I had an ex Police ST1100 when in Queensland and loved it, being primarilly designed for European touring (thats why they were called the PanEuropean) she was perfect for the QLD conditions - fairly straight roads, long radius corners and 300 to 400 km between towns. Just one thing worried me, I'm 5' 8" in old language and am restricted in my inside leg measurement so I found the ST1100 seat slightly high for me. But probably nothing a trip to MacDonald in Tauranga wouldn't fix. If you run them a bit higher than recommended on tire pressure and change the oil regularly then they give great service, like the Wing the engines are good for well more than 200,000 km. The ST1100 (and I must presume the ST1300) handle spectacularly, the V4 engine and low fuel tank give a low CofG, and at speeds not too far above the legal limit you get 500 + km out of a tank. And there are always ST1300s around in the bike shops and they're pretty reasonably priced too.
And easily detached panniers too, sometimes I'd ride without the panniers on and she was more a sports bike than a tourer. One guy on the ST forum used to ride his ST1100 to work, take the pannier off and use that as his business briefcase. The STs have a lot of positive features, shaft drive, gauges up on the bars, great fairings, large fuel tank, great brakes.
There are two songs, "Stairway to Heaven" and "Highway to Hell" which I think give an indication of expected traffic flow
Bookmarks