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Reliablity Question Again



Thinking to buy the new RS for some extended mountain/canyon riding
(20,000+/year with hardly any highways). Of course the RS is a direct
spin-off of the ST, so this list is *the place* to go for info right now
till the RS is more widely distributed.

Currenltly, I'm on a CBR1100XX and my wife is on a Ducati ST4 that she
loves. At 17,000 miles though, the ST4 blew a timing pulley and was in the
shop for 5 weeks: big, big problem in the middle of long trip. I'm thinking
of trading both of our bikes for a pair of RS's with Top Cases for the
coming season, but there seems to be mixed reviews of reliablity. As
alternatives, it has been my experience and opinion that modern BMW are
about the most UNRELIABLE motorycles money can buy (leaks everywhere from
coolant to shaft seals). The Honda VFR is tough, but is just plain ugly
alone and even uglier with luggage. The CBR1100XX is good looking, tough as
nails, and reliable as gravity. But it is too big for wife to handle, feels
ponderous like my old BMW K1200RS -  a big beast, and has the footpegs
extremely high causing leg cramps. The ST4 is a masterpiece of looks,
performance, and comfort, but the engines do go pop not infrequently. My
Ducati Superport 900 has done well so far, but my wrist have decided that no
more 400 mile days will be spent on that bike except on rare occassions.

My wife and I are extremely impressed with the new Sprint RS. The RS seems
just right in so many ways...stylish, light, comfortable, afforable,
powerful, big gas tank, and oh so perfect in lots of ways. The Sprint ST is
completely out due to the awful floppy horrible-fitting rubber sleeves
wrapped around the mirror stocks. Even the magazine photos shows them
falling off and dangling off to one side. [Sorry guys, but even Honda did
away with the black condom things on the mirrors and finally uses decent
stylish mirror supports on Y2K models.]  The Sprint RS mirrors are solid,
and even if less effective in some ways, do not significantly detract from
the style and quality of the bike as do those on the Sprint ST.

I can deal with the fact that Triumph will not match Honda reliability, but
what about the issues of electrical stuff, valves going out of whack from
soft shims, center-stand issues, and anything else that should concern me.
Interesting, in searching the mail archives, I've yet to hear of any real
high-mileage riders on Sprint STs. I  really like the RS, and if I heard
from say 5 or 6 individuals that had put 20,000 miles or more each on the
Sprint ST without major meltdown, I'd be real inclined to put my order in. I
think I heard of one individual that put 14,700 miles as the record so far.

Thank you for any information or commentary you can provide.

I


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