Steven and Greg's Excellent Adventure

[Greg Gagliano <greg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dirty Dawg (Steven Kohlscheen) and I (Wiener Dawg) rode our Sprint STs to the
Honda Sport Touring Association's national rally in Avon, Colorado.  We reunited
with Odd Dawg (Mike Miller) and Big Dawg (Mark Hanke) and got to meet Horn Dawg
(Rick Paukert).  That makes 2 red, 1 black, and 1 blue Sprint ST plus Odd Dawg's
ST1100.  Our Sprint STs received a lot of looks and many "How do you like it?"
type questions among all the VFRs.  The bikes performed as advertised... no
problems at all.  They excel when droning along on the interstate through the
flatlands of Kansas or when carving up the twisties in the Rocky Mountains.  Too
bad it rained half the time, though the STs have very reliable and predictable
rain manners.

BMW and Honda brought bikes for demo rides... sadly Triumph wasn't there to do the
same.  I'm sure they would have made a few converts of the VFR riders with the
Sprint ST and ST1100 riders with the Trophy.  Speaking of the Trophy, there were a
few other Triumphs at the HSTA rally including an early 1st generation Trophy, a
couple of 900 Tridents, a couple of Speed Triples, a couple of Sprint RS's, a
couple of Daytona's, a Sprint Exec, an Adventurer, and a black Sprint ST that
belonged to a local resident who was seeing what the heck was going on in his
town.

I was really surprised how many Honda folks trailered their bikes.  At the last
HSTA national I attended (also in Avon in 1995), there were maybe a dozen trailers
there.  This time there seemed to be 3 or 4 times that many people carting their
zoot scoots on trailers or in pickup trucks.  To be fair, a lot of riders are
bringing their families along so trailering makes that possible, but a lot were
coming alone or in pairs.

Back to our Sprint STs for a moment... Big Dawg, Horn Dawg and myself have
installed the Triumph Sport Silencer.  Big Dawg opted for the carbon wrap can
which, along with the dark tinted Zero Gravity windscreen, make his black ST look
super stealthy.  Since I did all of my riding with Dirty Dawg, I was able to
directly compare my fuel usage to his (he has the stock silencer and EFI tune).
My Sprint consistently used about 0.5 to 0.6 gallons (1.9 to 2.2 liters) more than
Steven's ST.  Nevertheless, my Sprint was still getting fuel mileage in the mid to
high 40 range while Steven's routinely touched on 50 miles per gallon.

Dirty Dawg, true to his moniker, did not wash his bike the entire time we were on
our adventure.  We rode with Odd Dawg and Big Dawg on our return journey from Joe
and Pam Cocker's Mad Dog Ranch (Joe was there to greet us!).  The Sprint STs again
showed how truly versatile they are.  Dirty Dawg led us through some tight
twisties in a National Forest at a brisk (yet sane) pace, but later admitted he
was holding back to keep our group together... only occassionally did his "Duhamel
Jr." side show and when he left us in the dust around a few corners.

One final note - the Triumph Sport Throw-over Panniers worked very well on the
Sprint ST.  Dirty Dawg reported that they were stable at Interstate cruising
speeds.  The panniers held more than enough gear for the week (along with a
tankbag and tailpack) and the raincovers did their job when called upon.  For
those Sprint STer's who don't want the hard bags, the Sport Throw-overs are an
excellent alternative.

I'm sure Dirty Dawg will be able to add some to this report when he returns home
next week (he's in Iowa for the holiday weekend).  Steven and I will be travelling
together to the TSRA "Riding the Ridge" Rallye which is just a few weeks away.
We're looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Greg "Wiener Dawg" Gagliano


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