ST is a beta test motorcycle (was Re: st-digest V1999 #213)

[Eric Sheley <eric@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 08:42 PM 09/08/1999 -0700, David Sampson wrote:
 >Before everybody goes out quoting the Motorrad article in which the
 >Sprint ST beat the competition, one must consider the original review of
 >the Sprint ST which also appeared in the bike. The reviewers severely
 >criticized

was this in the same article ? or the one that appeared earlier in the year ?

 >1. The heavy clutch

OK - I can see this, but it's no worse than any of the others (with heavy 
clutches) I have had.

 >2. The nearly unusable centerstand (nothing to grab to get the bike up
 >on it)

Well, without seeing the original article I can't understand this. The bike 
with no bags has a lift handle under the left rear fairing that one can 
grab on to. Not readily visible - maybe they didn't read the owners manual 
;-) (sorry). With the pannier kits comes a fold out handle that works very 
well. The only thing I can think of is that they demo'd a very early bike 
that was missing one or both of these items.

 >3. The luggage (from another bike, didn't align with the bike and was
 >not level with the passenger seat, and all the steps and parts needed to
 >raise/lower the pipe).

Bags aren't from another bike. I personally wouldn't want the panniers any 
higher as they would begin to interfere with passenger comfort. The pipe 
can be moved from low to high by removing the spacing bracket (1 part). 
While not the quickest thing to change, I again don't understand the 
criticism raised.

 >I for one, seriously considered a Sprint ST. However, based on the
 >number of (outright) design, manufacturing and quality problems, I doubt
 >that I will.

That's too bad - it really is a wonderful bike to experience.

 >Reading this group's messages makes me think that Sprint ST owners are
 >an incredibly - actually, overly -  tolerant group (centerstand recall,
 >fuel gauge problem, crankcase bolts, etc., etc.).

I don't think we are overly tolerant. If we have a problem and see it taken 
care of what is the use of jumping up and down ? Center stand took all of 
10 minutes for me to swap out, I am confident that we will someday have a 
new fuel gauge, and as for the crankcase bolts - while it was a recall 
problem, it was NOT a problem unique to the ST. It affected all black case 
Triumphs including the 955i, Speed Triple, ST, Tiger, etc... the supplier 
pulled a fast one and once Triumph figured out what it was, the situation 
was corrected.

 >I have the feeling that that a Sprint ST is a 'beta test' motorcycle.

I've been a beta tester before - the ST definitely doesn't fall in this 
category.

 >(Please no flames, I won't read them.)

Hope my reply did not come across as a flame. Just my .02 offered as an 
opposing viewpoint

- - Eric

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

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