Re: [ST] Special Edition RS

[Neil Lindsey <neillindsey@xxxxxxx>]

>Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 09:35:22 +0100
>From: Stephen McSpadden <stephen.mcspadden@xxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Re: [ST] Special Edition RS
>
>At 04:58 12/09/03, you wrote:
>>Anyone ever hear of a Sprint RS that's equipped with the single-sided
>>swinging arm?
>
>Yup, I think I've even seen one. It's exactly as you describe. The RS SE.
>It's got more subtle graphics and the STs rear arm. I don't know of any
>other significant or mechanical differences.
>
>- - Spud.

Actually I have one of these idiosyncracies in Caspian Blue.  The build date
was 03/03 and it showed up in my dealer's showroom in August (and I thought
I had heard that no '03s were imported into North America).

I totaled my '99 Black Sprint ST back at the end of June (the worst of my
injuries was a broken left hand, but that's another story) and just replaced
it less than 2 weeks ago.  I wasn't intending to buy this season unless a
super deal came up.  Well guess what?

You're right about the 'more subtle' graphics, but I would have said 'almost
non-existent'.  There were no ugly RS stickers on the half fairing.  The
only places that it says 'RS' is beside the headlights on the nose piece and
on each side of the tail section.  There weren't even any of the transparent
safety stickers or break-in regime sticker on this bike, and no, the dealer
didn't take them off.  You may recall that Triumph was considering re-doing
the RS bodywork (same guy that did the Speed4 apparently) but I don't think
we'll ever see it (I have some pictures if anyone is interested), especially
now that the RS has been officially dropped from the lineup.  The so called
RS.S had the SSSA.  So far I've not been able to get a straight answer about
how or why this model came to be, but I have 2 theories:

1.  Triumph wanted to sex up the RS with the SSSA so they could sell off the
remaining RS parts inventory before discontinuing the model (who knows,
maybe they ran out of double-sided swinging arms for the RS).

2.  Since the RS.S was apparently canned, maybe they wanted to do something
similar using existing bodywork (kinda like an RS swan-song).

I'm almost positive that the Triumph hard bags will bolt right on, with only
one possible exception -- I'm not sure if the tail pipe will swivel lower to
clear the bags (that could probably be changed however).  For me that's not
a problem because I'd really like to put the PowerMax underseat exhaust
system on this puppy someday.

My biggest concern about the RS SE (I'm not even sure if that's the official
name BTW) is that there won't be microfiche (or CD-based parts data) that is
specific to this model.  I hope I'm wrong, because it would be a drag to
have to explain what the bike is (or even that there is such a thing) to
every dealer that I might want to order parts from.  The way I look at it,
the bike is an ST from the seat back, and an RS from the seat forward.

I have pictures of my new bike, but my understanding is that this list no
longer supports uploading pictures.  I don't have any other means of posting
them on the net, but can email them to anyone that might be interested.

Neil



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