[St] Maritme 06 ST Ride Review - Part Two

[Brian Pitman <snowsurfer@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Part Two

 
My last positive comment is just about the only good thing I have to say about the saddlebags and this comes with an amusing story.  When I first laid eyes on the hard bags, I thought (still do actually) that the styling cues were mundane.  Moreover, I wondered how one would ever recognize the left bag from the right one when it was time to remount the bags for the next day’s travels.  Initially, I kept track of this by virtue of the bug splats on the leading face!  I would pick up a bag and place the bug splatter towards the front because I was getting tired of looking down the side of the bag to see which end the “mounting hole” was on.  Well, after reaching my father’s house for a two-day break, I washed the ST the following morning.  At that point I had a closer look at the now clean bags and realized that they were perfectly symmetrical.  Either bag will go on either side of the tail section of the bike (which is a nice touch)!   While
 initially I felt a little silly for taking so long to make this observation (the GTS’s bags are left and right oriented), that feeling of sheepishness soon turned to mild irritation because when I tour I tend to keep all the items that I routinely access throughout the day in the higher mounted bag (i.e. the RH side when the bike is on its sidestand) so I am still left with my “which bag is which” dilemma once closed and sitting on the ground next to the bike.  So, my solution to that for the next tour will be to place a small decal (or subtle spot of paint) on one bag so that I can readily identify one from the other!!!  One other related nice touch is the soft stalks of the rear turns signals. Not only so they make good anchors for bungee cords but when a fully loaded bag bounces offi, it does not snap(As a solid one might).
 
While on the thorny subject of the Triumph bags, I still find them too small (a size large full face helmet will not quite fit through the opening) and too heavy (they feel full when completely empty!).  The locking mechanism is too complicated and awkward and the mounting affair for the colour matched plate takes up too much space inside an already small bag.  'Nuff said on that topic!
 
While the turn signals on the end of the mirror stalks work well, the mirrors themselves start to shake past the point of usefulness above about 130 kph (~80 mph).  Unfortunately, this is caused by the design of the break-away stalk more so than any engine vibration.
 
My pet peeve continues to be the stupid oil dipstick.  I repeatedly checked my oil level to ensure the new motor was “oil-tight.”  Coming from a small fleet of previous motorcycles that incorporated sight glasses into the engine cases, I am very frustrated by the archaic procedure of pulling the stick, wiping it clean, screwing  it all the way back in, screwing it all the way out, sighting the hash marks, then screwing it in for a second time.  Seriously, can someone with more technical skills that I make me a longer oil dipstick that I can simply place on top of the filler hole to read the correct oil level, please???  
 
Another curiosity is the use of a crush washer.  Any Jap bike I have owned managed to keep the oil on inside the cases without using any crush washers. For the one oil change I have done on the Triumph, I did not know about the requirement to replace the crush washer so I reused the existing one.  I now have a few drops of oil forming on my garage floor as the oil seeps past the drain plug threads.
 
Other nits include no consideration of any sort for a helmet holder, nor from what I can see, any tie down places for bungee cords if you did not order the saddlebags which have the mounting brackets for the saddlebags (which are useful tie down points).  I believe I previously mentioned that after the first time I washed the ST, I removed the black brackets and trimmed down the sharp edges so that I would not slice open my hand while washing or drying the tail section plastic.
 
On the dash, the LCD has too many screens to scroll through. I used maybe half of them during my week long ride.  For example, seeing that the max speed attained was 202 kph is entertaining but certainly not important in my book.  What is missing is a gear selector display (I am always getting lost in the six speed gearbox…) and an ambient air temp gauge would have been nice, too.
 
In the dash, there is a nice little bar over the tach that contains idiot lights. It should contain all the idiot lights!  
There are four more idiot lights inside the face of the tach which look like an afterthought.
 
Another oddity on the Triumph that appears to me to be a needless design idiosyncrasy is the asym key hole.  
It works just fine, however, I just find it unsettling every time I plug my key into a slot that is off-centre.
 
After riding the ST for a week, I am still undecided about what replacement screen to order.  
At the moment I am leaning toward one of the MRA screens to raise the wind flow a bit.
 
The final complaint remains the largest and most expensive item to correct. The seat/exhaust interface that meets my butt!  I find the stock seat is not comfortable over the long haul – mainly because it slopes forward - pushing me into the tank constantly.  Moreover, there is not enough fore and aft room to change up my seating position during an all day run.   This mess is complicated by the onerous heat generated by the underseat exhaust and catalytic converter.  I will replace the (not-so-exotic Italian-made! - yes, look for the fine print on the bottom of your seat pan) seat, likely with a Corbin over the winter.  The cat can is also slated for the left-over parts bin in the spring when I will order a Wolf Trident carbon fiber slip-on to coincide with the first major tune at which point my local shop said they would do the TOR tune free as part of the overall tune-up.  I have exchanged a series of emails with Wolf and I have been told that of the
 two options (the other being Titanium), the CF version is the coolest temperature-wise.  I will report back on that next summer!
 
>From the ever popular styling discussion dept, I think the front end of the ‘05+ ST is the nicest looking faired Triumph made to date. I find the styling treatment of the faring and headlights to be both sophisticated and clean-looking at the same time.  I am less enthusiastic about the rear of the bike.  The proportions are not quite right in that I find the rear plastic section looks too small.  Also, the seam in the tailpiece immediately above the tail light looks cheesy to my eye.  Lastly, the black gob of plastic that hangs down from the exhaust to hold the plate and rear light nacelles looks like another afterthought.  That could have/should have been better integrated into the tail section lines of the bike.
 
I have probably omitted a couple of minor items, however, if I did it will give an excuse to post next week!
 
I hope this summary of all that I have found to be both good and lacking in the ST to be helpful to those such as Lisa (sorry I don’t have an older ST to run a comparo on) and John who is still trying to find that elusive Black ABS ST!
 
Cheers,
 
Brian
GWN
06 Caspian Blue Sprint ST
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