr]

I juST leaned that the average annual ridden motorcycle mileage (in Europe) has dropped <2000km/1250miles...
If those owners apply the 12000km/7500mile service interval, 6 years go by before the first fluid change...
Parallel I notice a growing reluctance to know more about a motorcycle as to where to put the key in... (paired with an increasing whine about breakdowns and "bad quality of motorcycles"...)

It bothers me to no end watching younger folk fumbling with the compressor hose at gas stations or trying to figure out the tire tools along the side of the road. I help when I can.
Few seem to conduct any form of periodic check of their vehicles anymore. No maintenance items in the trunk, not even a tool. Just hop in and go. Car failure comes as a complete surprise. This mechanical incompetence does seem be creeping into the two wheel world as well. I'm seeing a lot of new riders, young and older, unable to access the gas cap at stops. Give 'em a hand if you can. You may end up with a new friend or even point someone down the correct path in life. We are just one sunspot away from going back to personal interaction anyway. You may be the next neighborhood guru.

 

[Upt' North]

I believe a lot of the disinterest in mechanical issues is probably down to modern buying habits. Buy it (?) on a PCP for three years, return it to the franchised outlet twice for enforced servicing. Return and repeat. Just like renting a new mobile every twelve months.
If they're too busy to look where they're going, they're certainly not going to look at the dipstick, what dipstick I hear you ask.
Upt'North.

 

[ST1100Y]

I believe a lot of the disinterest in mechanical issues is probably down to modern buying habits.

Or that there isn't an App for it...
Another symptom of what you describe is lack of riding skills...
I mean if you only ride about 1200 miles on one model, and change to another the next season, you'll never be competent on any of those motorcycles...

The NC750X of a friend's wife comes with a 1" thick owner's manual...
About 80% of it describes ad nausea how to modify the TFT display... but if you want to know how to put it into S2, the booklet fails you...

 

[Upt' North]

Or that there isn't an App for it...
Another symptom of what you describe is lack of riding skills...
I mean if you only ride about 1200 miles on one model, and change to another the next season, you'll never be competent on any of those motorcycles...

The NC750X of a friend's wife comes with a 1" thick owner's manual...
About 80% of it describes ad nausea how to modify the TFT display... but if you want to know how to put it into S2, the booklet fails you...

The App remark is very apt and many bikes in the UK just go to the test station once a year and are then parked for twelve months. I've just bought a 5 year old bike with less than 5000 miles on the odo. It's not even considered low mileage, it's nuts.
Upt'North.

 

[Hound]

When I bought my 2013 VFR1200X last December it had 9040 miles on it. Bonkers. Mind you my 2004 ST1300 only has about 27500 - it's been napping a lot.

Today I fitted some adjustable footpegs to the 12X, which may interest ST owners as they're also compatible with the ST1300, VFR800F, VTR1000 Firestorm/SP1/SP2, XL1000 Varadero and X11 CB1100SF. (I don't know what half of those bikes are.)

The pegs are available with 40mm (1.6in) or 25mm (1in) extensions, and both the peg and the mount have a pin-&-cam system which gives adjustments in 15° increments. They are aluminium and anodised.









I carelessly left the needle-nose pliers under the bike after fitting the cotter pins

So if anyone needs their pegs further back, forward, up, down or any combination, these work, though they do set your feet outwards by an inch or so. (I don't have a gearshift pedal so it doesn't bother me.) They came from the Bay of E and with shipping, they cost me the equivalent of 89 of your finest US dollars.

You don't have to have the adventure-type footpegs; there are other versions too, as well as different colours.

 

[Oldbikefixr]

We have an 'interesting' intersection near home. The four lane, divided, with turn lanes on either side runs under a freeway, lights at both sides under the freeway. Local police hq is just off this main road so it's also a speed trap due to the yellow light timing....three seconds and the distance between lights is 60 yards. If you pass a yellow at any stage on the first light, you will end up stuck at the other light, unless you're running really fast. There are two of these intersections, one under the eastbound freeway lanes, the other under the westbound. Very wide direction separation overhead.
Light traffic, rush hour was well over, and I caught a yellow and stopped just before the light changed red. Glanced into my right side rear view to see some buttwipe speeding up behind me, head down apparently texting. He had already blown the previous light at well over the speed limit. He looked up at the last second, jumped lanes missing the back side of the bike by under six inches, put his head back down at his phone after blowing the light, and went through the second light with cross traffic already on the move.
There are some situations you just can't do anything about, so I got really lucky. Had he not looked up at the last possible moment to respond, the outcome would have been no different had I been in the suv. Could I have noticed him earlier? Would I have assumed he was a light runner not paying attention to anything? Who knows.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

He looked up at the last second, jumped lanes missing the back side of the bike by under six inches, put his head back down at his phone after blowing the light, and went through the second light with cross traffic already on the move.

Most of the people on this forum probably see similar scenarios every time that we are out on the roads. It seems to be an epidemic, everyone is always on their phone while driving. Despite what anyone thinks, humans are just not able to do both safely at the same time.

Technology exists that renders a mobile phone unusable while a vehicle is in motion. I am not a proponent of government sticking their nose in the personal business of private citizens. At the same time, we collectively seem to be proving that we are not capable of being responsible drivers and responsible mobile phone users at the same time. As much as it irks me to contemplate this, I think there will come a time when it will be necessary for there to be laws that mandate the use of that technology to save us from ourselves and our own stubbornness.

 

[ST1100Y]

... I think there will come a time when it will be necessary for there to be laws that mandate the use of that technology to save us from ourselves and our own stubbornness.

Isn't this where they sell us those autonomous EV's...

epilogue to my hub damper replacement:
while they had shown only minimal wear, the improvement on clutch operation and shifting is tremendous...

 

[Flash 2002]

I took the alternator out of new to me used 1300 to make sure it was all good. The bearings look good but the brushes are close to the limit. I will change the bearings and brushes anyways.

 

[Keith Weller]

so I started to do my forks seals today seem to need a bit of work done on them. got 1 side apart just need to clean it..

 

[Horsehead]

No fun pictures to share, but I shipped my seat yesterday to Russell Day Long! I CANNOT WAIT! This is the final big modification on my list for the STead. Back in February I had the front end rebuilt with Racetech springs and gold valve emulators. A few months later I replaced the rear suspension with one from Wilbers. The only piece of the puzzle left was to replace the terribly uncomfortable seat. I'm REALLY looking forward to getting my new saddle back at the end of the month. A long trip is in order, methinks. Where should I go?

 

[Alberto]

Washed my ST after local 3100 km ride long. Everything was fine, except strange issue with abs - rear modulator have been engaging regularly on bumpy unpaved road, even without me pressing break pad. After some time of abs swirling it kicked of an error. Thinking about replacing brains of abs, thanks god I have spare one.

Enjoyed riding 20 km of unpaved road standing on pegs) found a friend for ST from Yamaha breed)

 

[sirbike]

Double feature. Got my forks back from Daugherty for the ST and the SST. Great day in the MC Spa.

 

[Horsehead]

Washed my ST after local 3100 km ride long. Everything was fine, except strange issue with abs - rear modulator have been engaging regularly on bumpy unpaved road, even without me pressing break pad. After some time of abs swirling it kicked of an error. Thinking about replacing brains of abs, thanks god I have spare one.

Enjoyed riding 20 km of unpaved road standing on pegs) found a friend for ST from Yamaha breed)

Man! Your blue ST11 is gorgeous. What year did they come in that color?

 

[Alberto]

What year did they come in that color?

Actually, they didn't ) I bought it black, but plastic required some maintenance and respraying. So I decided to steal a bmw color, don't remember exact motorcycle model.

 

[craigstys]

Replaced front brake pads. Genuine Honda found cheap with free ship. Did rears last summer and they're fine.
They are so easy to do on ST1100's and most VFR's. Great design.

 

[Dbar]

Replaced my rear wheel with new tire mounted. I forgot what a PITA that job is.

 

[Willsmotorcycle]

Flush the clutch, change the engine oil and filter, new rear brakes and some new GT rubber, not even 10:00 am yet. Going to be a great day.

Front tire next, flush brakes, new OEM air filter, if the fork oil gets here, then we’ll flush them too.

 

[Willsmotorcycle]

Was overly optimistic, switched to the front tire and brakes only to find out my NOS pads are pre 2008, I'm 2016, grrrr Looks like that fork oil will be here soon enough to get them flushed before the pads arrive.