[Author Index] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: Bill's new baby



Previously, you (Eric Sheley) wrote:
> Enough about the caps - so how do you like your new baby ?

I really love my wife for many reasons, not least of which is giving her
blessing to my new "marriage".  But my love for Jewel (my daughter's
name for my ST) must be a close 2nd.  ;-)  Well, after our children.

I picked her up on Friday afternoon after having a miserable time with
the bank.  No, I won't go into details yet.  She looked beautiful, all
freshly waxed and polished, sitting in the sun.  My heart gave a little
flip when I saw her.  No, not my wife, the ST.  Wax on my wife?

After the paperwork, which seemed to take forever, I finally got the
keys and the chance to take her home ... via some country roads of
course.

No one told me that when I first got the ST that she'd idle sounding
like a big diesel rig! Or that the shifter would need a crowbar to pry
it out of first! Or that neutral would be nearly impossible to locate.

The idle is already smoothing out, but first thing every morning I think
I'm going to break my foot trying to get it to shift.  I'm sure glad my
boots have steel toes!

Everyone was right: the break-in period is a bitch and that first
hundred miles, limited to 3500 and doing a series of shorter rides with
cool down periods between, is the absolute worst! At the beginning the
engine was so tight it was reluctant to spool up to higher RPMs anyway,
but by the time I hit 100 miles it was hard to hold it back.

The next 200 miles was nicer: a hint of what she will be able to deliver
later in life.  I found out -- briefly -- that it'll do about 85mph in
6th at around 5K.  :-) Now that I can spin her up close to 6000 I'm
thinking "Wow, what a machine!", and I'm still a long way from redline.

Riding around at 50 or so doing shift, 3rd, shift, 4th, shift, 5th,
shift, 6th, shift, 5th, shift, 4th, shift, 3rd, shirt, 4th ... all day
is good exercise.  My left arm is bigger than my right today.  ;-)

BTW, why did Triumph bother putting a 6th on this thing? I know the
answer, but it was fun to be cruising along at what felt like a
comfortable engine speed, forgetting what gear I'm in.  Then shifting
up and finding that I can still shift up again!

Of course, even if you are in 6th if you find that you need to speed up,
just twist the throttle a bit (and it doesn't take much) to go faster
instead of having to downshift.  But all of you know that already.

Saturday my wife rode with me briefly on her (was my) Nighthawk 450. We
stopped at one tree-lined S-curve (Florida isn't all straight lines) and
she grabbed the camera out of her (was my) tankbag.  Then I rode back a
ways, turned around and rode through while she took a shot or two.  She
didn't like what she changed position and had me do it again. This time
she put the motor drive on continuous and took a series of pictures. On
that final pass I really started to feel at one with Jewel and she
carried me through those turns faster and yet more in control than I've
ever been before. It didn't hurt that it was the 5th time through there
in a row! I hope at least one of the shots turns out well. :-)

Sunday morning Willemina and I got up early and rode out for our first
tour together.  An hour, and 50 miles later we stopped for breakfast and
to phone the kids (wanted to make sure they hadn't burned the house
down).  We rode for three hours, covering 120 miles.  I was keeping the
pace down as this was my wifes first real ride, and I knew that I was
still getting the feel fo the ST as well.

The nice thing was that I finally had a chance to share some of my
favorite roads with my wife.  And she did just fine.  Plus I had a
chance to try Jewel on the types of roads that I bought her for.  It was
great!

Family responsibilities kept me from riding yesterday afternoon, but I
put on some more miles last night as I mentioned in an earlier post.

My initial impressions are that this bike is everything I had hoped for
in performance and handling ... and then some! The rider ergonomics
might need some work for me though.  Much of my riding is at moderate
speeds where I don't get much benefit from the lift coming off the
windscreen.  That combined with a bad back (early degenerate disk in my
lower spine) and I was hurting by last night.  To save my back I was
putting more load on my hands and arms which just shifted the problem. 
I'm thinking that a riser kit might be just the thing for me.  It
wouldn't take much up-and-back to solve the problem.

Over time my back will become stronger.  When that happens I'd have the
option of removing the kit again.

So who was making the riser block? And what is the status of it? If it
is still too far into the future I may have to look at Genmar.

It is now lunchtime.  That means it's time for me to put more break-in
miles on her.  I need to find time to ride about 120 miles, plus work,
plus spend time with my family in the next 29 hours.  Life is rough. 
;-)

- --
Bill Flowers
Clearwater FL
'00 Sapphire Blue ST "Jewel"


 *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
 The ST Mailing list is sponsored by the Unofficial ST Website
   http://www.TriumphNet.com/st for ST and Mailing List info

=-=-=-= Next Message =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=